Self-Parking Comes With a Deductible
Self-parking sounded like a great idea right up until the car started getting close to something expensive.
Modern cars can now steer themselves into parking spaces using cameras, sensors, software, and automated parking systems. The technology is genuinely impressive. It can identify a space, calculate the angle, turn the wheel, and maneuver the car while the driver mostly watches and tries not to think about the insurance deductible.
That last part remains stubbornly human.
As cars become more automated, drivers are being asked to trust computers with increasingly complicated jobs. Parking assistance, lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, and other driver-assistance technologies can make driving easier—but they also create a strange new experience: sitting in the driver's seat while your car makes decisions near somebody else's bumper.
It’s the same uneasy relationship we have with a lot of smart technology. We want automation right up until the moment automation gets expensive.
If autonomous driving makes you nervous, check out The Car Drives Itself, where the technology handles the road but somehow leaves the payments to you. And for another GPS-powered reality check, see The GPS Says Traffic Is Building.
Self-Parking: trusting a computer with your deductible.
Maybe artificial intelligence isn't replacing the driver yet. It's just giving the driver something new to worry about.
Explore more Chad Geepeety™ cartoons about cars, GPS, automation, and the technology that's supposed to make driving easier.
