by: Phu Nguyen
The Future of Transportations
Since the invention and production of automobiles in the in the early 1900s, has help us save time on transportations, create job opportunities, and much more. It has not change much after over 100 years of its creation, due to the lack of technological advancement needed to improve automobile technologies. Therefore unable to solve any new or old problems that all users of the automobiles are currently facing. Automobiles are widely use all over the world, leading to the cause of the most deaths and injuries than any other man made inventions. The new technological innovation of self-driving vehicles will be able to eliminate these issues that have been going on for over a hundred years in automobiles. The root problem of automobile accidents has always been the driver’s inconsistency of making the right choice when driving. Self-driving vehicles allow automobiles to operate without the drivers and able to be more consistent while driving safely to the destination. This innovation will greatly impact the way transportation operate, economy, jobs, and our society in the upcoming years.
Self-driving technology is currently in development by large corporations such as Goggle, Tesla, Apple, and many more in many countries. It is currently functional and being tested for safety improvements to be ready for commercial release that consumers can use. Based on the test driving result of 1.5 million miles driven in a 6 years period of Google’s self-driving vehicle, most of the accidents encounters were cause by other drivers. These positive results help accelerates this technological innovation, it is expected to be release for public use in 2020 and expected to have at least 10 million of this technology on the road(Greenough J. 2015). The high public demands motivates large companies to invest in this technology, therefore it could be expected sooner than 2020.
Self-driving vehicles will change the way transportation operate, studies have shown that with this technology we are able to avoid endless hours of traffic. The technology allows multiple automobiles to interact with each other to move in a coordinated formation, which shortens the travel time by using the road lanes to its capacity. It would be possible to travel a very long distance day and night without having to rest with the self-driving vehicles, the technology does not get tired or distracted unlike humans. This would lead to less consumers using plane to travel, using self-driving vehicles will cost less than the plane and more convenient. It is most consumers dream to multitask while traveling, everyone will be able to travel while working, eating, or even sleeping. Driving will not be a task anymore with the release of self-driving vehicles, people who are unable to drive will be able to travel without any other assistants.
In introduction of self-driving vehicle for consumers will be very expensive during its early release. Therefore not everyone is able to switch from the regular driving car into self-driving. This technology requires many components that allow the vehicle to drive itself, most of these components are very expensive (Parker, R.G. 2015). With the estimate of the year 2020 to have 10 million self-driving vehicles on the road in a very short period of time may only be possible for middle class or higher family to afford. Self-driving vehicles ability to avoid traffic accidents would greatly help our global economy. It is estimated that this technology will contribute over 5.6 trillion US dollars per year globally and 1.3 trillion US dollars save in US alone (Parker, R.G. 2015). These are the estimate cost that could be saved in traffic accidents cause by a human driver without this technology. The price of insurance are expected to drop for those that possess self-driving vehicle and higher for those without this technology.
Our current society view on drivers may be divided based on those with self-driving technology and those without the technology instead of the driver’s quality of driving. It is most likely that our society will look down on drivers without the new technology when self-driving vehicles become a norm (Savirimuthu, J. 2016). Without the need of drivers to operate a vehicle, occupations such as drivers will be unnecessary for transportation. Jobs such as taxi driving and product transportation will have to find another occupation. It may also change the requirements of drivers by changing age limit and alcohol concentration in blood to operate a self-driving vehicle. It is still debatable whether operating a self-driving vehicle would require a license or anyone is able to operate the technology without limitations.
There are many problems this technology has yet to solve or open to public, companies are working with this technology in close doors. This technological innovation is still newly introduce, the rapidly speed of progress for consumers use raises a debate whether it is safe enough to trust our own life on the road to technology. Adapting to new technology naturally takes a very long time, we questioned whether it is able to make the right choice in a life and death situation every time. Another problems technologies are facing are hackers, can the self-driving car avoid unauthorized personnel from controlling the self-driving vehicle on the road. Most of the issues regarding traffic accidents are life threatening and costly. In case of accidents who would take the blame, it is still in debate whether the operator of the self-driving vehicle or the manufacture software. All these problems are the reason self-driving vehicles are facing and still needed to overcome and to be accepted by the public for commercial release.
If self-driving vehicle becomes a norm, we would slowly lose the ability to drive in the future generation when technology is unable to make a decision and required help from the consumers. Without this skill of driving, consumers would often be in panic and helpless when unforeseen problems occur. Operating a self-driving vehicle is will be much easier, but does not lower the responsibility of the transportation itself. Therefore uses of these vehicles should be required to be able to drive and have a permit.
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The research project will be about self-driving vehicle’s development and impact to our society. Traveling has been part of our lives and most of us travel in a daily basis. Therefore accidents are very common, based on the global road crash statistics, the average deaths a day is about 3,287. Technology innovations are now building and testing to solve this problem. This technology is growing rapidly, with many large companies and very high investment to support this project. How would our daily lives change when self-driving vehicles are on the road, will we trust our lives on technologies to make life and death decisions.
Rathenau Instituut. (2015, June 22) .”Car of the future: Autonomous, or cooperative.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150622124832.htm
This innovation is currently developing in many different countries, which leads to difference in result and decisions making of self-driving vehicle. The self-diving vehicles are designed to communicate with each other while on the road. The conflict between different company or countries self-driving could cause accidents, traffic, and more problems on the road. Therefore they are creating an international standard for the self-driving vehicle to meet.
University of Alabama at Birmingham. (2015, June 15). Will your self-driving car be programmed to kill you if it means saving more strangers?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150615124719.htm
This source questions the decisions of programmed installed in the self-driving vehicle at a worse scenario. Will the self-driving vehicle try to save the driver’s life or save the life of others? These are some of the problems developers are facing, when only one can be saved who will technology programed to save. The answer to this question will heavily impact on everyone’s view and trust for self-driving vehicle.
Guizzo, E. (2011, October 18). “How google’s self-driving car works”. IEEE Spectrum Online. Retrieved from http://www.123seminarsonly.com/Seminar-Reports/2015-03/190666282-Google-Car.docx
Goggle has always been very actively developing this technology with constant update of their progress. In order to have a better understanding of self-driving cars impact on society, we must look into Google’s prospective on how the self-driving functions. Google has always been ahead of others in term of innovations, knowing their progress will allow us to predict when self-driving vehicle will be open to public.
Greenough, J. (2015, July 29). 10 million self-driving cars will be on the road by 2020. BI Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/report-10-million-self-driving-cars-will-be-on-the-road-by-2020-2015-5-6
Self-driving cars are estimated to be on the road very soon, with the claim of 10 million cars on the road by 2020. There must be a solid foundation in self-driving development to claim such a statement. If this is true, then how will our society quickly adapt to this technology. Will we be safer in 2020 and will this leave drivers jobless, having the knowledge of acceleration of development of this project will help us prepare when the technology arrive.
SHEPARDSON, D., & LIENERT, P. (2016, February 10). Exclusive: In boost to self-driving cars, U.S. tells Google computers can qualify as drivers. Reuters Technology. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-autos-selfdriving-exclusive-idUSKCN0VJ00H
This is very big step in self-driving technologies, US vehicle safety regulators have considered the self-driving technology as a driver under federal law. This will help those who questioned this technology to be safe enough to put a life on the line, the majority of people are more likely accept this technology when it is approved by US law. More and more states are approving these self-driving vehicle, it won’t be long until we see one on the road. This article shows us that this is not a futuristic idea anymore, self-driving vehicles will soon be a part of our everyday lives.
Harris, M. (2015, March 2). Will You Need a New License to Operate a Self-Driving Car? .IEEE Spectrum Online. Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/human-factors/will-you-need-a-new-license-to-operate-a-selfdriving-car
This is the debate whether is it required to have a driver’s license or not to use this self-driving technology. When driving is not perform by the driver itself, not having a license is able to use this technology to travel. There could be a new license system specifically design for users to have a self-driving car permit. This article will go in depth into who are qualified to use this technology and its requirement.
Shepardson, D. (2016, February 29). Google says it bears ‘some responsibility’ after self-driving car hit bus. Reuters Technology. Retrieved from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-selfdrivingcar-idUSKCN0W22DG
Google self-driving cars has been in numbers of accidents, most of those accidents were due to humans claimed by Google. The most recent incident of Google’s self-driving car hitting a bus, Google takes some responsibility and tries harder to improve its technology. These are the major setback self-driving technology could face in the future, more self-driving car on the road will lead to more records of self-driving vehicle accidents.
Why California wants drivers in self-driving cars. (2016, January 13). CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-california-wants-drivers-in-self-driving-cars/
The high demands for self-driving technology well help accelerate the speed of development to be open to public. This article shows that most people have accepted this technology and they feel that it would be a great way to avoid accidents. Although this article also mentioned that the self-driving technology currently needs some help by the user/driver themselves in some occasions that lead to accidents. This article mainly addresses its current state and why it is not ready for public yet, despite the high demand.
Parker, R.G. (2015, June 11). How will self-driving cars affect the economy?. CPA Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.gaaaccounting.com/how-will-self-driving-cars-affect-the-economy/
This article gives an example of ways self-driving car will affect our lives and the economy. Self-driving vehicles required more new components such as sensors, radar, camera, and much more, these components are very expensive, which leads to self-driving vehicle to be unaffordable for the majority of people on its initial release. This would create a new trend of people that are using self-driving car and those still driving their car. The value of car insurance would likely change and expected to be lower for those with self-driving car, since they are deemed to be more reliable than human drivers.
Savirimuthu, J. (2016, March 4). Google car crash-who’s to blame when a driverless car has an accident? . The Conversation. Retrieved from http://phys.org/news/2016-03-google-car-crashwho-blame-driverless.html
This article will address the problem we will be facing in the future when self-driving vehicles are on the road. If accidents were to happen, who do we blame for the cause of accident, whether we blame technology or the users. There are two ways this problem could impact our society, if self-driving vehicles are more reliable, then drivers on a regular cars will be looked down as the cause for most of the accidents. If self-driving cars were to causes more accidents to regular drivers then a regular driver, then it will be seen as a threat to us.
