Driving a car safely requires complete attention of the driver in order to minimize risk of accidents. With the fast pace and busy lives of people today, sometimes risky choices are made, like texting or making calls while driving, even though it is unsafe and against the law. Calling a taxi to drive you to your destination is a safer alternative, but could be expensive over time. Imagine being able to safely and affordably drive to your desired destination while eating breakfast, reviewing business documents, and/or making phone calls en route. This vision is possible with self-driving cars, but what consideration must be taken into account to make this a reality?
Introduction / Background
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.
How Self-Driving Cars Work
A self-driving car would essentially be a computer on 4 wheels that gets inputs from the sur...
... middle of paper ...
...e to be updated to consider who stopped first and has enough time passed to try and go across the intersection. In the event that all 4 cars at the intersection are self-driving cars, then it may be easier to handle this situation because the cars could have the ability to communicate with each other and decide faster.
Finally, if an accident were to occur involving a self-driving car, the question of “who is responsible” is raised. This is a difficult question that needs to be addressed with laws that govern liability in these situations.
Summary / Conclusion
Although there are issues with implementing self-driving cars on the roads today, self-driving cars can ultimately benefit society. According to public announcements made by companies like Tesla and Nissan, we may start seeing self-driving cars on the roads within the next 3 to 6 years [Ref. 1 and 2].
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.
Who’s to blame when the vehicle gets in a severe car accident? Advances in technology, like self-driving cars, will be bad because it causes people to be lazy, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, it takes away the responsibility of the driver, and it can malfunction causing accidents.
Major incumbent companies expect that the autonomous driving systems will be ready for the market in five years. This may be optimistic, but by 2050, cars that drive themselves could well be major production units for companies like General Motors. GM first revealed in 2010 that it had been working on self-driving cars[1]. Last year, GM demonstrated that the prototypes can follow the pace of traffic, while allowing the driver to have his hands off the steering wheel.
There are a huge number of details that need to be worked out. My first thought is to go with the utilitarian approach and minimize the loss of life and save the greatest number of people, but upon farther reflection I started to see the problems with it. The utilitarian approach is too simplistic. It raised all kinds of questions such as will the computer make any decisions as to fault when it makes the decision on what to do. For example, if I am in the car with my young child, and three eighty-year-old drunks wander out in front of my car because they are drunk by their own choice, is the car going to choose them over me and my child because there are three of them? I would not want the computer to make that decision for me because frankly I probably would not make that decision. That kind of computer decision would probably curtail many people including me from buying a self-driving car. It is the same paradox that MIT Review refers to when it says, “People are in favor of cars that sacrifice the occupant to save other lives—as long as they don’t have to drive one themselves” (“Why
Self-driving cars should not be produced because the technical part is not 100% figured out. In source #1 paragraph 23, it says “Computers develop glitches… could be deadly when it happens at 75 miles per hour on the freeway.” This is important because being in an accident on a freeway could lead to deadly injuries. When you might have been able to prevent that, when you were the driver. The self-driving car is what caused your injury so not having control could be a fatal technical
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
In 2010, Google broadcasted that they created an archetype of a car that can drive itself; its purpose, to avert collisions, allow citizens more time, and cut down on harmful pollutants that vehicles produce (Poczter & Jankovic, 2014). The heart of the self-driving automobile is lasers that are mounted on the roof of a modified Toyota Prius that produces a precise three-dimensional atlas of the area surrounding the car. Furthermore, the automobile is outfitted with four radars, and another laser around the vehicle that allows it to precisely create a 3-D map of its surroundings (Poczter & Jankovic, 2014). The vehicle calculates the laser dimensions with high-resolution maps of the globe, which allows it to drive itself without human intervention, while evading obstacles and obeying traffic laws (How Google’s self-Driving Car Works, 2011).
As more testing is done on it and new technologies, such as blind spots monitoring systems and lane departure warnings are added, self driving cars are becoming a reality. No doubt about it, these cars are much safer than human drivers. Unlike human drivers who are prone to getting distracted and can get under the influence, the cars are programmed to be aware of their surroundings at all times. They are able to make quick, fast decisions without hesitations; in the road, a slightest bit of hesitation can be lethal. Since self driving cars have direct access to GPS, they are able to locate the quickest route to the user’s destination and if more self driving cars are put onto the streets, there would be less road congestion as each vehicle can coordinate to ensure that traffic doesn’t build up. With such advances in technology comes major benefits and with self driving cars comes the elimination of human error, the cause of a majority of road incidents; the option of using self driving cars should definitely be considered.
In recent years, the technology to advance cars to the point of automation has been developing drastically. The idea of automated cars, before the 1950’s, was solely considered to be science fiction. Self-driving cars were only theorized until the concept of an automated car became more realistic as progressions began in 1958, when Nebraska attempted to create cars that could drive themselves through radio signals along electrical circuits. These designs were not all successful many of which continued to have many errors in their design and in their ability to react to unpredicted issues that could spontaneously arise out on an open road. (“Self-Driving Cars”) Since then controversies have arose to safety issues regarding the ability of automated
Researchers have indicated that 1.2 million people a year across the world die in automobile accidents and those such accidents cost the United States $300 billion a year. Self driving cars are predicted to dramatically reduce traffic accidents and fatalities(Will Knight). The benefits of self driving cars are that you are going to be able to save more time and you would have hands free and also you can chat with your friends, basically you can do whatever you would like and it would be an advantage on our safety. These self driving cars have a mode on what decisions to make when an accident happens. You would also save money since you are not going to use gas, we would probably be less likely to be stuck on traffic ,there would also be less
Ever since 2009, Google has been working on self-driving cars, which are now known as part of an independent company called Waymo. We should definitely start getting used to the idea of autonomous vehicles because, so far, they have been proven to be safer, cheaper and more sustainable than normal everyday cars run by gasoline. People would no longer need to buy their own cars, especially if driverless taxis become widely available, which Waymo plans to make happen. I can think of quite a few advantages and disadvantages when it comes to self-driving cars. For example, cars without drivers could make the roads a safer place. Most car crashes are the result of human error (such as mistaking the pedals, being under the influence, etc.) and computers
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
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.
Self-driving cars are beneficial because it helps people be safe when driving. Over 80% of cars in the USA are caused by driver errors.There would be no bad drivers and fewer mistakes on the roads. Sensory technology could potentially perceive the environment better than human senses. In the article,