Wesley Joyce0:00 So two years ago when I was taking English, I wrote and did my final project on this, and it's something I've really thought about ever since.0:07 And you really don't hear much about it.0:09 A lot of the news around electric vehicles now is dominated by rare earth minerals and the mining practices and the sustainability of it and you know how hard it is.0:21 You know, Elon likes to talk about like he's mentioned how he wants to write books about you know the the troubles of manufacturing, how you can have an idea, but trying to you know mass produce something is really hard.0:32 So obviously we're in the early stages of electric vehicles.0:35 Well, I guess electric vehicles have been around for a while, but self-driving cars, you know, we're just seeing Waymo's.0:41 I've ridden in a few myself.0:42 Definitely weird the first time, but they get you home safe.0:46 And something that I wanted to talk about here is how much safer the roads would be if every car communicated with each other and was responsible for itself.0:58 Um machines are way more precise than humans.1:01 Humans are prone to mistakes.1:02 Um, you know, there would there would be issues with the system, and it'd be it'd be a lot more painful to deal with these accidents when it's um you know coming from a self-driving vehicle.1:15 Um that is where the future is going, and accidents would be I mean human error would still be the biggest factor in these accidents, and it'd probably be cut out in half.1:27 So I think something we can because and also too, car accidents affects a lot of people.1:31 I've been in some myself.1:33 Um I think everybody knows somebody or knows of somebody that has passed away, unfortunately, from a car accident.1:39 Um it's it's unfortunately the life we live in, it's the world we live in.1:44 Um but when these electric vehicles start to drive all of us as well, you know, and they can talk to each other, we'll be a lot safer.1:53 Also, cities can be less congested.1:55 Um parking won't be as much of an issue.1:57 Like, say you you know, your your your car can communicate with these thousands of other vehicles in the area, and it can drop you off at work and then go park five miles away in you know a less populated area in a parking deck, you know, maybe built in the middle of nowhere, and then you can call it back and come pick you up from work.2:15 So we don't have these huge parking decks in the middle of our cities, and um our our our roads can be a little more driver-friendly.2:23 That could also be a solution um to traffic as well, but that's a different topic.
Thomas Freer0:00 I mean Wesley, you've just brought up a few outstanding debate topics.0:07 I think one of the one of the first points I want to jump in on is the uh the idea of safety with self-driving cars.0:14 I think a lot of people are are scared of them.0:17 They don't want a robot or some AI to be driving them around.0:20 But in reality, humans are not perfect, and people are dying all the time.0:25 I think it's one of the leading causes of death in the United States is car accidents.0:29 Um so if we could find a way to reduce that with the safety of not only an AI driving the car but being able to communicate with the other cars around, I think that'd be a great help.0:42 And then also how you talked about parking.0:45 If the car can drop you off and then go park itself somewhere else, I mean that's just that could save so much.0:51 One of the biggest problems in commercial real estate, especially in Atlanta, where we are, is that anytime you have to do a development, if it's bringing people to the area, especially in these drivable cities like Atlanta, uh more spread out cities, you know, with not as good public transportation, you you need a massive parking deck to go along with it.1:13 And this just drives up development costs, it disincentivizes people from developing certain projects, mixed use projects in Atlanta.1:24 If you could find a way to reduce parking or not have to build a massive parking structure every time, you could just like that would just be infinite growth for Atlanta.1:32 That would be awesome.1:33 Um, and then finally, just wanted to throw in.1:36 I I heard something that I read somewhere that these Waymo's are actually programmed to hit about three people a year walking in front of them.1:47 And that might sound a little crazy, but the reasoning is that if some dumb person or some guy trying to mess with the Waymo sees um a Waymo driving, he might think, oh, I can just jaywalk in front of it because it's a car, it's a robot car, it's gonna stop, it'll see me.2:05 No, the Waymo's do not want you to take advantage of that.2:08 They're actually programmed to slow down but lightly bump you if you think you can get away with that.2:14 And I just thought that was crazy um but very interesting.
Gaines Gunn0:00 Wesley, I think this is an amazing topic.0:02 Um I've also personally ridden in Waymo's, they're kind of blowing up in Atlanta.0:06 Um and I think it's really interesting, like self-driving cars are now emerging, and they felt so far-fetched, like five years ago, even, and now here they are.0:15 Um, but I do want to pose a question.0:17 So I studied um at a at North Carolina governor's school, and that's it's this summer program where you go and you have a focus in a topic, and then you have some other classes that you take.0:28 It's four weeks.0:29 Um, and one of these classes was like a philosophical one where you have like a seminar and you think about things.0:35 And the topic of electrical cars came up at this school, and kind of the situation that was posed to us was this car is a self-driving car, um, and no matter what, it is going to crash and kill someone.0:49 To the right, there's a doctor on a motorcycle, to the left, there's a car with a baby, and in front of you, there are crates that are going to smash your windshield and kill you in the car.1:01 And so you reach this kind of epicenter of where a computer is going to define human value, you know.1:08 Well, is it gonna value the doctor on the motorcycle more than it values the baby?1:12 Or is it gonna value you less because you're simply like a 20-year-old guy riding in the car?1:18 And so I think, yes, self-driving vehicles are a good step forward, and I think it's good for cars to be able to communicate with each other.1:27 But I think when we reach this valuation um kind of epicenter of you know, accidents and car crashes, because um it it can be dangerous because the car could the car is going to decide what is best based on its programming, and so if we now have to define which humans are worth more and worth less, if the car in a very rare chance does enter the situation, then I think that we are entering kind of a dangerous space.1:56 Um, but I do agree, self-driving cars is an incredible achievement and a great step forward.2:02 Um, but I do think that we need to be very careful with the next steps regarding this.
Vansh Patel0:00 Wesley, I think you bring up an excellent point on the question of whether self-driving or human uh transportation is better.0:10 And you know, this is definitely a difficult question to straight up answer, but I'll try to give it my best argument.0:18 I think as you mentioned, humans are prone to mistakes.0:22 They always will be.0:23 I think every time I get in a car, I know that I may have the driving skills to drive to my destination perfectly.0:31 But it's not about whether or not I have the skills, but the other drivers that are on the roads.0:39 I think that's where most accidents root from.0:42 Uh whether it be your mistake or not, your life is at risk when you hop in a car because of other drivers.0:48 So I think having a system of cars all communicating with each other would definitely be able to prevent some of these lives from being lost from simple accidents of uh distraction and things like that.1:02 I think computers don't get distracted.1:04 They they just simply can't.1:06 Uh but personally I am still a little hesitant to get into a self-driving car just because I I'm not sure if they're ready yet.1:19 Uh you know, the sensors and all that may be perfect.1:24 The computers may be perfect, they may drive perfectly, but are they able to react to another human making a mistake?1:33 Uh you know, as a human would.1:37 It's it's it's hard to say because you can also say uh would a human be able to react to another human making a mistake, and you know, most of the times not.1:47 But I don't know.1:50 I think I'm just a little scared of how technology's moving these days.1:54 Uh but I think it is the future.1:57 I think I'm gonna have to adapt.1:59 I think that's how a lot of the older generations felt right now in my place, uh with them.2:05 Uh when the phones came out, when the computers came out, they were hesitant to get on them and use it, but at the end of the day it it w it became the future and you just have to adapt.2:16 So I may not be feel the most comfortable right now with self-driving cars.2:22 I think when you have a grid and a system of entirely self-driving cars, I think that will be an optimal system with every car on the road communicating with each other rather than just a couple and relying on just inference of what else is on the road.2:40 I think that's where the dangers lie right now.2:43 But I don't know.2:45 Personally as a car guy, I do like to keep my hobbies up.2:49 I enjoy driving.2:51 Uh I think this will be a practical system for the city, but I think in rural communities, I think the use of your own car will still be prevalent almost everywhere in America.3:04 Uh you know, but I think in some of these bigger cities, it will be far more efficient to just have a self-driving grid.3:13 I think if nobody owned cars in a city like New York, I think it would be beneficial because traffic is so it's just crazy right now.3:24 And when you look at how much space that these cars are actually taking up compared to the the passengers that are in them, uh it is really just a waste of space.3:34 So I think a a more efficient uh transportation system would be beneficial to these bigger cities.3:41 So I like your point how you bring up uh how self-driving cars will become the future and how media really doesn't talk about it.3:51 They talk about the lithium extraction, they talk about its impacts on pollution, but at the end of the day, uh we need a solution.4:01 So I think experiment is better than just sitting in the water with fossil fuels.4:06 I mean, you know, electric cars may not be the most viable option, but it's definitely a step in ahead uh with research.4:15 So yeah, I think you posed an excellent question.
Davidson Potts0:00 I definitely think this is an interesting topic myself as I recently just wrote in a Waymo and I thought to myself this is this is sick.0:08 This is really cool.0:09 But it comes to a point where you said everyone on the road should just be automated.0:15 Yes, that'd be an ideal society.0:17 But it it might come to the point where everything is almost automated in a sense that we we come to that point where almost like WALL-E.0:25 We really want to give up everything, including just jobs in general.0:30 We're gonna start giving up everything to AI and everything's gonna be done for us and we're gonna be lazy.0:34 It's almost gonna be like the as as funny as it sounds, like the movie WALL-E.0:39 And we're just gonna become like miserable and not be able to do anything with our lives.