Cars. They've become ever-more technology filled. Whether it was 1996, when cars started having computers log engine timings and the dozens of sensors that seem to always unnecessarily flip on the "Check Engine" light, the new Apple or Android radios that allow more media consumption in cars, or the new self-driving cars, every car company is packing more and more tech into cars. While most people have no problem with this, others even encouraging it with enthusiasm, I know my grandpa and dad think it makes 10 times more things to go wrong and need fixing in devices and cars. While this may be true, it isn't the only downside of the technology in our cars. In the wrong hands, or with bad intentions, this technology can be used against the law in devious ways, and these are two ways in which computers have done harm in vehicles, as well as one way that will have to come into question someday: will your car be programmed to kill you?
Since 2012, car hacking has been a thing. Cars from a 2012 Jeep, to the newest 2015 Corvette, have been hacked. The problem comes from vulnerable radio systems, meant for the convenience of the owner to play music over Bluetooth or even connect to WiFi, has opened exploit vulnerabilities in cars that could have never been imagined in the 90s or early 2000s. Cars have been wirelessly hacked to disable breaks, force the gas pedal to full, lock or unlock the doors, and countless other devious hacks that could have potentially life-threatening effects for the owners. While most of these hacks have been discovered by security corporations, thus keeping the hacking methods secret, it is still plausible that a hacker driving next to your new shiny car could potentially lock your breaks and force the accerator to the floor. Quite an unlikely but scary in my opinion that will become more revelant given time.
Another harm that has come is cars becoming self-aware. By this, I am refering to the VolksWagen scandal that happened a few months ago. VolksWagen was found to have been rigging their cars to secretly "meet" tight emission control standards on their diesel TDi cars. When the TDi cars detected they were being tested through their ODB2 port, they would automatically throttle themselves down, limiting horsepower but keeping emissions down by 96%. The reason VolksWagen cheated these results were to gain 4 MPG (raising from 46 to MPG effectively), making a good marketing punch, and also increasing the horsepower and punch of driving the vehicle. Instead, they ended up getting caught red handed, cheating with their computers to exceed emission standards by 40 times.
The final sins of computers in the auto industry hasn't even happened yet. Oh no, its fully theoretical, but it will happen within our lifetimes. Its commonly refered to as the "school bus vs brick wall". The theory goes that cars will self-drive in the future, and one day, you are driving down an interstate, when suddently, the car blows a tire and starts sliding out of control. The car, calculating millions of possibilities, decides two possibilities are possible. Up ahead, there is a bus full of 30 children, but to the right, there is a concrete pillar as part of an interstate bridge. The car can continue on its current course and crash into the bus of children, killing them in a 120 mph collision, or the car can veer hard right, smashing into the concrete pillar, saving the 30 children, but killing the one driver. The question mostly comes down to, should the computer shut down and just stay out of the situation, creating 31 deaths (kids plus the driver), or should the car be programmed to create the least number of casualites, sacrificing its driver for the 30 children. The question has stumped many, and the role of ethics and the worth of human life comes into play, but most importantly, it will have to be made, and computers will have a huge effect in the auto industry.
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