Article Techniek en wetenschap
More technologies means also more accidents
First death caused by autonomous car is a fact. The first autonomous car has killed someone.
It is May 7, 2016 Florida. Joshua Brown (40) from the US state of Ohio drives his Tesla on the highway and enables the automatic pilot. A few minutes later, the Tesla car does not notice the white truck in front and tries to drive under the vehicle. Blinded by the sun and the white truck, the Tesla drives on. Joshua Brown is killed. Brown posted in April a video on the Internet which shows how the self-propelled Tesla manages to avoid an accident. Massive media jump on the news; it is the first fatal accident caused by a self-propelled car. Despite the millions of kilometres that have already been made with the self-propelled vehicle, the question asked is whether this technology is really safe? In addition to this question, we can bring up the example where a Tesla saves the life of a man by driving the illness man automatic to the hospital.
Yet, we as Extend Limits, directly need to think of many other incidents between humans and technology. What does this say and what to expect?
Unfortunate technologies
A Volvo car with pedestrian recognition did not recognise people and therefore drove full throttle on people. The video has been added below and can be found offensive. The people that are touched prove fortunately no serious injuries. What turns out according to Volvo? The owner of the car had not taken all the options the package offers. Namely, the car has a sensor that detects pedestrians and then brakes, but which is optional, and thus did not include this Volvo. With all the consequences. But it is not only the car that gets negatively approached by the news. 
A little boy was driven over by a security robot in a shopping mall. The media attacks the company that fabricated the robot. The accident with the robot came out of the blue, according to the mother of the 16 months old boy.
The robot hit my son's head and he fell down facing down on the floor and the robot did not stop and it kept moving forward.
There are some stories going around that these kinds of accidents have occurred earlier. According the parents. Stanford shopping center and Knight Scope, the supplier of the robot, proves not to be so. Robot Knight Scope is impressive itself. The description of Knight Scope is as follow: The security robot stands 5’ tall and weighs 300 pounds.It’s not weaponised and only serves to report incidents and document things have gone wrong. The robot has multiple high-definition cameras for 360-degree microphones, and person recognition capabilities. However, the robot had some trouble recognising a child of 16 months. The media jumps right on the technology business and the shopping mall in the news. This despite the fact that the robot has worked flawlessly for 35,000 hours and has traveled 25,000 miles in the meantime.
With the increase of technology, such as robots and sensors in the immediate vicinity of the ham being, the number of accidents has increased. So in the upcoming years we will encounter many more of such messages. Are headlines like “ woman attacked by vacuum robot” the new normal? It looks like it. Because this news is reality. Same as the news (July 2015) that killed an employee in Germany in a Volkswagen plant that was in the hands of a robot. The robot grabbed the man and crushed him against a metal plate.
Technology humanises, human digitises
Men and machines are working more and more together. They merge and live together. Technology humanises and human digitises. With all the corresponding benefits, but also negative consequence. The robot has not yet begun its quest to exterminate mankind. Yet, this is the fear of some people. We must, after all according to some leading technology experts and entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, be aware and working on the future of a society dominated by technology. The challenge for people is to use technology in a service where it remains safe. Yet, people are often the greatest unsafe factor.
Yet Elon Musk says he fears the impact of increasingly smarter and emotional technology. The relationship between humans and technology seems more and more like you let a child play with matches. Therefore, Elon research the consequences of the increasing impact and presence of smart technology. This is actually nothing strange. It seems obvious that in a society with increasingly dominant technology, the number of accidents also increases. The proportion is actually quite nothing we hear.
However, we have to get used to more collisions caused by technology. We also must remember that people are often the weakest link in an accident. Knowing that, we must never underestimate the far-reaching impact and potential threat that can perhaps bring a world that is dominated by technology. Research on this subject and active ethical debate are required.
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