Journal #4

Journal #4

In Jon Gertner's article “True Innovation (2012),” the author states what is innovation by the example of Bell Labs and how it boosts the society.

First at all, many significant accomplishments in Bell Labs are showed to certificate the innovation of Bell Labs. Then he lists many approaches to innovation and the importance of creative methods in workforce. In the conclusion, the author claims that there are many ways to innovation.

I do agree that Bell labs gave a great contribution to the development of modern society, especially in the field of communication technology. In addition, this group also proves that the efficiency of workforce is not only created by long-hour work, but brain storm and some creative thoughts may play a very vital role for the long-term perspective. In order to adapt to the trend of modern business, more and more company devotes much money into to innovation like Apple, IBM. These company got pretty profits from the benefits of innovation. I think in 21^st century, innovation is one of the most important aspects that keeps the company alive in this time.

When it comes to the methods to innovation, Mr. Kelly’s mentioned that freedom is a significant aspect to innovation. From where I stand, most innovations is the accumulated process of knowledge. Another vital factor of innovation is the unique method of thinking. Most evidence has told us that diligence is not the must way to create new items. Just Albert Einstein said, ” Genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work...”, but at the same time, diligence is the mother of good fortune.

Journal 6

In Chris Urmson’s article “Progress in self_driving vehicles”, he introduced the importance of self_driving vehicles application in the future. As traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for individuals aged 4 to 34 in the United States (Hoyert and Xu 2012), and over 90 percent of these accidents are due to human error, it’s necessary to develop the self_driving vehicle. Not only could this kind of vehicles reduce the traffic accidents, it could also make it possible for people who cannot drive to get around to drive a car. What’s more, since the self_driving vehicle will deploy as part of a efficient shared vehicle fleet, it could reduce the traffic congestion in cities. 

In my opinion, people should concern that if the system of self_driving vehicle could be sensitive enough to face some emergency situation such as when an animal passed the road suddenly in front of the car, if it could stop in time to avoid hurting the animal. Moreover, if the control system, which is the most important part of the vehicle, met some interruptions by external factors when it was driving in a high speed, how could it ensure the safety of the passengers in the car. Maybe it could be installed a transfer function, by which driver can get to control the car from the automatic system easily in order to deal with some extreme situation.

All in All, it is a great breakthrough in transportation development. I think if the technology could be mature enough, I will let myself or my family try to have a self_driving vehicle. Because it is really convenient to drive such a automatic driving car. Even though you don’t familiar with driving, you can get to work by your car. And as what Urmson said, it will efficiently reduce the traffic problems especially in big cities. 

Journal #6

According to the passage, the author argues that self-driving vehicles can help reduce the rate of traffic accidents, enable people who cannot drive to get around, and, when it becomes an efficient shared vehicle, it will dramatically decrease traffic congestion.

When it comes to some challenges or negative behind self-driving vehicles, some traffic incidents immediately emerge in my mind, for example, who take the incidents responsibility under self-driving system. As we all known, no matter how advanced the system of onboard microcomputer, it is inevitable that microcomputer must connect with Internet to update new map data. In other words, it is possible that it can be invaded by hacker. As a consequence, traffic accidents will happen during driving. Meanwhile, once data modified illegally, many people will be influenced, and maybe a large number accidents could happen together, which is incredible and miserable.

Several days ago, I saw a piece of news that a woman in England drove into river under the navigation of map on the website. So, if errors in map contribute to the traffic accidents, it will cause large areas traffic congestion or even more serious.

In my opinion, I will advise my family members to drive vehicles personally unless some emergent situations like injury or drunk. From the application of self-driving vehicles, it is difficult to become widespread use of public areas.

Journal 6

    The author stated that self-driving vehicles can reduce car accidents, enable people who cannot drive to go around by using some quotations and persuasive statistics to argue the importance of self-driving vehicles. These automated vehicles have a promising potential in the future to both benefit our individuals and the entire society.

    However, I am afraid of assuming one day what will happen if the electrical system made some mistakes. When every corner of the city becomes a mess with cars going random directions, how many people will die in the new type of "car accidents"? And how many hopeless people who are not able to drive will call for help? Oh! Maybe the police themselves don’t know how to drive at all. Is it dramatic? I don’t want this to become a truth.

    In my opinion, it is not wise to make your life depends on the computer. Nothing can be perfect. Nowadays, even though the safest transportation such as planes and underground trains they have auto-drive functions, they still need professional drivers to solve any emergent problems. As the automated vehicles become popular, more and more people will tend not to learn how to drive. The person who knows how to drive will also forget this skill because he never uses this. Mostly driving skills become useless. Then it comes to my assumption. What will happen if the automated driving systems were out of functions? Who can save your life? None. Especially a private car which is an individual vehicle must face this risk.

    Some technologies are worth consideration because their risks or their disadvantages could be avoided or compensate by humans ourselves. However, for an automated vehicle if we want to decrease its risk the best way is we have a professional driver in the car. Then the problem goes back. Finally, we will find that the automated driving technology has a great limit on our daily lives.

Journal # 6

Journal # 6

       According to a research, traffic accidents are the main reason why people from 4 to 34 get killed in USA, and 90 percent of these accidents are resulted by human error. There is no doubt that this situation needs immediate and sufficient improvements, and automated driving is one of the solutions. Self-driving vehicles, which is automatic driving mainly about, is supposed to reduce accidents, enable people without driving skills to get around, and reduce congestion, mentioned by Chris Urmson, the head of engineering for Google’s Self Diving Car Project.

       This idea is amazing, but it has a long way to go. One problem which I can easily come up with is how those smart vehicles deal with unexpected situations. An obvious truth that we all know is driving is not only about the places from which you start and to which you go, it is also about what happens during the trip. When anything abnormal happens, real people can judge with their mind and make decisions. As for those microcomputers in charge of the whole vehicle, I am pretty doubtful if they can do the same thing. Furthermore, automated driving, the concept itself somewhat delivers a message to drivers that it is the computer that is running the car, so they do not have to pay as much attention on the road as they do when they are the one who is actually driving. Texting and calling while driving are already serious issues now, when cars are still driven by human beings. Is this going to be worse if people can spend less or even no time on steering wheel? I think so.

       Based on these considerations, I am not supportive if my family or friends are going to drive these automated vehicles, unless they promise me to be the real driver instead of a passenger on a vehicle which is driven by a computer.

Journal 6

Chris Urmson argues that self-driving could reduce accidents, and enable people who cannot drive to get around could travel to any place as they want.In America, there are some enable people that are very difficult to control their car.These automated vehicles will give them much help in driving. Moreover, self-driving could help us reduce congestion. This technology will be a very creative way to solve many problems.

As self-driving growing, there will be many challenges that this kind of technology might face. For instance, self-driving must be safe enough to control. If this system has some bug, it’ll bring huge damage to our body. On the other hand, self-driving should drive our car in the right way. If self-driving wastes much more time than human-driving, there is no necessary to use it. It needs huge time to overcome it. There are still so many challenges in the future. Anyway, I believe that self-driving will change our life.

For me, I will drive these automated vehicles. I still don’t know how to drive a car today. This kind of car is a gift for us who don’t know how to drive. I will not worry about driving anymore. Furthermore, these automated vehicles look pretty fashion!  It is smaller than normal cars, so it will save much space to park. It’s totally different from others. I couldn't wait to try it! 

Journal #6

According to Chris Urmson who is the head of engineering for Google’s Self-Driving Car Project in his article “Progress in Self-Driving Vehicles”, Self-driving vehicles offer the promise of reducing accidents, enabling people who cannot drive to get around, and reduce congestion.  Traffic accidents are the leading cause that people dead accidentally, so reducing the rate of traffic accidents is the important that we need to do. However, I don’t think that self-driving cars can help with decrease of traffic accidents efficiently.

It is a common sense that there are always errors in machines. For example, when did your phone or computer crashed last time? It must happen recently. What if it happens to your self-driving car, it would cause accidents that may cost your life. Traffic accidents must be the tragedy of the commons. More seriously, if an accident happens to self-drive cars, none can take the responsibility. It is unfair for “driver” to be responsible with accidents because, actually, the “drivers” don’t drive the self-driving cars. It is hard to blame the manufacturers, either. Manufacturer cannot make sure that every self-driving car is perfect.

Though, there are lots of problems of self-driving cars, I still want to drive these automated vetches. First, I don’t know how to drive. Drive-less cars benefit all the people who cannot drive due to physical disability or something else.  Second, currently, self-driving cars are high-technical products whose yield rate is really low. Yet I believe that, in the future, the more advanced technology will improve the yield of self-driving cars and make them safer. Last but not least, self- driving cars is a good solution of traffic jam. Just imagine, if all the cars on the road is automated, the cars can adjust their speed to adapt the environment where other cars are do the same thing which makes every car can have a higher speed than ever. 

Reference

Urmson, C. (2015). Progress in Self-Driving Vehicles. Spring Bridge: From the Frontiers of Engineering and Beyond, 45(1). Retrieved from www.nae.edu