2A.) people make behind the wheel” (NHTSA,
2A.
) Autonomous vehicles, also known as driverless cars or self-driving cars, arevehicles that can guide themselves without human conveyance. AutonomousVehicles have many intended purposes including increased mobility, increasedsafety, increased customer satisfaction and reduced crime. Autonomous vehiclesfunction through many different means radar, image, ultrasonic, and Lidarsensors. Along with these sensory devices, advanced control systems through anintegrated computer interpret information identifying navigation paths,obstacles, and road signage. The artifact presented shows multipleadaptations of autonomous technologies to serve intended purposes listed above.
2C.) “In 2016, motor vehicle-related crashes onU.S. highways claimed 37,461 lives.
Our research tells us that 94 percent ofserious crashes are due to dangerous choices or errors people make behind thewheel” (NHTSA, 2017). When you take humans out from behind the wheel, then human error would be inexistent. Therefore, intheory, serious crashes would decrease by 94 percent. Although it would beincredibly difficult to replace all cars with autonomous vehicles, the more onthe road, the better. Self-driving cars are safer for everyone, not only thepassenger of the car but everyone on the roadway. People would have to worry aboutsomeone not paying attention, speeding, or drunk driving if they were beingtransported by an autonomous vehicle. On the other hand,there are some disadvantages of the autonomous vehicle revolution.
As we haveseen in the past year more industries, including shipping, agriculture, andhuman transportation jobs are being replaced with autonomous vehicles. “Whenautonomous vehicle saturation peaks, U.S. drivers could see job losses at arate of 25,000 a month, or 300,000 a year” (Goldman Sachs Economics Research,2017).
At that rate, many people would be unemployed leading to many familiesneeding new sources of income. 2D.) Autonomous cars use many different sensors formany specific purposes, according to 2025 AD. Ultrasonic sensors emit wavesthat imitate echolocation used by bats. The waves sense and detect objects in aclose proximity to the vehicle and relay that back to the car to be processed. Radarsensors are used for long and short range scenarios, to reveal objects and whatspeed they are traveling at.
Image sensors act aseyes, allowing range detection and thegeneration of images. The last sensor commonly used is LIDAR. LIDR uses a low-intensity laser to scan the environments tocreate a three-dimensional image of the surroundings of the vehicle. Lastly, carsuse cloud data, to anticipate what the sensors can’t see at the moment. It alsoreports road closings or other road safety hazards.
Even with all of the safetyof the sensors, hacking is a still a possibility that could lead to devastatingresults. Last year in Las Vegas, a group of Chinese security researchers wereable to remotely control a Tesla Model X, enabling the brakes, opening thedoors, play music and the flashlights.The group called it the “the unauthorized Xmas show.
“(Elizabeth Weise,2017) If autonomous vehicles can be somewhat easily hacked, manufacturersshould be very worried about the danger that could be presented to theircustomer, and take as many precautions as possible before releasing thesoftware to consumers.
