DEPENDENCE: As society progresses, people have become too reliant on technology.
by Valeria Gutierrez, Staff Writer
Within a century, our technology has progressed from the late Flintstones to the early Jetson Family era. In 1906, the first affordable car, Henry Ford’s Model T, went on sale with a maximum speed of 45 miles per hour (mph) and 13 to 21 miles per gallon (mpg). Nowadays, the Model T is seen as a collector’s item since a 45 mph car cannot keep up on any modern freeway or highway. Although today’s average mpg is barely above the Model T’s 21 mpg, the safety features have certainly improved from a simple seat on wheels to a basic cage skeleton to a reinforced exterior with airbags and seatbelts. As privileges become necessities, car companies adapt to society by including the newest technology in cars. From cameras to Bluetooth connections, car companies continue to apply these new tools for facility and pleasure.
The newest members to the “smart” community are car companies such as Honda. Honda recently started testing out their new line of vehicles which can to some extent, drive themselves. Although a car driving itself seems like something out of a science fiction movie from the 80s, Google takes this opportunity to use such technology to create its maps. These new “smart” cars will use radar around the entire car to determine if any objects are around, record the driver’s habits, pre-determine the best directions to a destination hands-free (assuming someone is even driving) and communicate with other cars. Consequently, there should be less congestion, fewer accidents and fewer deaths. Upon hearing this, President Obama’s administration confirmed that the White House supports the idea of a “smart” car and will encourage every American to buy such a car once development is complete. Even though the cars’ availability to the public might send the U.S. into another age of technological advancements, the car system is not perfect and cannot stop car accidents from happening.
Regardless of the improvements car companies continue to make, there will always be a flaw. The newer versions of cars include rear-view cameras that assist the driver when backing out, but if the sensor stops working, will the driver know how to back up the traditional way? All systems have an occasional hiccup, but if the radars surrounding your car were responsible for braking, would you still be able to stop the car yourself? If all the cars on the road were to have a small glitch, one car could randomly stop and the other could continue to drive, causing more accidents in one day than human drivers will commit all year. Car companies hope to have cars “talk” to each other on the road to protect drivers and everyone around. But despite this aspiration, we have to ask: how safe is this system? Can the system be hacked, and if so, could it cause the biggest terrorist attack the U.S. has ever witnessed?
To keep the roads safe from any major disasters, this new “smart” car technology must be limited to protect the people from others and allow the driver to, well, drive. Unfortunately for this generation, independence from technology is rare. The average person carries a mini computer in his or her back pocket. With the assistance of an easy-to-reach calculator and spell-check, learning and remembering the basics taught in elementary school seem useless.
With a simple touch of a button, text messages are quickly received, online information is swiftly found and breaking news from across the world is displayed almost instantly. Thus, each generation becomes more impatient and more oblivious. Since there is an undeniably strong connection between people and technology during the 21st century, Doctor Elias Aboujaoude, director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at Stanford University, came to the conclusion that “We’re paying a price in terms of our cognitive life because of this virtual lifestyle.” Whenever a person who is at some level addicted to technology, he or she begins to see life as chartroom instead of as an opportunity to create memories.
Such dependence on electronics has created a brainwash effect with its users. Even though the addition of the “smart” cars to everyday life would create a safer world, the reliance on such technology would basically numb the drivers of their instincts during tough situations. This era of a techie takeover has produced great minds such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but has limited others who are unable to put their phones, tablets and laptops down. Once those at the mercy of technology have turned off their devices, they will come to the epiphany that life is too precious to waste it behind a screen. It’s time to take the wheel.