The Ethics of Cars without Drivers - Essay Example

Cars without Drivers Cars without Drivers Driverless cars are cars that are robotic and can operate many functions of a car without any human input; often called autonomous cars. These cars use sensors such as GPS, radar and computer vision to navigate by identifying objects like other vehicles, pedestrians, traffic lights and construction signs (Wayner, 2015). The radars are used to detect any obstructions and the cars have advanced computer systems that interpret the information from sensors to identify paths and obstacles. The cars are fitted with very detailed and updated maps of the areas they are navigating. The development of autonomous cars began in the 1920’s with the first autonomous car being launched in 1984 BY Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other companies have developed prototypes of the vehicle. The technological rush for computerised objects has led to the rapid evolution of the automobile industry. In 2013, autonomous cars were driven in a traffic jam with normal cars and the states of Nevada, California, Michigan and Florida have made legislations allowing the autonomous cars. Other countries such as Germany, France and UK are also taking steps to embrace this technological advancement The main catalyst for the development of autonomous cars is the exponential rise in road accidents that are mainly caused by human carelessness and errors. As a result, the UK government has invested over 8 million pounds to enhance research and development of these driverless cars to cause a revolution in transportation. According to Mitchell (2015), electric shuttles with no steering wheels will be launched in the summer in Greenwich, UK. Also, The Google Company is the world leader in autonomous cars research since 2010 and already tested its autonomous cars and revealed its findings to the public. However, the developers of these cars have been unable to prepare the cars for unforeseeable circumstances such as flooded roads and other rare incidences, making the cars not as safe. The Google developing team stated that they will need to record these situations as they arise and make precautions for them. Google is hopeful that in the next five years, the driverless cars will be much safer than human drivers and will be the new mode transportation for people. Various modifications such as WI-FI connections are expected to be added. The V2V (Vehicle-to-vehicle) WI-FI radios would enable cars to warn each other of any situations that could be dangerous. The chief executive of Peleton Technology, Mr Josh Switkes states that basic safety information such as the direction a vehicle is travelling in will be conveyed using the V2V system even for heavy trucks (Mitchell, 2015). The future seen through the eyes of autonomous cars will consist of many changes to the norm we are used to. There will be a lot of legislations passed to adapt such as an outlaw of human-driven cars ins some highways and cities. Also, car manufacturing companies will have to share their mapping data, and drivers might have to be a subscriber to their manufacturing company’s mapping systems for regular updates. The major benefactors of autonomous cars are the IT developers as they will have a wide array of innovations to develop that will complement these vehicles such as advanced cloud systems and sensor systems. ADVANTAGES The major advantage of autonomous cars is the fact that many lives will be saved, and injuries prevented from road accidents. Morgan Stanley research states that introduction autonomous vehicles will reduce road accidents by almost 90% and save more than 30,000 lives annually. 30,000 lives constitute over a third of lives lost in the USA annually. Also, the disabled and the elderly will be able to navigate and transport themselves without human aid; therefore being an ideal product for enhancing their quality of life (Mitchell, 2015). Secondly, research shows that over 30% of traffic is as a result of looking for parking spots. Nevertheless, autonomous cars do not need parking and will greatly reduce traffic jams in cities. The non-existence of parking spots in cities will add extra lanes to streets and a lot of land from the elimination of bus stations will be available for real estate expansion. Transportation facilities will be faster, efficient and more convenient and ambulances and fire trucks that arrive on the scene on time. Morgan Stanley research shows that cars are the second most expensive assets people own and yet they only use cars 4% of the time. The elimination of the need for car ownership will increase the disposable income per person and will pave the way for more innovation, jobs and economic stability (Mitchell, 2015). Thirdly, autonomous cars are estimated to reduce the impact of global warming and dependence on fossils fuels since they will be electrical and only require charging. Statistics shows that trucks, minivans and SUVs emit over 17.6% of greenhouse gas emissions and autonomous cars will reduce over 15.9% of the overall emissions. The elimination of use for gasoline will reduce the need for mining and environmental degradation caused by oil excavation (Wayner, 2015). Fourthly, Dave (2014) states that the automotive technology will enhance competition and a quest for relevance for companies causing them to move from just manufacturing vehicles but also to offer other services to governments. OEM (Original equipment manufacturers) might have to partner with hardware, software and research providers to cope with the competition. Recently, BMW is partnering with Baidu (China’s top search engine company) to do automated prototype trials in Shanghai and Beijing. Also, the embrace of autonomous cars could also revolutionise the financial service sector as well as insurance. More financial products will be developed such as the ability for a car to pay for fuel or tolls will emerge and also information security. Also, since road accidents will reduce, there will be no need for automobile insurance. However, the autonomous cars are not 100% free from accidents. Therefore, insurance companies will have to develop new ways of establishing liability, underwrite and market their insurance products (Dave, 2014). Finally, Autonomous vehicles will cause a need for more rapid data transfer, larger storage capacity and more advanced sensor systems. As a result, mobile service producers can benefit by creating new products and services to sync with the car computer systems. Cloud systems and It services will be the norm so as to store all the information from the automated cars and design more sophisticated road networks. Disadvantages Autonomous vehicles also have many disadvantages that have delayed their development. In the near future, the major disadvantage experienced will be the job losses.According to The Bureau of Labour Statistics, taxi and bus drivers account for over 6 million jobs, and over 3 million people work in the dealing and maintenance of vehicles. However, major public transport companies such as Uber might have to embrace autonomous vehicles and face out the bus and taxi drivers. According to a Colombia University research, Ubercompany is planning to replace all of its drivers with autonomous vehicles. Uber would only need 9,000 autonomous cars to replace all the taxis in New York City. Unfortunately, over 10 million jobs will be eliminated. The convenience of autonomous vehicles as public transport will largely reduce the number of car purchases even for private use (Wayner, 2015). Secondly, many major companies such as General Motors, Toyota and Ford might fall out and become bankrupt by 2030 due to the decrease in purchases of normal cars. Already, they have already geared to produce millions of cars and might not be flexible enough to adapt to the change brought with autonomous vehicle technology. Also, industries such as the motor vehicle insurance market, finance market and even parking services might collapse due to the sudden drop for their demand for services. Society will see the facing out of rental car companies and normal public transportation (Dave, 2013). Thirdly, it is hard to have perfect software. Since autonomous vehicles may have standardised software for navigation, a simple software flaw could cause catastrophes all over the world. Also, malicious internet hacking could cause the systems to malfunction and cause accidents. Developers have not yet made the allowance for sensor failures; when the sensor does not give any information or gives incorrect information. As a result, maintaining autonomous vehicles and safeguarding them from such failures and malicious hacking could be too expensive in the long-run (Wayner, 2015). In addition, the facing out of old transportation techniques with autonomous vehicles might cause a lot of land pollution through disposal of vehicles parts considered obsolete. Many cars will turn into scrap metal and be dumped all over. Likewise, many countries whose livelihood is oil supply like Libya and other Middle Easter countries will suffer many losses with a drop in demand for oil (Fischer-Wolfarth & Meyer, 2014). In conclusion, it is evident that autonomous vehicles are the future and no one can evade this technological advancement. The advantages of cost management, saving lives and reduction of global warming outweigh the disadvantages. For autonomous vehicles to be viable and user friendly in the future, it is important that key players such as car manufacturers, it providers and government to collaborate with each other. Also, they should share information necessary for the development of the vehicle. The development of advanced cloud and IT systems as well as new financial and insurance products needs to take less time for the new invention to work. Although autonomous vehicles are a disruptive innovation, with time, people will adapt to the change and embrace it. It is safe to say that whereas many companies and industries will be faced out, many more new industries and innovations will arise as a result of the technology. References Patrick, L. (2013). "The Ethics of Autonomous Cars". The Atlantic. Print M. Dave, T. Praveen, H. James. (2014). Realising the benefits of autonomous vehicles in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/Local_Australia/PDF/Accenture-Realising-Benefits-Autonomous-Vehicles-Australia.pdf Mitchell, M. 2015. Autonomous Vehicles: No drivers required. Retrieved from: http://www.nature.com/news/autonomous-vehicles-no-drivers-required-1.16832) Wayner, P. (2015). Future Ride v2: 99 Ways the Self-Driving, Autonomous Car Will Change Everything from Buying Groceries to Teen Romance to Surviving a Hurricane to ... Home to Simply Getting from Here to There. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Fischer-Wolfarth, J., & Meyer, G. (2014). Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications 2014: Smart Systems for Safe, Clean and Automated Vehicles. New York, NY: Springer. Read More