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Some companies are considering using self-driving cars as a solution to road accidents, which are reported to kill 32,000 Americans each year. But will self-driving cars actually result in a future free of car accidents?

Many researchers say forecasting the effect of self-driving cars on reducing accidents is difficult because there isn’t enough real-life road testing and data to make a reliable forecast.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, however, has found that over 90% of car crashes involve human errors. In the remaining cases, factors such as weather and failed car components (部件) are primary causes. Artificial intelligence (人工智能) can potentially be programmed to make faster and better decisions to avoid human mistakes such as driving while drunk or texting.

Proving that self-driving cars are safe and able to reduce accidents will be important for convincing the public that letting computers drive is a good idea. Doubt about allowing artificial intelligence to manage our lives and even fear of losing control of the activities that play a big role in our lives already abound (大量存在). Questions have been raised about whether they could make safe decisions when faced with complex situations that involve not only cars, but also pedestrians (行人) and other obstacles. Should they be programmed to protect their drivers at all costs, or to make a move that could seriously injure the drivers but lead to fewer deaths overall in a crash?

“We certainly think that self-driving cars are going to significantly lower the death rates” said Richard Wallace, director of transportation systems analysis at the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Michigan. “I think what you can say for certain is that as technology progresses, artificial intelligence that will be doing the driving will become more and more perfect.”

Car manufacturers (制造商) such as Audi, Toyota and Tesla have announced plans to produce self-driving cars within five years. But predictions for when a large number of consumers will choose them over conventional vehicles vary and depend on assumptions such as affordability and changes in insurance and other regulations, according to Kara M Kockelman, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Whether self-driving cars will replace conventional vehicles depends on not only technical improvements but policies that will need to be put in place. Those rules have only started to appear. California is considering regulations for self-driving cars, and it has allowed consumers to drive them. They will require humans to take control of the cars when necessary and take responsibility for accidents. That means at the end, the blame for crashes will still go to humans, not   artificial intelligence.

In recent years, China has greatly developed its high-speed railway. Many cities even some rural areas have high-speed railway stations. Thus, it is more convenient for people to travel.

With the development of the high-speed railway, tourists have increased in many places of Yunnan. For example, every year, a large number of people flood into Dali and Lijiang taking the high-speed train. The reason is that the high-speed train is not only faster than buses but also cheaper than planes. It only takes two hours to travel from Kunming to Dali by high-speed train, but it takes four hours by bus. In addition, people in Yunnan can travel by high-speed train from Kunming to Beijing, Shanghai, Guiyang and many other big cities in China. People contribute the changes to the development of our country. It is believed that Yunnan will become better and better with the development of China.