Autonomous vehicles, or AVs as they are called in the article “The Promise and Perils of Autonomous Vehicle Technology”, are self-driven cars that could be a possible form of transportation in the future. The thesis of the article is the idea that AVs have the potential to reduce many negative externalities of automobile use and to create new benefits as well. The authors explain that AVs have the potential to make better use of land, reduce traffic congestion, and have a positive impact on the safety of transportation. This article is taken from a chapter of the book Autonomous Vehicle Technology and thoroughly explains the possible outcomes of having self-driven vehicles.
A main point the authors made in the article is how AVs would affect
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In cities, a large amount of valuable space is taken up by parking garages. Given the ability to remotely park, a passenger could be dropped off and then an AV could park itself at a location of less population. This would create space where parking garages would be to allow places of importance to relocate so they could be in close proximity of one …show more content…
The authors mentioned two forms of traffic congestion, recurrent and nonrecurrent. Recurrent congestion occurs at the same time each day as a result of too many vehicles trying to get to the same destination. Nonrecurring congestion are unexpected delays caused by car accidents, weather, and construction. AVs could potentially eliminate human error so traffic delays from accidents would be reduced which would make it a safer option. Another way AVs could reduce congestion is to increase vehicle throughput which is the efficiency of car travel on roads. “The ability to constantly monitor surrounding traffic and respond with finely tuned braking and acceleration adjustments should enable AVs to travel safely at higher speeds and with reduced headway (space) between each vehicle” (Anderson et al. 21). This concept would reduce travel time and produce a more consistent time of arrival. AVs have the potential to create a much more efficient and safer way for workers to commute each morning.
A major point made throughout the article was how AVs could affect safety. Many accidents are caused by some form of distracted driving. Texting while driving, calling someone while driving, and not being focused are all causes of car accidents that would be eliminated by an AV. The article explains how this would drastically decrease the number of fatalities caused by roadway accidents. The authors also explained
Eran Ben-Joseph, a Professor and Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, did a research on the urban driving style. Joseph has come to a conclusion stating that American tends to speed more time behind the wheel, while searching for a parking spot. Joseph also stated that parking lots tend to “cover more than a third of the land area, becoming the single most salient landscape features of our built environment.” Finding parking spots is one of the major problems, and it is one of the primary sources of waste of fuel for many in the urban areas. The need for parking spots has been significantly increasing in the recent years. According to Joseph, Americans spend more than 250 hours a yearly behind the wheel,, and 40 percent of the total gasoline are wasted while searching for parking. Self-driving car’s vehicle-to-vehicle communication is one of the major effective features for transportation. These features will enable self-driving vehicles to communicate with one another and provide real-time status information about their surrounding. This feature is believed to decrease the number of hours and energy wasted while searching for parking significantly. If one car is looking for parking, it will send a status to its surrounding cars with the same features. If these cars find a parking spot, they will send back the position of availability of parking. With these kinds of algorithms, it will most likely help the environment to become safer. In addition, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication feature will be an important factor when it comes to collision avoidance. As each car can sends out data about their position, speed, break status, and additional such data to the other vehicles within a specific distance, there will be much more efficient and people will have a safe
At the UCR, the vanpool program is open to UC faculty and staff, and currently enrolled UC Riverside students as an “alternative form of transportation” (UCR). Faculty and students that are part of the program fill out an application so the university can provide users with sufficient information about the vanpool routes and meet the commuters every need. The vanpool program takes into account every user’s location and matches them into groups of commuters who live in close proximity of the universities departure sites. A designated driver picks them up from the departure site and drives them to the UCR campus. The faculty or student can request their preferred departure time from UCR campus to the same location they were initially picked up from by stating it in the programs online site. With the vanpool system the program’s objective is to decrease the number of single occupants in a vehicle made by staff or students to the UCR campus. The program helps contribute to the decrease of traffic congestion that benefits everyone in the long
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.
This is one of the biggest benefits since as I mentioned earlier over 37,000 deaths a year are from car accidents. It has the potential to make the streets a lot safer by eliminating bad driving of people. It would save the pedestrians walking in the street because the vehicle lets them know it is safe to cross the street and also know they are there at night to avoid colliding with them. Another significant benefit would be the improved street traffic since the cars communicates to each other it eliminates the rush hour traffic because the cars know where each other are and they know what they need to do. It is a significant benefit because if the cars are autonomous they can get closer to each other allowing the ability for more cars to move at the same speed on highways reducing the stopped traffic they could maneuver safely around each other and automatically go at the same time with one another.
Some people argue that just as many car accidents would happen if the use of cell phones were not involved. According to Shows Cellphone Use, “Using a cellphone while driving may be distracting, but it does not lead to higher crash risks.” It is hard to miss the number of drivers with phones glued to their hands. As they dangerously multitask while driving around other vehicles and pedestrians. Those who decide to use their phones are simultaneously contributing to a lack of visual, manual, and cognitive attention a driver needs to remain focused (Injury Prevention, 2015). With the potential of crashing being 23 times greater than the risk posed by drunk driving (No Texting, 2015). With statistical information providing a connection between distracted drivers and increased accidents, it is hard to believe there are some who feel it is not
1…2…3….Crash Distracted Driving is rampant on our roadways, killing hundreds each year. Unfortunately, it is easier than ever to drive distracted. Auto makers are putting technology into our vehicles that allows us to make phone calls, dictate texts or emails and update social media while we are behind the wheel – all actions that are proven to increase crash risk (“Distracted Driving: Problem of Cell Phone Distracting Driving”).
Accidents involving distracted drivers by their cell phones and other electronics have become a bigger concern (Christopher A. Hart, 2015). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that one in ten of the 3,092 deaths in car accidents were caused by distractions from cell phones (Hart, 2015). The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommends that unless of an emergency, the United States should ban the use of personal devices when driving. (Hart, 2015).The U.S. should take more precautions to cell usages on the road. During any point in the day there are about 660,000 people that are trying to use their phone behind the wheel of a car (Texting and Driving Accident Statistics, n.d.).
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.
Being in the public sphere, it is pertinent that government officials strictly avoid dangerous and distracted driving, while simultaneously endorsing organizations in the field of road safety and issuing Public Service Announcements and advertisements in the dangers of using gadgets while driving. As the force behind restrictions and laws, it is important for such authorities take stock of national statistics and accordingly shape bills against dangerous driving practices. The simplest way to do this is to ban the use of cell-phones while driving, which has been implemented in 47 states in the United States, but adherence to such laws is not ensured and monitoring the same is unfeasible. A better way to prevent accidents is to invest in technology and research on self-driving cars, internal regulation of cell-phone use (such as technology that will prohibit accessing a cell-phone network inside a vehicle), and programmes that will educate younger drivers on their role in avoiding cell-phone related accidents, as a large volume of cell-phone related accidents involve
Driverless cars do hold potential in reducing the amount of accidents on the road. One article states that human mistakes make up more than 90 percent of car accidents and that no matter what problems the autonomous vehicle (AV) possesses, it will still reduce this percentage (Ackerman 3). Humans sometimes make blunders that create an accident
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
As more technology is being developed, there is the speculation that certain technologies will have more advantages than disadvantages. For example, the new technology that is being added to some cars like adaptive cruise control, ACC, is just one step away from driverless cars. When traveling on the highway, cars with ACC are able to stay within the lines on the pavement and keep a constant speed all while monitoring what the surrounding cars are doing, whether that be getting too close or slowing
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
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.
Kessler, S. (2011) ‘How smarter parking technology will reduce traffic congestion‘, Global Innovation Series [Online]. Available at: mashable.com/2011/04/13/smart-parking-tech. [Accessed: 18 March 2014].