Alex Roy, 47 (pictured), founder of The Human Driving Association, is calling for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right for humans to drive their own cars amid fears that fully automated cars will infringe on freedom of movement and privacy
The Human Driving Association is calling for a constitutional amendment to guarantee the right for humans to drive their own cars amid fears that fully automated cars will infringe on freedom of movement and privacy.
The organization, which has around ten thousand members and was founded by Alex Roy, is also calling for laws requiring a steering wheel in every vehicle.
Roy's fear is that one day, driving our own cars will be made illegal due to safety concerns, which he thinks are misguided, according to a recent interview he gave to The New Yorker.
Instead, through the HDA Roy advocates for raising the bar for drivers' licensing standards and increased regulation of vehicles.
'It’s easier to imagine that technology can solve a problem that education or regulation could also fix,' Roy, a 47-year-old rally car driver, said, referring to vehicular deaths attributed to human error.
Former rally car driver Roy worries a ban on driving ourselves will infringe on freedom of movement. The self-driving Cruise AV is shown
The landing page for the HDA website reads in bold text, 'The war on driving is here. Pick your side,' with options to click on a older style car or an autonomous-driving vehicle.
When you click on the more high-tech car, it takes you to a screen that reads, 'Wrong answer. Try again.'
Fearing a future where driving our own vehicles has been outlawed for alleged safety and efficiency reasons, Roy and his organization want to amend the constitution to create a right to drive ourselves, according to HDA's 'Human Driving Manifesto.'
The landing page for the HDA website (shown) reads in bold text, 'The war on driving is here. Pick your side,' with options to click on a older style car or an autonomous-driving vehicle
When you click on the more high-tech car, it takes you to a screen (shown) that reads, 'Wrong answer. Try again.' Fearing a future where driving our own vehicles has been outlawed for alleged safety and efficiency reasons, Roy and his organization want to amend the constitution to create a right to drive ourselves, according to HDA's ' Human Driving Manifesto'
The last item on their 12-point platform declaration reads:
'We Are Pro-Constitutional Amendment, creating a right to drive, within the limits of safety technologies that do not infringe upon our freedom of movement.'
Item four on the list is contradictory, however, reading: 'We Support Raising Driver Licensing Standards. Driving is a privilege, not a right. Abuse it, lose it. Periodic retesting is essential.'
The group would also like a law requiring a steering wheel in every personal use vehicle.
'No vehicle should be deployed without a steering wheel,' the manifesto reads.
Steering wheels are currently legally mandatory in the US, according to the New Yorker, but the Self Drive Act, which stalled in the US Senate after passing the House of Representatives in 2017 would allow the autonomous vehicle industry to seek exemptions.
Self-driving cars are currently in production, labeled on a scale from one to five, with one being the least autonomous and five being the most functional without human involvement.
Just last year, General Motors announced a $100 million investment in the Cruise AV, which is considered a 'level five' autonomous vehicle, because it has no steering wheel, gas pedal, or human-operated brake.
Just last year, General Motors announced a $100 million investment in the Cruise AV, which is considered a 'level five' autonomous vehicle, because it has no steering wheel, gas pedal, or human-operated brake. People are shown assembling a Cruise AV
Australian artificial-intelligence researcher Toby Walsh told the New Yorker agrees that we are heading toward laws prohibiting the driving of our own cars, but feels that concern over a future overrun by self-driving vehicles is unwarranted.
His prediction, made in his 2018 book,'Machines That Think: The Future of Artificial Intelligence,' is it will happen by 2050 because autonomous
