Discuss and analyse the social and economic impacts of using conventional vehicles over the driverless cars. [In about 300 words]
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Answer:
We are sitting in an era, where we are talking about cars that will drive by itself, analyse traffic and take every decision without or with minimum human intervention. Is this a boon or a bane? Experts believe that it is going to be a mix of both.With technology evolving at a fast pace, the future of driverless cars looks bright and may become a complete reality in few years.
Driverless truck running in Australia
You may be surprised, but in Pilbara, Western Australia, heavy-duty trucks are already gliding along the dirt tracks with no driver at the wheel. These autonomous trucks are helping workers in Pilbara’s mines. So far, around 50 of the driverless trucks have driven millions of kilometres.
These autonomous haul trucks has the potential to introduce safety benefits by removing people hazardous environments; increasing the predictability and productivity of haulage operations and reducing the labour intensity of future mining operations.
To ensure that the driverless cars are safe, the technologists, automotive manufacturers and the government need to work closely to build robust vehicle and an ecosystem.
Sensors will play a key role in deciding the fate of driverless cars. Simply knowing where the roads are isn’t enough for a robotic car — it needs to be able to detect and avoid obstacles like other cars and the significantly less impact-resistant pedestrians and cyclists.
A central controller that uses algorithms to process the sensor data and convert these into vehicle actions is likely to form the operating system or “brain” of the self-driving vehicles. Experts believe that there will be various kinds of sensors inside a driverless car.
For example, there will be sensors to determine signals, to determine distance from other vehicles on road and adjust speed and accordingly and a lot more to help the car take decisions on its own
Zero Defects & Zero Fatalities
Automotive Innovation is all about Zero Defects & Zero Fatalities. In auto Industry, irrespective of business potential, you cannot play with human life.
A true driverless car has to be 100% human mimic brain to be successful in assuring ZERO fatalities on roads. Human brain is considered as most sophisticated machine which can take in a split second decision in unpredictable crisis situations.
Imagine an ambulance suddenly moving and requires attention, imagine police chasing a theft car, imagine accident brewing upon intersection. One would say all such situations would need a human brain to intervene and take control but what if it can be replicated by technology?
In fact, most of the technology needed for such a vehicle already exists. It’s just a matter of putting it all together, getting the legislation in place to deal with it and then persuading the public to accept the idea of “driverless” motoring.
Drivers make split-second decisions based on instinct and a limited view of the dangers around them. The cars of the future - those that can drive themselves thanks to an array of sensors and computing power - will have near-perfect perception and react based on pre-programmed logic.
While cars that do most or even all of the driving may be much safer, accidents happen. Apart from Safe driving vehicles one more things that that requires a debate is liability during accidents. This is an area where the entire world needs to have a consistent framework on traffic regulation around Automation driving.
Few elements which will impact the future of driverless cars in India are: Infrastructure: The entire road infrastructure (lanes, traffic sigh/ duration) etc. needs to be standardized for full enablement around the globe, specially, in developing countries like India, where there is scope to build smarter road infrastructure and cities.
Cost
Cost will be a major barrier for mass adoption especially in developing countries like India and automakers yet do not have an indication of how much it would eventually cost to a consumer.
Personalization: True Driverless cars should take instructions from driver in their native language and detect it.
The driving experience: People buy cars for “driving pleasure” and leading brands use taglines like “Ultimate Driving Machine” and ‘First man, then machine’. How a driverless car (probably without steering) would provide the driving pleasure.
Though a distant reality, but a decade from now, you might just be sitting in a driverless car and seeing it taking swift turns, running past a motorcycle at the speed of 90 km/hr and doing much more while you sit back and relax.
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