Self-driving rental cars: innovation or hazard?

Self-driving rental cars may prove to be incredibly beneficial if you’re in a country where you haven’t driven before, particularly if there are different road laws. There are positives and negatives to a self-driving vehicle, but if you’re somewhere that you don’t know, you’re likely to see positives. Rental cars can be questionable, whether they’re self-driving or not, because you don’t have much time to get to know the vehicle. 

It may be easy to get hold of cheap car hire, but is it always a good idea to go with a self-driving vehicle over your standard car? 

The original plan with self-driving cars was to focus on helping people with disabilities and improve road safety. However, it’s been picked up by a number of other road users who remain impressed with the technology. Waymo, one of the leading self-driving companies reports that there have been dozens of crashes, though none of them have caused any serious injury. 

There are hazards that come with self-driving, and although Waymo hasn’t confirmed that any of their vehicles have been in fatal crashes, alternative companies haven’t been so lucky. Driverless cars have resulted in new problems for many cities, rather than fixing public transport problems. 

It can be more challenging for a self-driven car based purely on perception – not only this, but faults can occur with technology that wouldn’t be as likely with the human brain. Research into the technology finds that the perception aspect of the self-driving vehicle is a camera, while the human driven car has both eyes and ears. Alongside that, it’s easier to control a vehicle with your hands and feet, whereas a self-driven car would be based on nothing but controls. 

Curbed notes one of the major perks of self-driving cars as not being able to break the rules of the road. The car is already programmed to not speed, nor will there be any distractions from phones. As a result, there are less likely to be any hazards on the road because the car will be driving incredibly well already. 

Similarly, with a maps system built into the car, it’ll be able to follow routes without any problems. However, that can be an issue if there are new roads which aren’t implemented into the GPS system, or if there are roadworks. With a human-driven car, they’re able to make adjustments to the route from memory and take a different journey if needs be. 

There are pros and cons to self-driving vehicles, and although they can cause problems, they’re often proving to be useful to the public. Not only is it decreasing driving faults, but it’s also ensuring there is maximum safety on the road. While it could come with issues, because it sticks to the rules of the road, it’s likely to be a beneficial investment if you’re hiring a car in a country with different road laws. However, if you’re looking at a self-driving car in a country you already know, it may be worth starting with a partially-self-driven car.