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Autonomous vehicles

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Figure 2 Waymo Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid

The autonomous vehicles seem like a technology out of sci-fi movies. With the recent developments from companies such as Tesla we might experience them in the near future.

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In the 1920s the first experiments began. However, the first breakthrough happened in 1977 by the Japan Laboratory. The car needed a specific infrastructure to operate as it used a system of two cameras and an analogue computer. While this solution was primitive in its possibilities as the car would only follow the pre-planned trial.

As of today the test are still running. The vehicles are allowed to be tested on public roads but with condition of a passenger being inside [1].

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The new technology will provide impact for such aspects of our life as:

  • Public transport – via automated buses and taxi services.

  • Cargo transportation – automated trucks.

  • Cargo ships – automated transport ships.
     

This technology has a lot to offer for environmental issues as the ‘shared’ vision might drastically decrease the amount of cars in circulation due them being used in services resembling those of a taxi. The environment would benefit of it as the decreased amount of vehicles could lead to producing less exhaust fumes in case of petrol/diesel cars and less resources consumed for powering up the electric ones. All of it combined with advancements in engine technologies in regards of making their effectiveness to consumed energy ratio more beneficial for the environment.

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While we cannot certainly claim that all the traffic problems would be resolved, the new technology will drastically decrease the number of collisions that could have been avoided by removing the human error from equation. However, this action would lead to another problem.

While the number of accidents will decrease not all of them are possible to avoid, there will be time when the machine will have to make a decision.

While we distinct human errors from intentions, the machines do not make mistakes. The actions that AI will take are hardcoded and therefore intentional. As Hussain et al [2] points out - we will have to create a system of value that the AI will be able to implement with the data provided to it. The dilemma lies in the morally grey area as none of the answers is fully satisfying as the surveys, performed by Bonnefon et al [3] show.

The other problems that may arose from the implementation of autonomous vehicles is the decline of jobs that may be automated by the new technology. The ‘shared’ car vision, mentioned by Bissel et al [4], would replace the taxi drivers as people could simply order the nearest available car as a cab service. The truck drivers would also face the consequences as they would be replaced by the highways of autonomous trucks transporting the resources from point to point. While there exists a possibility that the old jobs would be replaced with new, ‘undiscovered’ ones as Bissell et al [4] mention, they also remind the reader that such vacancies would possibly demand new skills that the newly unemployed may not have. Worth noting is the fact that such changes won’t instantly impact the society, therefore leaving time for adaptation.

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Implementation of autonomous vehicles will surely benefit our lives in the long run. However, we must put more weight into thinking of and implementing solutions in face of the new, unavoidable, problems.

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Figure 3 Waymo's self-driving car

References are presented in the Reference section. 

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