Yet another big revolution, in addition to the enormous technological development wave, was in the transportation industry. Nothing is more widely discussed on this topic than autonomous vehicles, commonly called AVs.
Self-driving cars could improve road safety, lighten the driving load, reduce fuel use, and provide transportation to older and disabled people without adding congestion. However, implementing this method presents many challenges.
“Approximately 1.19 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes.” (WHO)
When we focus on the benefits of self-driven cars, the most crucial thing is road safety because most road accidents have happened due to drivers’ carelessness, sleepiness, or alcoholism. Self-driven cars have developed with highly advanced technologies such as sensors and cameras. These sensors provide the vehicle with all the information about the obstacles very quickly, even at night. Lidar is the tool that fires laser pulses to get the details of an object. Lidar provides a detailed profile of the object.
Why do people say self-driven cars are very effective? Self-driven cars can reduce traffic. These vehicles can communicate with each other and with traffic management systems.
With today’s manual vehicles, some people, including the elderly and disabled, can’t drive. Thus, driverless cars will improve mobility for many people. Additionally, it will be more convenient to ride in autonomous vehicles, even for good drivers.
In addition, businesses can achieve cost savings by reducing labour costs in transportation. Additionally, the environment and sustainability have much to gain with self-driving cars; they use less fuel and would most likely not contribute to many emissions of greenhouse gases.
Five primary levels of automation are associated with self-driving cars: driver assistance, partial automation, conditional automation, high automation, and Full automation.
Nowadays, automotive companies have invested in innovations for self-driving cars. Among the most popular are Tesla, Waymo, Uber and Ford. Already the most popular, Tesla’s Autopilot system features Level 2 autonomy, promising to raise the bar via over-the-air software updates.
Technologies in self-driving cars are improving daily; as a result, advanced sensor systems, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and V2X Communication will hugely influence self-driving cars.
Based on the impact of self-driving cars, implementing these technologies would involve many problems and limitations. Self-driving vehicles’ infrastructure is based on advanced technology, including sensors, so if the technology fails, there are bound to be immense problems.
The emergence of self-driving cars raises many complex legal and ethical questions. Imagine a moment when a crash is simply inevitable. The artificial intelligence running the car at that instant has to decide in milliseconds whether to save the passenger or save a pedestrian first. This raises a complex scenario probing liability and responsibility, issues not yet resolved by law. These debates are pretty essential and need to be invited by our intellects.
Implementing self-drive cars shall integrate cohesively into the traffic with ordinary vehicles and traffic control systems, a factor likely to lessen driver job opportunities. More importantly, people should trust the technology of self-driving cars before using them.
However, implementing self-driving cars in the future world of transportation would profit and turn into a revolution.
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