Driverless Cars Research Paper

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Driverless vehicle technology is developing rapidly with numerous semi-autonomous systems already available for consumers today. The driverless technology industry is expected to be worth £900 billion globally by 2025 and is currently growing by 16 per cent a year. [5] These models are being tested in various locations around the world and are rapidly increasing. Many features have already leapt onto cars out there today such as self parking, adaptive cruise control, emergency braking and automatic lane keeping assist to name a few. This shows that the technology is out there but only needs being implemented together without the need of a human controlling parts of it. Autonomous systems such as self-driving cars rely heavily on complex software …show more content…

A semi-autonomous car still requires a human to be behind the steering wheel to take over in case of an emergency. On the other hand, for a true self-driving car, the only thing you need to do is enter the destination and the car will take you to your location. This type of car doesn’t require any pedals or a steering wheel because it doesn’t need a driver and makes decisions based on the software that is implemented beforehand. Although a semi-autonomous car is technically not a self-driving car, all of the technologies autonomous vehicles incorporate are also necessary for self-driving vehicles. …show more content…

The upfront cost of purchasing a self-driving car is much higher in comparison to a traditional fuel powered car. This is because self-driving cars require a variety of special sensors, on-board computers and controls. These currently cost tens of thousands of pounds but are a lot cheaper with mass production. However, because system failures could be fatal to both passengers and other road users, all critical components need to meet very high manufacturing, installation, repair, testing and maintenance standards. This will also be relatively expensive. Self-driving cars also require special navigation and mapping service subscriptions which would add hundreds of pounds to the overall car price. For example, GPS and communications systems, review cameras, and automatic transmissions typically cost around £2,000. Navigation services such as TomTom also charge a monthly fee of around £40. [4] Self-driving cars require all of these on top of many other equipment and

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