The Pros And Cons Of Autonomous Vehicles

More than 1 million people die every year worldwide due to human error while driving, but autonomous vehicles may be the solution to these deaths because they are consistent, have a greater vision of the road, and open a new market for transportation. One of the great reasons self-driving cars are beneficial is the fact that they will save thousands of lives. With these autonomous cars, human error is taken out of the equation. This does bring about many moral dilemmas that need to be answered before any mass production begins. The trolley problem, being one of the most well known moral dilemma, is such an important question to answer. People also fear the idea of every car being connected, but by doing so, thousands of lives will be saved

A solution that many people fear is a giant, shared network where all of the cars are connected and communicating. People fear this because they don’t trust one big network controlling their ride, however, it may be the solution to traffic. From 1990 to 2010, total car miles traveled grew by 38%, and the roads only grew by 6%, thus, traffic is considerably worse than it used to be (Urmson). The fact is that if all the automated cars were connected, they would all be able to travel at the same speed, and if any car were to be in danger, every other car on the road would be aware, giving them the ability to avoid the danger. They would also see what every other car sees, resulting in much greater vision of the road, and much less chance of an accident. In an article by Rob Verger, he stated that the best way to save energy and help the environment would be using autonomous cars in “shared fleets”, so the efficiency of connected cars goes beyond time saving and to energy and environmental benefits (Verger). The question of one shared network is important to consider because it must be precise and accurate at all times or else it would result in dangerous