The technologies have improved a lot over the past decades. From smartphones to laptops, the technologies are limitless. There is a new vehicle technology called self-driving car which allows the car to pilot for you on the road. It works by making the vehicle operates itself without human control. According to Alan Amici, a vice president of automotive engineering at TE, “Recent NHTSA research shows that approximately 94 percent of accidents are caused by human error” (Gupton). He believes that the self-regulating cars with advanced safety features could reduce the amount of collisions. It’s safety features include connectivity which the cars have access to the surroundings of the car like weather, infrastructure, etc. Those factors are being …show more content…
The legislation in several states are trying to pass the policy to make the lives of drivers on roads with autonomous drivers safer. The states such as: Nevada, “Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont—and Washington D.C” has passed legislation that related to autonomous vehicles (“Autonomous Vehicles | Self-Driving Vehicles Enacted Legislation). As explained before, those states are trying to make the roads a lot safer with autonomous drivers. Eventually, the governers in “Arizona, Delaware, Massachusetts, Washington and Wisconsin issued executive orders related to autonomous vehicles” (“Autonomous Vehicles | Self-Driving Vehicles Enacted Legislation, 2017). There is a figure 1 that shows the states passing the legislation relating to autonomous …show more content…
Only people can drive the autonomous car when they have a license, steering wheel, specially-trained operator to take over immediate control and “$5-million insurance bond” (Hiltzik, 2016). Those regulations are being placed on testing cars, so it would be illegal for them to drive on public roads without having drivers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration classifies the autonomous cars by the levels. By levels, it means that there are different level of cars depending on how well the cars drive on their own without human intervention. This agency wanted to move to level 3 which allows the car to drive by itself efficiently, while having a smooth transition when transferring the control to humans. There is a case where Volvo decided to skip from level 2 to level 4 which makes the autonomous cars not use any driver input aside from setting a destination. According to the experiments conducted from Virginia Tech, the drivers with level 3 car has an “average of 17 seconds to respond to takeover requests. In that period, a vehicle going 65 m.ph. would have traveled 1,621 feet – more than five football fields” (Quain, 2016). However, it is too soon for them to make the cars too autonomous due to people’s slower reaction time on level 3
Self driving cars are not a good idea because they cause people to be lazy. This means that with self driving cars, your license wouldn’t mean a lot. To put it in another way, the drivers wouldn’t really depend on their license due to the self-driving car. So when you get pulled over by the police, you get a ticket for something the car did.
This article written by Chris De Santis explains the three major traffic problems that are impossible to solve because of our human driving differences, but points out that the self-driving cars of the future have the clear solutions. The 1st problem is the ripple effect. When one car reacts to something on the highway and slows down, this starts a ripple effect that will cause a car to stop eventually down the line. The effect will keep going, keeping the traffic slow. The solution is self-driving cars that are programmed to stay equidistance in the middle between 2 cars and accelerate simultaneously. The 2nd problem are the slow reaction times of drivers that cause grid lock at the next
Some of the limitations that come with this self-driving vehicles are that they won't have to kind of instinct a human has. Human nature is to survive at all cost in what ever situation they are in. When it comes to driving, they will make a quick choice and try to avoid any sort of wreck at all cost. The things behind the driver less cars are that they won't have that human instinct in them unless they are programmed with millions of different scenarios to avoid wrecks. Another set back with these driver less cars is more on the legal side, not actually with the car itself.
After reading the article I have concluded that the idea of self-driving cars sounds more so than ever like a plausible reality rather than another eccentric sci-fi topic. Aside from morality and subjective perceptions on the practice of self-driving cars I believe that the most major problem would the financial effect self-driving cars can have on America's financial infrastructure. The implementation of self-driving cars would almost quickly eliminate millions of jobs that would be made obsolete, unemployment rates would rise exponentially but that's not where the obstacles stop. Although this was not mentioned on the cons list it was hinted at. Self-driving cars have little to no security measures so that begs to question as to how software developers will combat hackers and software
The article also brings about all the revisions that will need to be made to the law in order for self-driving cars to be released on the road. Driving laws currently in standing were all intended for humans and were not created with automated cars in
The biggest one being how the car decides to handle unavoidable accidents. Himmelreich states in his article about self-driving cars, “My assumption had been that we would think about how a car should decide between the lives of its passengers and the lives of pedestrians. I knew how to think
At this point in development, the largest problem has been nothing to do with the mechanics of the car itself, but rather the unpredictability of human drivers nearby. To dictate the issue in simple terms, driverless cars are programmed to follow the rules of the road down to the letter; however, humans are not so functional, often taking their own approach to driving. Consequesntly, often a situation arises where the decision a car makes is the wrong one- it does not coincide with the unwritten rules of the road that the majority of the people in an area might follow, even if it follows the formal
In an article by states how “Federal regulators, faced with a growing number of self-driving car tests on roads across the U.S., plan to issue a flurry of new guidelines Tuesday aimed at automakers and tech companies” The Overall safety is a critical component for any vehicle on the highways of the United States. In the article “U.S. Government Releases Safety Guidelines for Self-driving Cars” the author Mcfarland states “The guidelines include a 15-point safety assessment for vehicles, which is left open-ended. There aren't benchmarks clearly drawn in the sand for the different categories, which include crashworthiness, privacy, cyber vehicle security, ethical considerations and how a car sees the road.” Some of the government concerns around the self driving cars is the safety of it’s citizen. There aren't benchmarks clearly drawn in the sand for the different categories, which include crashworthiness, privacy, cyber vehicle security, ethical considerations and how a car sees the road.”
Companies like Google, Tesla and Nissan, among others, have announced over the past few years that their companies are trying to develop self-driving or autonomous cars [Ref. 1 and 2]. Self-driving cars can provide many benefits to the average consumer. Studies have shown that because computers can react and process information many times faster than a human being, crashes on streets and roads can be decreased with quick and consistent evasion maneuvers by the autonomous car. They can also help maximize fuel economy by calculating the most direct and fastest routes. When the driving of an autonomous car demonstrates that the computer can safely and reliably transport the passengers to their destination, this frees up the passengers to do other things that they would not normally be able to do if they were driving the car manually. For this reason, self-driving cars can help maximize productivity of their passengers.
Human drivers have instincts that cannot be duplicated by technology, but by that same token human error is not a part of a self-driving car. In addition, we also need to take into consideration the transition period, when there are self-driving cars as well as human drivers on the road. Humans can notice the other drivers physically signal to go-ahead, when at a four way stop sign or; offer an opening for the merging lane. This is an example of what human interaction is capable of, that self-driving cars will need to calculate in order to
Inventors hope to help people with autonomous cars because “autonomous cars can do things that human drivers can’t” (qtd. in “Making Robot Cars More Human). One of the advantages that driverless cars have is that “They can see through fog or other inclement weather, and sense a stalled car or other hazard ahead and take appropriate action” (qtd. in “Making Robot Cars More Human). Harsh weather conditions make it difficult and dangerous for people to drive, however, the car’s ability to drive through inclement weather “frees the user’s time, creates opportunities for individuals with less mobility, and increases overall road safety” (Bose 1326). With all the technology and software in the car, it can “improve road traffic system[s] and reduces road accidents” (Kumar). One of the purposes for creating the driverless car was to help “make lives easier for senior citizens, people with disabilities, people who are ill, or people who are under influence of alcohol” (Kumar). It can be frightening to know that that we share share our roads with drivers that could potentially endanger our lives as well as other people’s lives. How can people not feel a sense of worry when “cars kill roughly 32,000 people a year in the U.S.” (Fisher 60)? Drivers who text while driving or drink and drive greatly impact the safety of other people, and Google hopes to reduces the risk of accidents and save lives with the
As self-driving cars have become more popular in 2017, plenty of states have introduced legislation in support of these interesting vehicles. What you may not know is that the government expects self-driving systems to make people pay more attention to the road. Having an interest in these types of cars myself, I believe that the government is doing the right thing. There are many benefits of self-driving cars and with the government taking effect, everyone will have a self-driving car in no time. The former president, Barack Obama, has even commented on this issue.
But it may take some time till we get there, there is still some things to be figured out before they are fully here. Two terms for the switch to autonomous have become standard in the auto industry. There's the path of evolutionary to autonomous vehicles where they eventually get better and better and more high tech as time goes on. So coming soon, today's cars will have more self driving features, and there will be many more autonomous options coming bit by bit. For example,Tesla's autopilot feature, is a form of evolution in vehicles. Autonomous cars are a whole new era in the car and vehicle industry. And even better, with more technology comes the "revolutionary" path. That's where cars will be completely self driven, not only autopilot like the Tesla, but completely self driving, like some of the ones Google is working on. It will start as test vehicle, and become more and more mainstream like autopilot vehicles as they will be able to drive in more places. There's a big debate over which path is safer, and which one is the better path, but soon both of the paths will eventually converge.(Tesla
The investment will go towards real-world pilot projects, which will deploy automated cars in “designated corridors” around the country. In other words, the government will work with industry leaders to get the American infrastructure ready for self-driving cars. “We are on the cusp of a new era in automotive technology with enormous potential to save lives, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and transform mobility for the American people,” said Foxx (McGrane, 2016). Announced by Foxx, the Department of Transportation’s commitments includes a promise to adjust policy for future tech developments. Once self-driving cars are proven to be safer than a human driver, the policy also includes a promise to revisit existing
The point is that when driverless cars hit the road, the cost of a low-speed collision and saving consumers money will be reduced. In the article, “Google Driverless Cars Run Into Problem: Cars With Drivers” Slakever states that “One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google’s robot”(Bosker). Current drivers have never followed the rules of the road, which have made the road more prone to any accidents. Drivers have found the upper hand on not following traffic laws that makes manufacturing driverless cars more meticulous to decrease accidents and breaking traffic laws.