Considering a rather unique use case of a self-driving car, which requires a pregnant wife to give birth... [+] In a moving car, her husband sits on the steering wheel (he grabs the baby).

'This is a season of news that makes people feel good.

Please find a comfortable and warm place to enjoy this warm account.

A worried husband was driving his pregnant wife to the hospital. Suddenly, the baby seemed to decide it was time to come to this world. The woman started giving birth to the newborn girl in the passenger seat next to her crazy driving husband.

Surprisingly, the woman twisted her face back in the seat, leaning her back on the dashboard, her knees close to the seat where she was just sitting, and voila, this eager newborn was born. As an amazing double dose, the husband stretched out one hand (the other hand on the steering wheel) and managed to grab the baby during the delivery.

And, yes, all of this happened while the car was speeding by on the highway as the couple swaggered trying to get to the hospital for a more traditional delivery process. The husband pointed out afterwards that his wife was calm throughout the entire experience in the car. We may also offer some praise for the husband's dual duties (crazy driver and midwife).

The baby girl named Rebecca by her doting parents is happily doing well and everything is fine. There is no doubt that the tragic story of how she was born will become an unforgettable part of her life. Her parents can easily tell this legend over and over again, and Rebecca will be able to share this crazy story with the people she meets and attract them with a charming and amazing story.

Don't want to spoil the positive and completely optimistic mood about adventure, if you agree, I will simply and quietly make some quick suggestions.

First, people may question that the husband did not park, and at least parked safely if it could. It is true that going to the hospital is a top priority. On the other hand, driving a car during childbirth may not be as important as being able to settle down somewhere and be able to directly help his wife. There must be a trade-off between wanting to get medical care quickly, while ensuring that the effort to give birth is clearly imminent is carried out in the safest way possible.

Secondly, we can also complain about his intentions in the driving process, especially the feat of catching the ball with bare hands. He himself admitted to reporters that he has only one hand on the steering wheel, and it is likely that his eyes are on his wife and newborn baby, rather than on the active road ahead. Suppose he drives into a passing truck, or leaves the lane dangerously, or otherwise improperly controls the speeding of the vehicle.

This is undoubtedly a form of distracted driving, even surpassing the moment when people watch cat videos or comb their messy hair while indifferently driving a multi-ton car similar to an unguided missile.

Third, when the wife chose to maneuver in the front passenger seat, she unfastened her seat belt (as reported in the news). It is unwise not to wear a seat belt in a moving car. She also turned around, facing back, and leaned her back on the dashboard. I will not stay in this area, just be aware that if my husband may make any similar sudden braking or other full driving maneuvers, things will not be so good and terrible. Sadly.

Nevertheless, some people will argue that the husband's choice to continue driving is correct, and the result may be proof of this strategy. The baby was born smoothly. The wife is doing well. No one was injured. The car did not collide. all is well.

In this upside-down world we live in, what more can you ask for?

Let us perhaps agree that it is wonderful to have a pleasant result (regardless of whether the approach taken is reasonable or not).

Cynics might say that this should not be considered news in itself. why is that. Cynics will insist that there are many stories about women giving birth in a moving car. This seems to have a certain regularity.

So wisely, because we rely on cars to get around the city, and it is very likely that during delivery, any prudent husband and wife will squeeze into their car to go to the hospital. It stands to reason.

Obviously, another option is to call an ambulance or somehow go to the hospital before the delivery event (time may be trickier than it seems), or prepare to give birth at home, etc. Well, let's put aside this side tangent for now and continue to focus on the situation of being caught, relatively unaware that there will be childbirth during driving.

You will see that although people may think that they will not give birth during the long drive, natural or other factors may force the problem to occur, and the birth will begin on the way to the hospital. There are many situations in which taxi drivers encounter an expected passenger in their taxi. A lady called a taxi to the hospital, only to find that the newborn baby would not wait. The taxi driver drags the car as fast as possible, while the woman sits in the back of the taxi to give birth.

The cynical view is that providing time for this recent example is an exaggeration. We obviously should put this endless sentimental story in the buzzing bucket and then turn to other more compelling and truly creepy news reports.

Should we refute it with such cynicism?

A prominent basis for the newsworthiness of this latest instance is because the husband drives the vehicle and the husband is involved in the delivery process (well, it’s just a bit stylish, but hey, a little credit seems reasonable to share). The husband did his best to support his wife. He was there when she needed it. Obviously, she deserves the advantage of newsworthiness, but we can also think of it as a touching moment when two people work together in times of great pressure.

In most other similar situations, drivers usually do not publicly participate in childbirth activities. For example, if a woman is in the back of a taxi, we would not expect the taxi driver to provide too much help, and the activity would happen out of reach.

In any case, we ostensibly and soberly do not want drivers to distract their time and attention during any such similar incidents. Choose a focus of attention and stick to it, which seems to be the mantra of advice. Either continue to drive, do so safely and in some way avoid being distracted by what is happening in the car, or park the car safely and provide direct assistance where possible.

You must make a choice.

But you may advise that sometimes you have to make these troublesome and difficult questions. Life is complicated. We are often caught between rocks and hard places. Some people will assert that it is hard to say whether to choose between driving a car as a completely focused act or helping your wife.

Wow, I have a solution to this dilemma.

Consider the emergence of self-driving cars based on artificial intelligence.

Please note that true self-driving cars do not involve human drivers. Remember, true self-driving cars are driven by artificial intelligence driving systems. There is no need for a human driver to drive, and no need for a human to drive the vehicle. For my extensive and ongoing coverage of autonomous vehicles (AV), especially autonomous vehicles, please refer to the link here.

This is an interesting question worth thinking about: once we popularize true self-driving cars based on artificial intelligence, what impact will it have on those instances of childbirth during the driving journey?

I want to first further clarify what I mean when I refer to truly autonomous vehicles.

Understand the level of self-driving cars

As a clarification, a true self-driving car is a car in which artificial intelligence drives the car completely on its own and without any human assistance during the driving task.

These driverless vehicles are considered to be level 4 and 5 (see my explanation in this link), while cars that require human drivers to share the driving effort are usually considered to be level 2 or 3. Shared driving tasks are described as semi-autonomous and usually contain various automatic add-ons called ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems).

There is no real level 5 self-driving car yet, and we don’t even know if this is possible or how long it will take to get there.

At the same time, Level 4 efforts are gradually gaining some traction through very narrow and selective public road tests, although there is controversy as to whether this test itself should be allowed (we are all experimental guinea pigs that happen on our highways. Highways and trails, some people think, please refer to my report in this link).

Since semi-autonomous cars require human drivers, the adoption of these types of cars will not be significantly different from driving traditional cars, so there is not much new content on this topic to introduce them (however, as you will see a Yes, the points raised next are generally applicable).

For semi-autonomous vehicles, it is important to remind the public of a disturbing aspect that has recently emerged, that is, even though human drivers continue to post videos of themselves falling asleep on the steering wheel of level 2 or level 3 cars, we all need to avoid being misled. , It is believed that the driver can divert attention from the driving task when driving a semi-autonomous car.

No matter how much automation is invested in Level 2 or Level 3, you are the party responsible for the driving behavior of the vehicle.

Self-driving cars and handling miracles in the car

For level 4 and level 5 truly self-driving cars, there will be no human drivers involved in driving tasks.

All occupants will be passengers.

Artificial intelligence is driving.

One aspect that needs to be discussed immediately is that the AI ​​involved in today's AI driving systems does not have perceptual capabilities. In other words, artificial intelligence is entirely a collection of computer-based programming and algorithms, and it is certainly not capable of reasoning like humans.

Why emphasize that AI has no perception ability?

Because what I want to emphasize is that when discussing the role of artificial intelligence driving systems, I did not attribute human qualities to artificial intelligence. Note that there is a continuing and dangerous trend to personify AI today. In essence, people are giving today's artificial intelligence similar to human perception, although the undeniable and indisputable fact is that such artificial intelligence does not currently exist.

With this clarification, you can imagine that the artificial intelligence driving system does not "know" all aspects of driving in some way. Driving and everything needed for it needs to be programmed as part of the hardware and software of the self-driving car.

Let's delve into the myriad aspects of the subject.

First, it is important to realize that not all AI self-driving cars are the same. Every car manufacturer and self-driving technology company is adopting its own method to design self-driving cars. Therefore, it is difficult to make a comprehensive statement about what the AI ​​driving system will or will not do.

In addition, whenever it is stated that the AI ​​driving system does not do certain specific things, this may be replaced in the future by developers who actually programmed the computer to do that. The artificial intelligence driving system is gradually improving and expanding. The limitations that exist today may no longer exist in future iterations or versions of the system.

I believe this provides enough warnings to support what I am about to say.

Now, we can turn our attention to the problem of giving birth in self-driving cars.

A couple got into a self-driving car and told the AI ​​driving system that they wanted to be sent to the nearest hospital. AI activates self-driving cars and drives them to their desired destination.

Along the way, wives began to give birth to their baby girls.

What does the husband do?

If the husband is driving a car, which happens in a traditional human driving car, we discussed earlier the painful dilemma of having to choose between continuing to drive and stopping the car. In retrospect, this was a very difficult choice.

In the case of self-driving cars, artificial intelligence is driving. Therefore, the husband can help his wife. In the confusion between choosing a driving task and helping a wife, we have completely eliminated the problem of which action should win.

I’m sure that some skeptics may make a satirical comment that it may be “worse” because the husband may be involved in the wife’s childbirth and make the situation less irritating for everyone involved. Happy. Sorry, I will not accept that dark idea.

What we can be sure of is that since the husband is not on the steering wheel, we must have completely eliminated the risk of his panicking driving behavior. The artificial intelligence driving system will not be as crazy as a human driver in such a crisis. No crazy steering, no distractions or distractions, etc.

In this sense, we have successfully obtained two birds with one stone (although no one should throw stones at any innocent bird). We have released the husband to help his wife, and we have stopped the husband from driving the vehicle, otherwise it may cause serious and dangerous consequences. Husband and wife can negotiate and work together. Don't worry about car or car driving.

Having said that, we now draw attention to what the artificial intelligence driving system might do in this situation.

Any passenger can instruct the artificial intelligence driving system to safely stop the self-driving car. Therefore, artificial intelligence will usually do so dutifully. Various parameters usually appear, such as whether this is a passenger's command, it is recommended to perform this operation step by step and have a lot of time available, or whether emergency measures must be taken as soon as possible.

Interestingly, this does bring us back to the question of whether to speed up to the hospital or whether it makes more sense to stop. The new change is that we don’t need to worry about driving itself. No matter what choice is made, driving will remain consistent and stable.

It is tempting to move on and let the artificial intelligence driving system try to get you to the hospital. At the same time, the couple are doing what they can within the range of the driving vehicle.

We should note that this is still a danger. No matter how good the artificial intelligence driving system is, you cannot overcome the laws of physics. If the artificial intelligence driving system is suddenly cut off by another car, life-saving actions must be made quickly, which will have a significant impact on passengers. I mention this because some authority figures seem to fall into a completely false and misleading myth that the artificial intelligence driving system will become the perfect driver and we will never have a car accident again.

This is total nonsense (see my explanation for the reason in this link).

In any case, there are more beneficial aspects in this use case that can take advantage of the emergence of autonomous vehicles.

On the one hand, the interiors of autonomous vehicles may be completely redesigned compared with traditional human-driven cars. In self-driving cars, there is no need for a set of driving control devices. This means you don’t need a steering wheel (and no pedals), nor a fixed driver’s seat.

The interior of the self-driving car will be considered a somewhat open area. The design indicates that we will use rotating seats. These seats can be turned in any direction you want to see, and they can also slide in some way in the car to fix their positions throughout the interior. It is also desirable that the seat can be reclined. We will be able to take long road trips and take naps while AI takes care of all driving.

For couples who are busy giving birth in self-driving cars, they at least have room to do so. Unlike the settings in traditional cars, they can easily locate themselves in self-driving cars as needed. This will definitely be safer, because there will be a variety of built-in protection measures to deal with this inappropriate posture.

To clarify, I am not suggesting that the interior of a self-driving car is suitable for childbirth. Unless a specific self-driving car is designed for a specific activity in some way, the idea of ​​using a daily self-driving car for childbirth is not recommended and certainly not expected. When no other options are available, this is just the last effort.

All in all, there is more supplementary content on this issue.

Most self-driving cars have the possibility to install a large LED display in the car. This will allow passengers to watch movies while traveling long distances. More importantly, people believe that people will have real-time meetings in self-driving cars, or register and take online courses. Imagine that when you go to work every day, you can take online courses and effectively use your time in the car.

What does this have to do with the childbirth of the couple?

Easy-peasy, the same online real-time display and interactivity can be used to connect with the hospital. Through the camera inside the self-driving car, doctors and nurses in the hospital can see what is happening. The couple can interact with medical professionals and get help during the delivery process.

This is clearly an improvement compared to the couple trying to figure out what needs to be done by themselves. In addition, hospital staff can prepare for the arrival of self-driving cars, and once the couple get there, they can immediately help.

Let us add more benefits to this situation.

Some people suggest that self-driving cars should be equipped with carefully selected basic medical equipment and be readily available in self-driving cars. For example, this might be a defibrillator, first aid kit, etc. These can be stored in the trunk and will provide an easy way to access the trunk while still staying in the self-driving car (no need to get out of the car to open the trunk).

In theory, medical supplies might be convenient for this special activity of the couple.

We can then move on to the driving aspect of self-driving cars.

As mentioned earlier, the artificial intelligence driving system will not panic. That's fine. But this does raise an interesting question. Some authorities assert that self-driving cars will never be driven in any illegal way. The AI ​​will be programmed to always respect the speed limit and always come to a complete stop at stop signs etc. We seem to avoid the idea that AI will exceed the allowed rules of the road.

I bet that my husband might be speeding while driving to the hospital. This will be a natural tendency. To ensure the safe delivery of his baby girl, the risk of getting a speeding ticket seemed worth it.

However, speeding effort is more than just an activity to earn tickets. You can also argue that this is a dangerous activity. At faster speeds, your overall control of the vehicle tends to decrease. You may take turns too fast and run off the track. Other cars nearby may get confused by your speeding and hit you. These are all the disadvantages involved in speeding.

Should the AI ​​driving system be allowed to exceed the speed in this case?

You might say yes, of course, this should be allowed. However, this does increase the risk of road driving. Most importantly, if we let AI do this in this situation, it will become a potential slippery slope, as some people think. We will find ourselves allowing artificial intelligence to drive faster and faster, inch by inch. Maybe it’s okay to give birth, which leads us to say that when someone has a heart attack and is in a self-driving car, it’s okay to speed in this situation. We are always looking for reasons to allow speeding to happen.

Suddenly, we have a lot of speeding self-driving cars.

One view is that in the world of all self-driving cars, this will be perfect. In short, if there are only self-driving cars on our roads and absolutely no human-driven cars, we can make artificial intelligence driving systems coordinate with each other.

Imagine a self-driving car declares an emergency driving situation. Through V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) electronic communication, artificial intelligence notifies other nearby self-driving cars to move away and let this specific self-driving car pass by them. In addition, through the use of V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure) electronic communications, artificial intelligence coordinates with traffic signals and other road infrastructure to provide an unobstructed path to the hospital.

This sounds amazing.

The problem is that it also depends on the concept of only self-driving cars on our roads. This is easy to say, but it is likely to be a highly controversial issue. Some human drivers angrily emphasized that when you pry their cold dead hands away from the steering wheel, you will get them from behind the steering wheel.

Only in a certain fantasy world or nirvana, we will (in the short term) abandon the 250 million traditionally driven cars in the United States today and only use self-driving cars. It will take decades for human-driven cars to gradually retire and replace them with self-driving cars. We don’t know how long this will take, or whether it will completely eliminate human-driven cars.

I have dragged you through that part of the discussion and came up with an idea that we will have to solve what we want the AI ​​driving system to do, because there will be many human-driven cars and self-driving cars mixed into the road. What is the tolerance of self-driving cars compared to human-driven cars?

While you are thinking about this heavy idea, we can discuss some other topics that are easier to think about.

One thing an artificial intelligence driving system can easily do is to contact a police car and possibly seek to rendezvous with it. In other words, the self-driving car can seek the escort of the police, and then the police can accelerate with the self-driving car behind. This seems to increase the legitimacy of self-driving cars as speeders.

Another form of rendezvous might be an ambulance. The artificial intelligence driving system may electronically communicate with the nearest ambulance, sending a message indicating that a childbirth is in progress (the passenger has informed, not some sacred way to understand this). An ambulance that may be driven by a human driver may coordinate a meeting with the self-driving car. The couple will either be transferred to an ambulance, or the medical staff of the ambulance may enter a self-driving car to help with delivery.

Believe it or not, I just scratched the surface of how self-driving cars might respond to this situation. I will not cover all the possibilities here in detail, and I believe you have mastered the point of the problem.

If you want to consider some additional twists, here is a quick and puzzling tangent for you.

Assume that self-driving cars are part of a fleet of self-driving cars and are offered as so-called robotic taxis.

Up to this point in this discussion, I remained silent on the ownership of the self-driving car driving with the couple in the car. Some people eagerly claim that self-driving cars will not be allowed to be owned by any individual, and they can only be used as robotic taxis. I have debunked this concept and asserted that this is a ridiculous reasoning (see my detailed discussion on this link).

If the self-driving car may be a self-driving taxi, consider whether this will change any nuances in how things will develop when the couple is in the self-driving car and during the childbirth that suddenly begins. I will let you think about it carefully.

Tip: Yes, there may indeed be some changes in the dynamics.

All in all, we are still a long way from the emergence of widely used truly self-driving cars. At present, it is inevitable that we will hear stories of someone driving a car to help during childbirth in the car. In the foreseeable future, human drivers will still drive.

To end the story of this seasonally warm baby girl Rebecca, who was born in a moving car, we may turn our attention to the basis of the name Rebecca. It is said that the name Rebecca usually refers to a person who has a pioneering spirit, a natural leader, achievement-oriented, and highly focused on accomplishing difficult or bold tasks.

Perhaps in the future, Rebecca will grow into an avid engineer and technology leader responsible for the design, manufacture and implementation of the most advanced artificial intelligence-based truly self-driving cars. In the process, she will use her pioneering spirit and dedication to bring the benefits of self-driving cars to our world.

And think that she first started in a human-driven car.

This must be some kind of miraculous and exciting consideration of seasonality.