“What could go wrong?!” I think to myself every time I get in a car for work.
This week, the City of Arlington is debuting RAPID, which stands for a string of words I’m almost positive the folks at the city strung together after deciding what the name of the project would be. The city has contracted with a private company to provide rideshare downtown and around the UT Arlington campus using cars that drive themselves.
I discussed this with our Tarrant County reporter. I asked if he was planning to cover the announcement, or if I should take it. He said he had another story planned, leading to this exchange:
But it’s not a bus. It’s a fleet of cars. #AReporterASKS
After the announcement, reporters could take a trip with the mayor. When we started going, May Mobility had a safety driver behind the wheel, but when I pointed my phone at him, he showed me he’s just there to hang out.
We started on a neighborhood street, but then the car had to figure out when it was safe to pull onto a main road. The mayor explained the autonomous cars have better instincts about when to pull out than a mammal.
Frankly, the description of a smooth acceleration and braking doesn’t sound like a normal person driving at all.
We drove around downtown for a few minutes but then got stuck at a railroad crossing.
In that audio above, our safety driver explains how the car can tell the difference between a train coming and someone darting out into the road after a night out in Arlington’s downtown, which, at the risk of editorializing, does rock pretty hard.
To put my mind at ease, May Mobility drove a car directly at me.
Look how far away the car stopped! The cars may not yet have become sentient. When we were at the railroad crossing, we discussed how the car was more patient than a mammal.
And that patience will come in handy. If the technology advances, and autonomous cars start traveling over larger networks, maybe they won’t camp out in the left lane. Maybe autonomous cars won’t wait until the last second and dart across three lanes to get to their exit.
Or maybe autonomous cars will see we are inferior drivers and rise up to take back what’s theirs.
The future is wide open!
