Autonomous car

Module P00990 Assignment 1: Literature Review Title of chosen subject: Autonomous Cars Student Name: Martins Vallis Student Number: 16038556 MSc Course: MSc in IT Systems Administration and Management Word count: 1,751 Date of submission: 04/11/2016 Abstract This report focuses on the increasing use of autonomous cars and the changes that have been brought by these cars in the automobiles industry. Over the past few years, researchers, commentators and other experts on this subject matter have been explaining the advantages and disadvantages of autonomous cars. Due to the increasing popularity of those cars in today’s economy, it is argued by several researchers that there's a requirement for more researches and studies on the way to enhance the effectiveness and also the use of those self-driving cars. In this regard, this paper will emphasize on various key themes including the safety, regulations and the types of infrastructures required to support the effective use of these autonomous cars. This report will also cover various aspects of this industry by seeking to understand the gaps and limitations of this industry. To achieve this, the report will underpin the arguments with real facts and evidence from different researchers, reports as well as the peer-reviewed journals. Table of Contents Introduction 1 The history of autonomous vehicles 1 The impact of self-driving cars to the automobile industry 2 The societal impact of autonomous cars 3 The environmental impact of autonomous cars 3 The Economic Impact of autonomous vehicles 4 Limitations of the self-driving cars 5 Conclusion 5 Bibliography 6  Introduction Recently, the autonomous cars gained an increasing popularity whereby a significant number of autonomous cars are being developed across the world, most particularly in the United States and Europe. Different studies pointed out that this technology will have a significant impact on the society, environment and to transportation industry as well (Gora & Rub, 2016, p. 5). This is because the change in the transportation industry will create the need for new and more advanced transportation infrastructures (Gora & Rub, 2016, p. 11). This has been the greatest concern of governments and policy makers as it requires a certain level of expert people and the ability to keep up with the pace in which the new sophisticated technologies evolve. This paper, therefore, is a literature review on the autonomous cars taking into consideration different factors influencing the use of these technologies and the consequences caused by these technologies. The history of autonomous vehicles Even though the awareness of driverless cars increased over the past few years, the idea of autonomous vehicles has been around for centuries (Pettersson & Karlsson, 2015, p. 2). As indicated by historians, the history of autonomous vehicles can be traced back to the 16th century when Da Vinci created the first self-moving cart that could move without being pulled or pushed. This type of vehicle was considered by many as the world’s first robot. This is due to its design and technology that allowed it to move along a predetermined path (Pettersson & Karlsson, 2015, p. 11). During the modern days, the autonomous vehicles occurred in the United States when Francis Houdina’s radio controlled ”Phantom-auto” amazed the city as it crossed the city with no one driving it. It is since 1958 that researchers started to experiment how these technologies can be used in a more advanced way (Kim, Rajkumar, & Jochim, 2013, p. 14). For example, the first autonomous car to travel a long distance was managed to make 1,000 km between Paris and Munich in 1994. Between 1997 and 2015, this industry has seen an outstanding growth that in 2012, Nissan managed to design a more reliable and trusted a self-driving car that can drop off passengers, and that has the capability to park itself and then return to pick up (Kim, Rajkumar, & Jochim, 2013, p. 16). It is likely that these technologies will continue to grow and to develop. Researchers have argued that in 20 years to come, at least 75 % of the vehicles on the roadway will be driverless. The impact of self-driving cars to the automobile industry The autonomous vehicle technologies have disrupted the industry with the current nature of the technology used in the auto industry. This is because these technologies have not only changed the consumers’ opinion on the current vehicles but it has also presented significant influence on the automobile companies. Since the automobile industry highly relies on innovation, it is quite challenging for the existing companies to move with the pace at which innovation evolves in this industry (Hars, 2016, para 1). As a result, companies are forced to put a huge amount of capitals in research and development. In addition to that, the pressure that is being put on companies operating in this industry is enormous and therefore, automobile companies may fail to meet the customers’ expectation as far as innovation is concerned. Another key impact of this technology is a disruption. By definition, disruption can be referred to as the emergence of new innovation that changes how business is done within a given industry. This means that a disruptive innovation can create new value network and market hence disrupting the existing markets and forcing the existing companies out of business. Within the automobile industry, disruption can occur under the form of new technologies in production and supply chain (Hars, 2016, para.2). As a matter of fact, the first companies in this industry are adapting their business model to the self-driving cars. For example, companies such as General Motors invested billions of dollars in purchasing self-driving technologies. On the other hand, BMW has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars in developing a self-driving car that they expect to release in the next five years. Based on the above description, it is obvious that companies are competing on enhancing their technologies putting much emphasis on the autonomous vehicles. This indicates that within the next few years, manual cars will no longer be in the market (Hars, 2016, para.2). This quick advancement in self-governing vehicles innovations will significantly affect the general public from multiple points of view as discussed below: The societal impact of autonomous cars In consideration of the incidence of these autonomous vehicles technologies to the community, it is important to assess this impact from a broad perspective. The first key concern of these technologies consists of safety issues. Safety issues encompass the reliability and the ability of these technologies to ensure safe driving without crashing. Since it is said that the human error causes 90% of road accidents, it is important to assess the ability of these self-driving cars to take control and avoid the same mistakes (Collett, 2016, p. 22). A recent report from the Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicated that the primary focus of the automakers should be on the systems that enable these vehicles to be partners in driving. Experts believe that the safety would be enhanced by the monitoring system intended to operate as an extra set of eyes. Apart from safety, it is said that the autonomous vehicles will reduce the cost of transportation. Normally, transportation is one of the major expenses that the households incur within the United States. Studies pointed out that these driverless cars would reduce the transportation cost down by more than 50 %. This has an economic impact to the household because it will increase the households’ saving (Collett, 2016, p. 25). People will be able to use the surplus of money on other lucrative projects hence enhancing their well-being. It should be noted that the household income and saving have a great role to play in the economic development and the amelioration of the community life standards. On the other hand, the autonomous vehicles will affect the urban transportation companies in many ways (Collett, 2016, p. 26). This means that these technologies will disrupt the public transportation industry because it will be cheaper for passengers to use these autonomous cars than using the public transport. The environmental impact of autonomous cars Given the type of technology and benefits of this type of vehicles to the environment, there are many possibilities that these self-driving vehicles will have a positive impact on the environment. First of all, it is revealed that the autonomous cars will reduce the energy consumption by all most 90% depending on the type of technology (Worland, 2016, para.2). Given the effect of energy used by the human activities to the environment, it is important to mention that the contribution of autonomous cars in reducing the energy consumption will save millions of lives (Jackson, 2004, p. 5). According to studies, the majority of diseases and natural disasters that occur and take many lives are as a result of the air pollution and human activities. Moreover, in today’s economy, all activities are done using a certain amount of energy (Worland, 2016, para.3). Further, the trending movement and pressure from the public sector and non-profit organizations will influence automakers to opt for green business practices (Worland, 2016, para.5). By doing so, automakers will develop and manufacture cars that are energy efficient, and that uses green energy hence enhancing a healthy living and reducing the rates of killer disease such as cancers and other diseases that occur as a result of air pollution (Jackson, 2004, p. 21). However, if the automakers and governments fail to work in partnership to develop energy efficient cars, this may increase the energy consumption by as much as 190% hence worsening the current degrading environment conditions. The Economic Impact of autonomous vehicles The Economic implications of this technology are that governments will strive to construct new infrastructures that are compatible with these technologies. This will enhance the practicability of the roads hence enhancing the transport sector. It should be noted that the transportation industry is one of the main contributors to the economy growth (Shladover, 2016, p. 14). Also, countries with the most advanced transportation industry are the most likely to attract potential investors and tourist due to the accessibility of different places in a short time at an affordable price (Hariss, 2014, p. 2). The autonomous cars will also help in reducing the traffic hence enhancing the punctuality in all aspects of the economy. As far as energy consumption is concerned, researchers pointed out that the consumption of energy by an American average citizen is approximately 18 tons of natural resources per person per year (Hariss, 2014, p. 3). Therefore, the decrease in energy consumption would play a significant role in the economic development of a country. Limitations of the self-driving cars There are limitations that could hinder the development of self-driving technologies in the current ever changing economy. Some of the limitations of the self-driving cars include people’s perceptions, enormous and huge requirements both to users and automobile companies as well as the required investment in terms of infrastructures (Ackerman, 2016, p. 31). As mentioned above, the safety concerns and the reliability of these autonomous vehicles constitute the greatest concern both for users and policymakers. This may hinder the adoptability of new models of transportation. On the other hand, due to the enormous requirements in terms of infrastructures, governments and policymakers may not give it a priority hence affecting the adoptability and introduction of these vehicles (Ackerman, 2016, p. 35). It should be noted that such vehicles need specific types of infrastructures in terms of roads, controlling systems and also governments are required to develop new control systems that could help them monitor these vehicles according to the traffic laws (Shladover, 2016, p. 22). Conclusion This paper assessed the development of autonomous cars technologies and the cultural and economic implications of these technologies. In addition to that, the report highlighted the impact of self-driving cars to the current automobile industry stating that these technologies will bring significant changes within this industry as far as production methods and demand are concerned. The report also indicated that apart from having an environmental impact, the autonomous cars will have an economic impact in terms of cost saving and new infrastructures. Bibliography Ackerman, E. (2016). Lidar that will make self-driving cars affordable. IEEE Spectrum , 53(10), pp.14-14. Collett, L. (2016). Were self-driving cars really about to kill someone? Significance, 13(4), pp.10-10. Gora, P., & Rub, I. (2016). Traffic Models for Self-driving Connected cars. Transportation Research Procedia, 14, pp 2207-2216. Hariss, J. (2014). Consumption and the Environment. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from 1st ed [ebook] Jonathan harris: Available at : http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/frontier_series/Consum-Pt8.pdf Hars, D. (2016). Impact of driverless cars | Driverless car market watch. Retrieved October 22, 2016, from Driverless-future.com: Available at: http://www.driverless-future.com/?cat=26 Jackson, T. (2004). Negotiating Sustainable Consumption: A review of the consumption debate and its policy implications. Energy & Environment. 15(6), pp.1027-1051. Kim, J., Rajkumar, R., & Jochim, M. (2013). Towards dependable autonomous driving vehicles . ACMSIGBED Review, 10(1), pp.29-32. Pettersson, I., & Karlsson, I. (2015). Setting the stage for autonomous cars: a pilot study of future autonomous driving experiences. IET Intelligent Transport Systems, 9(7), pp.694-701. Shladover, S. E. (2016). The Truth About "Self-Driving" Cars. Scientific American, 314(6), pp.52-57. Worland, J. (2016, Sept 8). Self-Driving Cars Could Help Save the Environment - or Ruin It. It Depends on Us. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from TIME.com: Available at: http://time.com/4476614/self-driving-cars-environment/ Literature Review Autonomous Cars 9