Driverless Drones

We call ‘em “cars.” But the F.B.I. sees Google’s little “driverless car” experiment in a different way. With a touch of what undoubtedly will captivate Hollywood audiences sooner or later, that law enforcement agency seems to think the concept provides comfort for the many suicide bombers who can use remote control driverless cars instead. Terrorist lives spared? Harder to find the real culprits? Too easy to misuse? They may have missed the news of the airborne drone fired by Hamas against Israel that kind of suggests that the remote control bomb is hardly a future threat and that the addition of cars to the list of bomb carriers would be a technology step backwards for would-be terrorists.

The F.B.I. isn’t focused on the impact of heavy  randomized traffic on crumbling infrastructure, the need to create greater efficiencies before we spend trillions more to expand our highway systems. They probably haven’t drilled down on the national security impairments that come from climate change driven faster by out-of-control traffic patterns governed by the often-unpredictable decisions of commuters, some sleep impaired, others late for work, a few loving the rush of zigging and zagging and those laced with road rage in the overall mix. You can even add a little alcohol or painkillers to the brew and see what happens.

Bad for fuel consumption in creating the “stop and go” urban nightmare. Worse for those killed or injured in the maze of traffic accidents. The U.S has about 5.5 million car crashes a year. 92 people die every day on our roads generating over 32,000 fatalities and close to 2.2 million injuries a year. But the F.B.I. surmises that such robotic cars will be legal within the next five to seven years and is preparing for the worst.

Indeed, the F.B.I. and some of our national security agencies believe that driverless cars not only can help transport and then detonate WMDs or smaller deadly devices, but can serve as remote get-away cars to help criminals move rapidly away from the scene of the crime, with the ability to concentrate on shooting their pursuers since they do not have to deal with driving. Further, these vehicles can be outfitted as rolling gun platforms, able to take out law enforcement officers with no risk to the perpetrators.

Seriously! “Google’s driverless car may remain a prototype, but the FBI believes the ‘game changing’ vehicle could revolutionize high-speed car chases within a matter of years. The report also warned that autonomous cars may be used as ‘lethal weapons.’… In an unclassified but restricted report obtained by the Guardian under a public records request, the FBI predicts that autonomous cars ‘will have a high impact on transforming what both law enforcement and its adversaries can operationally do with a car.’

“In a section called Multitasking, the report notes that ‘bad actors will be able to conduct tasks that require use of both hands or taking one’s eyes off the road which would be impossible today.’… Self-driving cars use lidar (laser ranging), radar, video cameras and GPS technology to build up a digital 3D map of their surroundings, including buildings, roads, pedestrians and other vehicles. The cars can then be programmed to navigate safely to a destination while avoiding obstacles and (usually) obeying the rules of the road.

“The report, written by agents in the Strategic Issues Group within the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence, says, ‘Autonomy … will make mobility more efficient, but will also open up greater possibilities for dual-use applications and ways for a car to be more of a potential lethal weapon that it is today.’” TheGuardian.com, July 16^th. Oy!

Cars are bad. Guns are worse. “While motor-vehicle deaths dropped 22 percent from 2005 to 2010, gun fatalities are rising again after a low point in 2000, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Shooting deaths in 2015 will probably rise to almost 33,000, and those related to autos will decline to about 32,000, based on the 10-year average trend.” Bloomberg.com, December 12, 2012. Think how bad those gun statistics will look when there are lots of driverless cars on the road!

For a nation that has legalized the use of everything from assault rifles to large magazines, that refuses to implement realistic background checks for a vast horde of prospective gun buyers, where some states have even legalized silencers and “open carry” laws under a complete and total misreading of the Second Amendment, the notion of worrying about “cars as weapons” seems beyond ludicrous. If we really cared about weapons, criminals, terrorists and safety, you’d think that someone might actually start with guns. But after all, driverless cars don’t kill people… people kill people… and with driverless cars, people will have a whole lot fewer opportunities to apply their lethal habits!

I’m Peter Dekom, and where in the world did common sense disappear to?