Non-Newtonian Innovation Accidents are a serious problem in the world. There are roughly “1.3 million people [who] die in road crashes each year”, according to the Association for Safe International Road Travel. Along with that, “20-50 million are injured” from accidents yearly. I myself have been in an accident and it was terrifying with the sounds of scraping metal and the anticipation of pain. Myself and the other driver were not injured, luckily, and there was only minor damage to both vehicles. This got me thinking; what if I could find a way to make the probability next to zero for injury and damage to the car? There were several ways for me to look into this problem. One way was to design a car that would be self-aware and be able to prevent accidents. However, there were already “smart cars” at the time that …show more content…
For example, the material would be made of shorter polymer chains that would separate and stretch under pressure, but be sturdy under normal amounts of pressure. The material however would have to be able to withstand high speeds so it wouldn’t breakdown while driving. Since silly putty is flexible and able to mold back into its physical shape by force, it could be used in this plastic. Also, if a car was hit and bent inwards, once the material was no longer experiencing the force, it would expand back to normal with no body damage, similar to toothpaste. The mechanical pieces of the car would be protected by the material, as well as the user, since the force would be spread throughout the car and limit the force on crucial parts like the engine, transition, and gas line. The glass in the car would still be shattered and need to be replaced. However, the exchange for roughly $3,000 in glass, which could be paid for by insurance companies, for a person’s life is worth the cost
In a car crash, the more weight there is, the risk of injuries drops (Williams, May Twenty-second, 2015). In most semi truck accidents (about seventy percent of semi truck accidents), when only the semi truck and trailer alone are involved, there are no deaths. But when another vehicle (such as a car, van, or pickup truck ) is involved, about ninety-eight percent of the time there is at least one fatality, which is really low compared to some other means of transportation (such as a train or an airplane) (EJustice, 2012).
Since the industrial revolution, the field of engineering has allowed society to flourish through the development of technological advances at an exponential rate. Similar to other professionals, engineers are tasked with making ethical decisions, especially during the production and distribution processes of new inventions. One field that has encountered ethical dilemmas since its inception is the automotive industry. Today, the dawn of the autonomous, self-driving, vehicle is upon us. In this new-age mode of transportation, humans will be less responsible for decisions made on the road. With the wide adoption of autonomous vehicles, there exist a possibility to reduce traffic-related accidents. Even though computers have the ability
GM is already producing the technology catering to the autonomous driving system in instalments as each new car produced, displays a prototype of a sophisticated “assisted driving” feature. Drivers of the Cadillac ATS sedan, a mid-sized car with a driver assistance, can now leave it to drive itself and maintain a safe distance in steady traffic. It can also measure a parking space and steer itself into it, read traffic signals, and warn the driver if he breaks the speed limit. Emergency brakes that overrule the driver’s actions in the case of an accident, add to special features that will be seen in automatic cars.
Imagine that your car could detect hazardous roads before you could sense it? A feature that provides this type of protective driving exists within European cars. This valuable safety feature that is offered in European cars i...
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.
Automobile accidents happen all around us. We see cars in the middle of the road after just rear ending each other. We see cars driving around town with big dents in them. Do you ever stop to wonder how car accidents happen? Physics; that’s how they happen. There are several aspects of physics that apply to automobile accidents.
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
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
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
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.
The force and impact of collisions have truly been based off the material that cars have been built with. In the past, cars were built with heavy parts and steel as it was believed to be a safe way to protect occupants in the car as the structure would be more solid. Although, this is not the case since with a heavier and stronger body, the time of the collision would be very minimal which would overall increase the force of the impact based on the car’s specific velocity and mass. On the other hand, modern cars utilise a specific feature called a Crumple Zone. The Crumple Zone is implemented in cars through the way they have been shaped with the metal. The metal in the outside of cars have been heated, cooled, and molded in a way to be able
The force of the impact can be greatly reduced even with a slight reduction in speed. Crash test results show the occupant injury and death can be reduced by designing vehicles with softer front end structures. Statistics show the risk of being killed in a motor vehicle on US roads has decreased each year.
one car. The liklihood of being in a collision any year is only 1/5 people.The
As Newton’s first law, “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.” The passengers and the car will keep moving at the same speed until an external force by car accident. When the car crashes into the objects, the passengers still keep on moving at the original speed because of inertia, which leads to lots of casualties. In the late 1930s there was no reliable data on how the human body responds to the sudden, violent forces acting on it in an automobile accident. Furthermore, no effective tools existed to measure such responses.
Starting with newton's law, newton's first law of motion tells that if you are moving at a specific speed, you will continue moving at this speed indefinitely unless an external force acts on you to stop. Now if we relate this to the situation of sitting in a moving car. You are moving at the same speed as the car you are in even though you it appears to be stationary relative to the car. So taking the case of a car accident again say that the car comes to a sudden stop, you will continue to move forward at the same speed that the car was moving at. This is why every time we want to stop a car we go slower first so that your body can slow down with the vehicle. But if the car stops suddenly such as when you hit another car in an accident your body has no time to slow down and continues to move at the same speed, as the car was moving before its sudden stop such as hitting the dashboard or the windscreen in the car. You can obviously help prevent injury by ensuring you car has the safety features we discussed earlier such as airbags and seatbelts. Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if you were to be thrown from a vehicle and hit something such as a tree or pole this object that you hit will hit you back with a force of the same magnitude as the force you