{"id":843,"date":"2025-07-14T12:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/?post_type=portfolio&#038;p=843"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T19:59:54","slug":"a-foundational-series-on-human-questions-of-a-driverless-world","status":"publish","type":"portfolio","link":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/portfolio-item\/a-foundational-series-on-human-questions-of-a-driverless-world\/","title":{"rendered":"A foundational series on human questions of a driverless world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This collection of articles, written for the Traffic Safety Store in 2016, represents a series of early, in-depth explorations into the autonomous vehicle landscape, published when the technology was still largely conceptual for the general public. The content positioned the brand as a forward-thinking authority by moving beyond product sales to investigate the complex legislative, technological, and ethical challenges of a driverless future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Paving the way for autonomous vehicles with legislation<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The work detailed California&#8217;s trendsetting legislation (Assembly Bill 1593), which for the first time allowed companies to test truly driverless cars\u2014vehicles without a steering wheel, pedals, or a human operator\u2014on public roads.<sup> <\/sup>This was a critical step in gathering unfiltered public feedback on visibly autonomous technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/New-California-Legislation-Paves-the-Way-for-Driverless-Future-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of New California Legislation Paves the Way for Driverless Future - Traffic Safety Store.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-0c88bf39-d4f3-4ff2-b060-df4a9ad6782d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/New-California-Legislation-Paves-the-Way-for-Driverless-Future-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\">New California Legislation Paves the Way for Driverless Future &#8211; Traffic Safety Store<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-left\">Breaking down the core technology of driverless cars<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">The article explained the foundational role of Lidar, a sensor technology far more accurate than radar, in allowing a vehicle to map its environment. The content also identified a key hurdle: silicon chips were too slow and expensive to process Lidar&#8217;s immense data load. The research uniquely highlighted an emerging solution in gallium nitride, a material used to create faster, smaller, and cheaper chips that could make Lidar-powered vehicles a commercial reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Lidar-Technology-and-Autonomous-Vehicles-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Lidar Technology and Autonomous Vehicles - Traffic Safety Store.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-a21ff98e-750f-438c-8d53-3b6dcdc4c2e4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Lidar-Technology-and-Autonomous-Vehicles-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\">Lidar Technology and Autonomous Vehicles &#8211; Traffic Safety Store<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tackling unprecedented ethical dilemmas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The article explored the complex ethics of programming a machine to make life-or-death &#8220;gut decisions.&#8221; It presented the &#8220;Tragedy of the Commons&#8221; dilemma, questioning if a car should save the most lives possible (the &#8220;Utilitarian&#8221; model) or protect its passenger at all costs. Citing survey data, the articles revealed a critical paradox: while a majority of people agreed with the utilitarian model in theory, 59% admitted they would prefer to buy a car programmed to save them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Driverless-Car-Ethics-When-Gut-Decisions-Are-Made-By-Machines-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Driverless Car Ethics When Gut Decisions Are Made By Machines - Traffic Safety Store.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-7b030f8e-eafb-412d-b529-27182460274c\" href=\"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Driverless-Car-Ethics-When-Gut-Decisions-Are-Made-By-Machines-Traffic-Safety-Store.pdf\">Driverless Car Ethics When Gut Decisions Are Made By Machines &#8211; Traffic Safety Store<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This collection of articles, written for the Traffic Safety Store in 2016, represents a series of early, in-depth explorations into the autonomous vehicle landscape, published when<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":847,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":""},"portfolio-types":[28],"class_list":["post-843","portfolio","type-portfolio","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","portfolio-types-brand-journalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/portfolio"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"portfolio-types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charlescosta.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/portfolio-types?post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}