The idea of self-driving vehicles raises many questions and concerns. It is a policy topic that has implications for numerous policy areas such as health, privacy, environment and urban planning, economic growth, security, and accessibility. For each of the policy areas that it will affect there will be some support for it through it’s advantages as well as some criticisms from it’s disadvantages. Starting with the healthcare sector, there has been various arguments in support for automated vehicles. One of the advantages is healthcare will be positively revolutionized, meaning with automated vehicles, it is expected to result in fewer injuries and lower costs. Motor vehicle accidents are the dominant causes of accidental injury, and they impose …show more content…
For example, if someone inside the vehicle is suffering from an illness, and is unable to drive, all they have to do is to tell the automated vehicles that they want their next destination to be the emergency. Next, regarding the environment and urban planning there seems to be more advantages than disadvantages. One of the advantages, is the impact automated vehicles will have on the environment, as they are expected to “yield significant benefits for the environment through greater efficiency and fuel savings” (Zon & Ditta, 2016, p. 12). Another positive impact that automated vehicles will have on the environment is the recovery and planning of parks and forestry due to major changes in transportation planning and the reduction for parking developments as automated vehicles will most likely drop-off passengers to destination and leave. Lastly, automated vehicles that run on electricity could decrease greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 90 percent (Zon & Ditta, 2016). At the same time, one could also make the argument that if there is an increase in vehicles as the City of Toronto projects- there will be three times as many cars on the road that can have a negative impact on the environment as more public infrastructure will be needed to control traffic
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.
Every person who has gets behind the wheel of a motor vehicle will be involved in some sort of automobile collision at some point in his or her lifetime. Traffic accidents account for over twenty thousand deaths each year and more than ten times as many injuries. There are a number of factors that contribute to these types of collisions, however, new and evolving laws can account for a large portion of successful preventable measures. In order for laws to be changed or added for the purpose of safer roads and highways, lawmakers have to first look at what factors contribute to such unsafe conditions. The top five causes of automobile accidents that cause injury are distracted drivers, driver fatigue, drunk driving, speeding, and aggressive driving. Laws can be proposed to reduce and even eliminate each of these risks.
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.
The goals behind self-driving cars are to decrease collisions, traffic jams and the use of gas and harmful pollutants. The autonomous automobile is able to maneuver around objects and create swift lines of cars on roadways (How Google’s self-Driving Car Works, 2011). The autonomous vehicle can react faster than humans can, meaning less accidents and the potential to save thousands of lives. Another purpose and vision for these cars is that vehicles would become a shared resource. When someone needed a car, he or she could just use his or her Smartphone and a self-sufficient car would drive up and pick him or her up.
The self-driving car would cause many people to lose their jobs. The careers that would no longer be needed due to the self-driving car include but are not limited to those who drill oil, taxi drivers, and personal injury lawyers. If self-driving cars were electric, oil drillers would be needed less and a majority could lose their jobs. If there’s self-driving cars, there could easily be a self-driving taxi service. If self-driving cars reduce accidents a majority of personal injury lawyers’ business would disappear. Also the gasoline industry would suffer, affecting stockholders, and there would be no need for drivers’ education
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.
Through the trials and tribulations of the autonomous vehicles of the past to the technological advancements of today and the ethical implications of future technology, one thing is certain; self-driving cars are well on their way to becoming the norm in society. Are these machines in the best interest of society? With the knowledge of these complications preceding any final products, allowing for any problems to be resolved ahead of time, one is obliged to arrive at the conclusion that autonomous vehicles will benefit future
When 2013 ended, only Nevada, California, Florida, and Michigan had made laws addressing self-driving vehicles and testing them on the road. As of this year, only Washington D.C. and Virginia have decided to start allowing public road testing of driverless cars. In the spring of 2015, Swisscom a telephone company in Switzerland was able to test a self-driving Volkswagen Passat on the streets of Zurich by the Federal Department of Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications in Switzerland. A few known vehicle companies that are now involved in making driverless vehicles includes BMW, Audi, Volvo with Apple letting their competitors know they are expanding their ideas into more technology. Some possible or future productions from specific
Indeed, major companies such as Google and BMW are currently developing such vehicles, with Google asserting that they aim to bring self-driving cars to the consumer market before 2020 (Tam 2012). Given that as much as ninety percent of car accidents are attributed to human error, a significant benefit of self-driving cars will be their great potential to reduce both serious injury and death on our roads (Kirkpatrick 2015). In Australia alone, we typically see over 1,000 people killed in traffic accidents each year, and over 35,000 serious accidents resulting in hospitalisation (BITRE 2017). With these amounts of injuries and deaths in mind, and the subsequent suffering that follows from such horrific events, the prospect of self-driving cars stands to be a significant occasion in terms of improving society and the lives of its members, not only in regards to direct harms, but also in terms of economic benefits that are likely to result from a decreased burden on public resources such as hospitals. However, although self-driving cars hold great potential for benefiting both individuals and society at large, their development raises serious ethical issues that need to be addressed before they are introduced onto our
Conventional cars release carbon emissions into the air which has proven to contribute to global warming. Global warming negatively affects many ecosystems, for example: polar bears’ habitats in the arctic regions are slowing melting and global warming may contribute to their extinction. Carbon emissions also affect the acidity, or the pH, of rainfall. An increase in pH doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but in reality it is. Let us use a typical pond as an example: If a certain type of fish can only live in water at a certain pH level and the increase in pH from acid rain kills these fish, the other fish that consumes this fish will soon have nothing to prey on and will die off as well.
Next, many people have either died or have been injured in motor vehicle accidents, each year there are about 5 million people injured in vehicle related accidents (The Environmental Impact of Automobiles). Although this all m...
Have you ever imagined how many more things you could do in your life without the burden of driving everywhere? In our modern technologically advanced society, experts are finding that we are closer to the era of self-driving cars than many of us think. Multiple car and car-driving companies have made it one of their top priorities to create a self driving car that can be used commercially within the next 10-15 years. However, there had been much debate between groups as to whether or not self-driving cars should be made for the public to use regularly. Self-driving cars should replace human drivers because of the significant amount of accidents that will never occur due to the marriage of machine and technological accuracy, the less amount
If we were to reduce the pollution and the unnecessary energy usage, that would help the environment. Cars are one of the most expensive things that we as humans own but yet, they spend over 90% of their time idling and wasting fuel (From). This is a huge waste of our natural resources. Complete autonomy of vehicles could save 5.5 billion dollars and 2.9 billion gallons in a year (Knight). Complete autonomy could also allow for four times the amount of vehicles on the road (From). Yes, this does seem like an oxymoron but having denser packed roads would allow for more usage of the road and less unused space. Yes there can be an increase of the amount of vehicles by four times but there can also be a decrease in the amount of cars by 30% because if we were to fill our cars all the way instead of wasting
That’s probably crosses every adults mind when they are driving to work. Using self-driving cars will give the adults so much more time to either relax or finish the paper that needed to be written for work. “But seriously, if we have the option of turning over the driving to a (sort of) artificial intelligence, we could put that time to use doing any number of other things, productive or otherwise” (When the self-driving car revolution comes, how will you spend your free time in your vehicle? 2017). Forgot to do something for a friend?