Many times, we find ourselves distracted while behind the wheel of a vehicle, whether it be because of our cell phone use or our wandering minds. This lack of attention to the road and awareness of the vehicles around us has led to countless avoidable accidents. Reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHFTA), ten percent of fatal crashes and fourteen percent of all highway crashes were caused by distracted drivers in the year 2015 (NHFTA). A world free of distracted drivers would allow for everyone on the roads to have a little more peace of mind knowing their chance of being in an accident is much lower. That world is a possibility in the near future due to the advancements in driverless car technologies. Self-driving …show more content…
This autonomous level allows the car to drive itself most of the time, but allows the human passenger to take over in certain situations, unlike a level 5 self-driving car that can drive under any condition and circumstance and has no need for manual controls (Dormehl and Edelstein). In this paper, I will give a more in-depth explanation of the improvement in safety by switching to self-driving cars, along with educated reasoning for why they should not be fully independent from human control and a rebuttal for counterarguments against limiting the control of these future innovations. Self-driven cars will provide for a safer transportation environment by removing the human error factor off of the table, but will still need to be operated and controlled by a human in certain traffic …show more content…
One of the major concerns will be the availability of these cars due to the high prices people are foreseeing to expect due to the advanced nature of the automobiles. Fortunately, companies like Nissan are focusing on affordability for average consumers, with Volvo following in its footsteps (Fagella). Another concern about self-driving cars is that they will take a substantial amount of jobs away from people that have jobs in transportation, such as taxi and bus drivers. This is no issue of concern, as transportation jobs fade, new jobs will be opened up in the industry. Car companies are planning to create new jobs to accommodate the production and assistance of the new cars, with Hyundai leading the pack expecting to add 3,000 jobs in the upcoming years and General Motors to add over 1,000 new jobs as well (Fagella). Most of the concerns about self-driving cars have a solution, while the consumer’s biggest worry should only be choosing what color they
The term autonomous refers to the capability of acting independently, or having the freedom to do so. A self-driving car is an autonomous car, which has the ability to sense its environment and navigating without any human operations. These types of cars are built to make safe and smart decisions on the road. In the past years, automobile companies have begun to introduce advanced driver assistance systems that are capable of parking, switching lanes, and braking in case of an emergency on their own, without the driver’s assistance. Automated vehicles are capable of maneuvering through street traffic, as well as other natural and man-made obstacles along the way. Therefore, this technology might completely change the methods of transportation.
Most people think of someone using their cell phone while driving when they hear distracted driving, but it it much more than that. Distracted driving is when someone who is behind the wheel get distracted by either taking their hands off the wheel or take their mind of driving, which can cause them to get into an accident (paragraph 2). Distracted driving is broken down into three main parts, manual distractions which is taking your hands off the steering wheel, visual distractions which is taking your center of attention off the road and cognitive distraction which is when your mind is not focused on driving and just starts drifting away (paragraph 3). Cell phone use is easily the biggest cause of distracted driving compared to eating, talking, and others because using your cell phone requires visual, manual and cognitive attention from the person behind the wheel and in a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, the amount of people who break the law and use a handheld device behind the wheel increases every single year. An estimated amount of more than, six hundred thousand people use their phone while driving. Distracted driving has quickly risen and developed in the past few years and is becoming an enormous problem. In a recent study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), showed statistics of approximately three thousand, one hundred fifty
Self-driving cars are now hitting a few roadways in America, and are showing people just a small glimpse into what could be the future of automobiles. Although Google’s self-driving cars are getting a lot of attention now, the idea of a self-driving car has been around for quite a while actually. These cars have been tested to their limits, but the American people have yet to adopt the technology into their everyday lives. A brief description of their history, how they work, and finally answer the question, will self-driving cars ever be adopted widely by the American public?
Have you ever been on a cell phone while driving or seen someone on his or her cell phone while driving? This is distracted driving at its finest. Whether you are looking at a text, changing radio stations, applying makeup, or anything else that takes your mind or eyes off the road is distracted driving. Distracted driving killed around 3,000 people in 2011 (Bauers). Car crashes are the leading cause of teenagers in the United States. If you don’t think you are distracted behind the wheel think again, many people think they aren’t distracted till something bad happens to them, like a crash, driving into a ditch, or running a red light and get a ticket for it. Distracted driving is a major problem and most people don’t know their distracted or what is a distraction to him or her.
The goals behind self-driving cars are to decrease collisions, traffic jams and the use of gas and harmful pollutants. The autonomous automobile is able to maneuver around objects and create swift lines of cars on roadways (How Google’s self-Driving Car Works, 2011). The autonomous vehicle can react faster than humans can, meaning less accidents and the potential to save thousands of lives. Another purpose and vision for these cars is that vehicles would become a shared resource. When someone needed a car, he or she could just use his or her Smartphone and a self-sufficient car would drive up and pick him or her up.
New technologies that are interactive are increasingly becoming sources of distractions, and people are becoming more focused to devices resulting to reduced focus on the roads when behind the wheel. This distracted driving is becoming an alarming issue on the roads.
There will be a day when driving will not require a license. Children will be traveling on their own, teens will be texting while driving, adults will be doing their jobs while driving, and the elderly who are visually or physically impaired will be able to transport themselves (Symonds). This will be made possible through new technological car advancements that will enable a car to be driverless. With technology increasing exponentially, and our everyday lives getting busier and busier, we need a solution. Weeks of productivity are lost each year by Americans (Pollette). Driverless cars will cause this issue to vanish by reducing delays and smoothing traffic flow (Winston). Most technology will have flaws, and this is also true for driverless cars’ technology. Improvements are being made to enhance the car (Pollette), but accidents will still take place. Despite the flaws, driverless cars will make trips shorter, and when trips are long, we will be able to multitask.
This is an important issue because of rising of crashes in the United States that are distracted drivers related. Sundeen noted that 34,400 people get killed every year in the United States because of distracted drivers (Sundeen, 2008). Distracted driving could cost the lives of other people who are on the road. Cell phones are one of the most common distractions that divide drivers’ attention from the road. At the same time, the number of cell phone users are still growing and danger on the road is also growing.
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.
You will see the estimate base car with self-driving feature that will increase more in every year. Let’s I summarize what I have said before to you. Human has a limit because of emotion, tired that will cause an accident so I come up with an idea about self-driving car that will help us to use the car more safety because the computer doesn’t have those of the problem that I have said
Mitigating the Threat of Cell Phone Use While Driving A major threat to the safety of people on road ways are distracted drivers. Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety. ("Key Facts").
Self-driving cars are the wave of the future. There is much debate regarding the impact a self-driving car will have on our society and economy. Some experts believe fully autonomous vehicles will be on the road in the next 5-10 years (Anderson). This means a vehicle will be able to drive on the road without a driver or any passengers. Like any groundbreaking technology, there is a fear of the unforeseen problems. Therefore, there will need to be extensive testing before anyone can feel safe with a vehicle of this style on the road. It will also take time for this type of technology to become financially accessible to the masses, but again alike any technology with time it should be possible. Once the safety concern has been fully addressed
People around the world are constantly moving from place to place. Whether that place is work, a restaurant, or home, people require a means of transportation in order to arrive at a desired destination safely and efficiently. One of the most used means of transportation today are cars. Cars play an important role in the world’s economy by transporting goods and people. Automobiles have come a long way since Ford’s first Model T, and the auto industry plans to further enhance the technology and capabilities of the cars that drive on our roads. New technological advancements like rear-view camera, self parking, and auto braking have greatly improved the overall safety of cars today. However, one of the most talked about ideas are autonomous
Josh Constine, a technology journalist with a Master’s degree in Cybersociology from Stanford University, expressed his concerns in a Tech Crunch article about self-driving cars by asking, “What will happen to Uber’s 1 million drivers? And the 3.5 million truck drivers in the US? And the countless millions of delivery, bus, taxi, and other drivers around the world (Constine, 2016)?” Based on his numbers, one could estimate that over 4.5 million U.S. workers will be displaced as a result of autonomous vehicles. Human drivers will not be able to compete with an AI system that doesn’t fall asleep behind the wheel, get into accidents because of some error or misjudgment, or require compensation and
Technology is evolving faster than ever these days, however there is one technology that could revolutionize the transportation industry. This technology is called autonomous cars, also known as self-driving cars. Autonomous cars can be defined as a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment, and navigating without human input. Using different techniques such as GPS and radar, autonomous cars can detect surroundings, thus removing the human element in driving. This would have a positive effect in more ways than we could ever imagine. Research suggests that self-driving cars will become more abundant in the future because they will be more cost-effective, enhance safety, and decrease traffic congestion.