For as far back as I can remember, pedestrians have had the right of way when it comes to crossing the street. Cars weigh thousands of pounds and can kill people (or multiple people) in a minute or less if the driver is distracted or intoxicated. Yes, it is bad for people’s health to walk into oncoming traffic. That’s like playing the video game Frogger. You lose more times than you win. But who decides whether people win, or cars win? In almost every state, people have the right of way and cars must yield to pedestrians at crosswalks and lights. What if that were to change?

Let’s go back in time a little. According to Jalopnik, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) thought it would be a great idea to celebrate “National Pedestrian Safety Month’ by telling people not to get hit by cars. Duh, right? I’m sure our tax dollars were well spent with that promotion. Fast forward to today and Ford is patenting an augmented reality app that pedestrians can use to see if an autonomous vehicle will stop at the intersection… or not… so that they won’t be hit. Seriously? The article goes on to share the writer’s sentiments on a couple of things that I absolutely agree with. First, it's not particularly safe for people to be walking around staring at their phones, and second, the app only works to alert the pedestrian, not the driver -- the car can tell pedestrians whether it plans to run through that intersection but does not give a pedestrian the ability to tell the car to stop. “Hey, I’m walking here!”

Vehicle safety is always at the top of my mind. An extension of that is the safety of pedestrians. To confess, I’ve never hit any pedestrians with my car, but I can only conclude it’s not a pleasant experience for the driver either. But what if there is no driver? Those autonomous vehicles will likely have passengers in them. If the vehicle fails to stop, one could easily see all sorts of chaos happening including collisions with other cars, bicycles, or pedestrians. Doesn’t sound like a good mix to me. In the article, Ford’s response was simply, “Ford is a leading automotive innovator and submits patents on new inventions as a normal course of business…” Interesting take on a technology that doesn’t involve a vehicle.

To add another important viewpoint to this issue, Motor Trend magazine reports that consumer advocate Ralph Nader begged the NHTSA to pull Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" software. He feels technology is growing faster than it should. In the article, he stated, "No one is above the laws of manslaughter." He released a full statement in which he further stated, "Americans must not be test dummies..."

There are many challenges our roads and highways will present as the percentage of autonomous cars increases. This is just another one that, at least, one manufacturer is thinking about despite how crazy an idea it may seem. I’m sure that there will be more coming of which we haven't even thought about.

Then, of course, there are technological and mechanical concerns. If you are riding (notice I didn’t say driving) in an autonomous vehicle reading the paper or distracted and the wheel pops off going seventy on the freeway, how do you intervene and move to safety? Or do you leave that up to the car as well?

With bipartisan support in the House of Representatives looking to boost self-driving vehicle technology and production according to Automotive News, autonomous vehicles are coming. And they’re coming as fast as legislation can be passed and manufacturers can make them.

They’re on their way and maybe there’s nothing we can do to stop it. I’m not sure we should stop it as much as I think we need to have a controlled burn here. What’s the rush to push autonomous vehicles before the technology has been fully vetted? Perhaps the real question is what’s at stake? Should we be human training wheels for the advancement of technologies that have limited benefits for the majority of Americans? Now is the best time to look both ways before crossing this street.