Future Self-Driving Vehicles

908 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Ethical concerns with autonomous vehicles

We live in a world where our methods of transportation are harmful to our environment. This has been a problem ever since non-renewable sources were used. The harmful effects of these fuel sources were not fully known at the time, but they are now. Since this is now known, the scientists and engineers must consider the environmental effects when designing new future modes of transportation. There are endless possibilities to the future of transportation and they are virtually unknown. This begs the question; will these future modes of transportation have positive or negative effect on our environment and will they be able to contribute to a sustainable environment. I believe that the future of our transportation is headed in the right direction, …show more content…

Self -driving vehicles are not exactly something new, they have actually been around since the 1980s. However, they have only began to gain popularity in the recent years. Today’s current self-driving vehicle can only change lanes, when indicated by the driver, brake by itself, and park. The vehicles still currently need a driver since they are not fully autonomous. In the article, Self-Driving Cars: An Ethical Perspective, it is stated that “Because an estimated 94 percent of automobile accidents are attributable to human error, the development of law-abiding, ultra-safe self-driving cars promises to significantly reduce the number of annual car accidents. Yet, as long as self-driving cars share the road with human drivers, accidents will continue to occur.” (intext citation) Basically, the article is saying that if there are more self-driving cars on the road there will be less car accidents, but there will always be accidents until there are only self-driving cars on the road. This important since this would also reduce the number of fatal car accidents, which means more people get to keep on living which is obviously always a great thing. These self-driving vehicles have crash-avoidance programs to well help reduce the number of accidents involving a self-driving vehicle. Until there is a point in time were every vehicle on the road is self-driving there will always be ethical questions with no real solutions. For example, if a self-driving vehicle is involved in a fatal accident who would be at fault the manufacture or the buyer of the vehicle. With respect to the crash-avoidance programs comes the question of what do they program the vehicle to do if a crash is unavoidable. Do they program the vehicle to have an outcome that would cause the least amount of harm or do they program it to save the buyer at all costs? Most people would say that they prefer the option to

Show More
Related

  • Informative Essay On Self Driving Cars

    1341 Words  | 3 Pages

    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?

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Car Safety and the Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ailable provide much more protection than harm to humans. Automotive makers should continue to offer safe features and advance the possibilities of a collision-free future as much as possible. Attention must also be turned to the potential harm new features could cause. Safety features should be a precaution, or safety net, to true accidents that happen. They should not continue to replace bad driving habits that are abundant in our country. By allowing computer technology to provide an instant fix to human error, the error itself is never corrected. When involving something as deadly as vehicle accidents, fixing the error is just as, if not more, critical as providing a safety net. The ninth commandment: thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing. How far will vehicle safety go until computers are driving the car for us?

    Read More

  • Ethics Of Self-Driving Cars Essay

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the advent of autonomous technology, self-driving cars have been expected to be the best solution to optimizing daily commuting efficiency meanwhile significantly reducing or even preventing traffic accidents and fatality by rectifying and removing possible human errors on the road. As the deeper research goes on, however, the ethics of driverless cars become a major concern: self-driving cars must make their own decisions at any circumstances, which also means that such vehicles must be pre-programmed to respond ethically to certain emergencies. Concerning quite broad range of ethical issues, such algorithms should be rather convoluted. Without any perfect solutions so far, social expectation of ethical principles should be a logical

    Read More

  • Negative Effects Of Self Driving Cars

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    It might be hard to see where the self-driving car could have issues with safety but an interesting question arises when an accident is unavoidable. The question posed is “How should the car be programmed to act in the event of an unavoidable accident? Should it minimize the loss of life, even if it means sacrificing the occupants, or should it protect the occupants at all costs? Should it choose between these extremes at random?” (ArXiv). This is a very interesting question surrounding ethics. I’m not sure if there is a right answer to the question, which could stall the self-driving car industry. Before self-driving cars are mass produced a solution needs to be found to the question about unavoidable accidents. Although this question is a problem, there may not be a need to address the problem. It is said that “"driver error is believed to be the main reason behind over 90 percent of all crashes" with drunk driving, distracted drivers, failure to remain in one lane and falling to yield the right of way the main causes.” (Keating). Self-driving cars could eliminate those problems entirely and maybe with all cars on the road being self-driving cars, there would be no “unavoidable accidents”. Safety is the main issue the self-driving car is trying to solve in transportation and seems to do a good job at

    Read More

  • Should Self-Driving Cars Be Produced?

    598 Words  | 2 Pages

    In source #3 paragraph 4 it says “surveyed people want to ride in cars that protect passengers at all costs-even if the pedestrians would now end up dying.” This is important because the self driving cars create a conflict between society, about who the car could save. Also those surveyed people are in conflict with themselves, trying to decide what outcome could be better. In source #3 paragraph 13 it states “people imagined actually buying a driverless car...people again said pedestrians-protecting cars were more moral...people admitted that they wanted their own car to be programmed to protect its passengers.” This shows when you actually think about the reality of having a driverless car, you wouldn’t want to die in an accident when you could have been saved. As a pedestrian you wouldn’t want to get hit by a car when you could have been saved. There are different perspectives you have to look at. In conclusion this shows that society still isn’t sure about a self-driving

    Read More

  • Assess The Benefits Of Motorised Mobility

    331 Words  | 1 Pages

    Together with undeniable benefits in terms of flexibility and comfort of usage, motorised mobility comes with large costs for society and environment. The rise of CO2 in the atmosphere is the main responsible for the climate change issues. Transport generates a quarter of greenhouse emissions at European level, 70% of which are due to road mobility. The reduction of the environmental footprint of the transport sector calls for the fast deployment

    Read More

  • Self-Driving Cars: Should It Be Legal?

    552 Words  | 2 Pages

    In July 12, The New York Times reported a news: “Inside the self-driving Tesla fatal accident”, which again caused enormous debates on whether self-driving cars should be legal or not.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Self Driving Cars

    1401 Words  | 3 Pages

    Another safety benefit of the self-driving car is the issue of unsafe teen drivers on the roads. In a study conducted by Sheila Sarkar and Marie Andreas, fifty five percent of 1,430 teenage drivers admitted to engaging in risky behaviors while driving (Sarkar 687). The newscast regularly reports about fatal car accidents which involved teen drivers who were racing or driving drunk. In addition, teen drivers are a novice on the road and have a learning curve, this at times can be dangerous. Self-driving cars would not have the learning curve nor would they have the urge to drive unsafe like many teens

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Autonomous Cars

    2089 Words  | 5 Pages

    Automotive executives touting self-driving cars as a way to make commuting more productive or relaxing may want to consider another potential marketing pitch: safety (Hirschauge, 2016). The biggest reason why these cars will make a safer world is that accident rates will enormously drop. There is a lot of bad behavior a driver exhibit behind the wheel, and a computer is actually an ideal motorist. Since 81 percent of car crashes are the result of human error, computers would take a lot of danger out of the equation entirely. Also, some of the major causes of accidents are drivers who become ill at the time of driving. Some of the examples of this would be a seizure, heart attack, diabetic reactions, fainting, and high or low blood pressure. Autonomous cars will surely remedy these types of occurrences making us

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Driverless Cars

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    The point is that when driverless cars hit the road, the cost of a low-speed collision and saving consumers money will be reduced. In the article, “Google Driverless Cars Run Into Problem: Cars With Drivers” Slakever states that “One Google car, in a test in 2009, couldn’t get through a four-way stop because its sensors kept waiting for other (human) drivers to stop completely and let it go. The human drivers kept inching forward, looking for the advantage — paralyzing Google’s robot”(Bosker). Current drivers have never followed the rules of the road, which have made the road more prone to any accidents. Drivers have found the upper hand on not following traffic laws that makes manufacturing driverless cars more meticulous to decrease accidents and breaking traffic laws.

    Read More

  • Hybrid Vehicles and Their Effect on the Environment

    1905 Words  | 4 Pages

    Today, people use their own personal vehicles to travel more than ever before. Personal transportation is no longer considered a luxury; it is now considered a necessity. The number of cars in the United States has been growing steadily since the 1970s. The number of miles traveled by cars has risen nearly 150 percent, yet the United States population has only grown roughly 40 percent during that time (hybridcars.com, Driving Trends). Although it may seem like we are advancing into the future, in reality, we are moving backwards from the effects these vehicles have on our bodies and the environment. The pollution produced by these vehicles has brought us to the day where we must find other modes of transportation that cause less harm to the world in which we live. Advances in technology have developed hybrid vehicles to try and slow down the amount of pollution. Driving a hybrid vehicle, instead of a conventional gas powered vehicle, can reduce the amount of pollution that affects our lives and the environment around us.

    Read More

  • How Do Electric Vehicles Affect The Future Of Our Transportation?

    1104 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is estimated that there are roughly 700 million automobiles that are currently traveling the highways recurrently. Karen D. Povey (Reference), who is the author of many environmentally focused books, estimates that by 2025 the number of vehicles on the road will be well over a billion. This kind of reality makes one think about the amount of carbon pollution prod...

    Read More

  • Maglev Trains for the Future

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since 3500 BC when the first wheel was used in Mesopotamia man has strived to find better ways of transport. Since then we have slowly progressed to automobiles, trains, boats, and even airplanes, but people have always progressed. So what will be the transportation of the future? The world’s fossil fuels are dwindling. Many people are not facing what is staring them in the face. Fossil fuels will not last forever, and they are causing problems in our environments. They have made many numerous, dangerous situations that has killed many people. Scientists are trying to find renewable resources that can be used for future generations. The only problem that they will have is that this power is not exactly suitable for people’s present transportation. Even within this problem our transportation has flaws which can cause fatal accidents. So scientists are trying to come up with safer and faster modes of transportation. Maglev trains which are a very safe and efficient is a possible mode of transportation that could be used in the future.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Climate Change

    2319 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...ion free. While the technology does exist, the complete implement of zero emission transportation has to be pushed. Ones concern for their role in changing the planet must expand beyond their individual realm of influence. The education and structure of developing countries will play a key role in determining transportations future. As humans progress the flow of outdated technology sifts down through the various economies, to some the idea of transportation through the internal combustion engine is still a novel idea. For the future of transportation to remain as useful and dependable as it is today, a conscious effort must be made to correct climate change while influencing those whose are still captivated by technology and unaware of its catastrophic effects to take a new approach and enable the entire population of the world to commute with sustainable energy.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Autonomous Vehicles

    1096 Words  | 3 Pages

    Transportation is an issue the world struggles to resolve, whether it regards the environmental impacts it yields or efficiency and time in people's lives. As society's needs changes, so do the desires for changes in transportation. Companies have started and publicly released electric cars that feature auto pilot features, such as the Tesla Model S. From a surface level, these technologies shred off one responsibility from divers. From mechanical trains to autonomous vehicles, advances in transportation result in significant positive consequences. Advances in transportation should be advocated for as they have environmental benefits in terms of alternative fuel sources and promote long term economic growth through productive manufacturing.

    Read More

More about Future Self-Driving Vehicles

Open Document