Self Driving Cars: Argumentative Essay

“We see automated mobility as a service”(Jon Walker).

Self-driving cars? doesn't seem impossible to drive a car without human beings but it is not. Self-driving cars are those cars that sense the environment and don't need humans to get operated. Humans don’t take part in driving. An individual doesn’t need to sit in the car or control the car.

“My opinion is it’s a bridge too far to go to fully autonomous cars”(Elon Musk).

These cars are very helpful and work properly without even the presence of drivers. (SAE) The society of Automotive Engineers introduced 6 levels of driving in an automatic car. These levels are approved by the Transportation Department of the U.S. government. Self-driving cars can drive in all situations. Self-driving cars are on Level 3.

‘People are now paying for robot rides.

According to reports, self-driving cars can increase the economy of the globe by $7 trillion and they will save thousands of lives in the next decades. Some people will get benefit from these cars but some will face loss. Taxi drivers, transporter, and gas stations will face losses. In the initial days of self-driving cars, people called it “horseless carriage”. First, ever driverless cars were in the Air Force base that was outside Los Angeles. In 2009 Google launched its driverless car with the help of the team DARPA challenge. These cars were tested on the toughest roads of California without human involvement. After that Elon Musk announced that the self-driving system will be introduced in Tesla.

“If you have a fully autonomous car that talks to other cars and traffic signals, then it can drive more smoothly, much better than a human can and there will be fuel economy benefits coming out of that (Dave McCreadie), Ford Motor's general manager of electric vehicle infrastructure and smart grid.

In 2015 many scientists started working on this project. Companies like Mercedes, Tesla, Nissan, General Motors, and Ford invested billions to improve the quality of their self-driving cars. Every company claimed about the improved system of radar, lidars, cameras, Maps, and data management.

“The question remains if the assumptions are correct. First, we have to develop the technology, and once we can prove that it works, then we will study how to use this technology to accomplish efficiency”.

How did they work?

Self-driving cars use hardware and software to drive on the roads without any input from human beings. The role of hardware is to collect data and then send it to software that compiles and organizes the data. In a software system, through a machine learning algorithm and complex lines of code, the input data is processed. The complex lines of code are trained in real-world scenarios. The center of self-driving cars is machine learning technology. The algorithm of data processing is getting bigger with time. This system is having goals and it does the work very efficiently. The technologies used in these cars are highly advanced because companies can't risk the lives of their customers. The hardware is almost the same in these cars but the software changes with time. The companies update their software for better results.

'People are always driving somewhat inefficiently because they are constantly pushing the accelerator pedal and then backing off. People usually break more rapidly than would be optimal', says Dave McCreadie Ford Motor's general manager.

Camera: Cameras are one of the major tools used in these cars. Elon Musk has claimed that cameras are the only sensor technologies in those cars. The algorithm should be strong enough to comprehend the images taken from these cameras. These images are very important to drive these cars. Companies are working to convert these images into 3D actionable data. Most self-driving cars work on the system of Tesla. Tesla is having 8 external-facing cameras for all the images that are used as input.

“It should be like the Internet, where everybody wants to be able to do this”.

Radars: In all self-driving cars, radars and lidars are used. Radar can detect weather conditions and can propagate through rain and snow.

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“My goal is for General Motors to lead in safe autonomous driving”.

Lidar: Lidars are used to shoot out light and create 3D maps of the surrounding areas. It is placed at the top of the car and it spins.

The self-driving cars use GPS tracking inertial sensors and ultrasonic sensors to get complete pictures of the activity of the car. All self-driving cars need computers for the operating system. Ordinary CPUs are not used in these cars. They use GPUs and Graphical ProcessingUnits.Tesla is having NNA, a neural network accelerator chip. These chips have extreme power of processing and handle real-time processing.

“You can sign up for mobile service and get a pickup truck for going to the hardware store, an SUV for going to the mountains, and a cozy one for going to work. By 2030, not many people will own any cars at home”.

Future of Self-driving cars:

Due to human errors, 93% of car accidents occur. Most people don't approve of self-driving cars because they feel that these cars are dangerous but it is not true. These cars are safer than normal cars.

“The impacts if you look into full vehicle automation could be huge (Jeff Gonder).

These cars are revolutionizing the travel infrastructure. Fully tested cars are very helpful for human development. The levels of these cars are still in the testing phase. Level 2 cars are common on roads and companies are still working on other levels. In the next few decades, self-driving cars will be common on roads and it will increase the economy globally.

“Scientists use simulation and a lot of assumptions in their models to predict what the savings would be”, Maarten Seirhuis, director of the Nissan Research Center in Silicon Valley.

Environmental impact of Self-driving cars:

“These cars are eco-made”.

The transport system is the second-largest source of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the USA. 27% of harmful cars and vehicles. 2 billion barrels of oil are used in the USA per year for transportation. Self-driving cars, there are many benefits for the environment. The emission of carbon gases will be reduced, and the use of oil will be less.

The owners of self-driving cars predicted that by 2040 they will launch 75 percent of vehicles on road. Self-driving cars can take better decisions than humans. This will avoid accidents and save human lives. Self-driving cars are better in acceleration and brakes. These cars are quick and excess driving is reduced. Companies communicate regarding this project with each other.

“You need enough critical mass and market impetus for these companies to share open data”(Jon Walker), manager of the transportation group at the Rocky Mountain Institute.

“When you look at the trajectory of autonomous vehicles, I think you can look at the trajectory of other industries whether it’s aviation, I think is a really good one to look at, and you’ll see there’s always an evolution as the technology gets better and better”.

“Amazon is serious about delivering its goods by an autonomous air force”(Steven Levy).

To sum up, everything that has been stated, self-driving cars are not acceptable for some of the people in our society but still we cannot ignore the fact that these cars are very helpful for mankind. The use of these cars can reduce the rate of accidents and it also reduces global warming. It is giving economical benefit to the world by saving fuel. Still, so much work is needed to update the system of these cars because we have only a few companies who are making these cars we need more companies to make these cars for the benefit of mankind.