The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on Society

In order to grasp the idea of the development of the research question, one must comprehend the manner in which autonomous technology operates. One would find it hard to envision if he approached any bustling road and came across an autonomous vehicle safely navigating past cars nearby and pedestrians, while driving through the streets and obeying the rules of the road. Hitherto, autonomous technology makes the imagination a reality.

According to an Automotive News article, Google has altered one Audi TT and six Toyota Prius cars; this formed a modest squad of self-driving models (2011). The article continues to say that the vehicles have recorded thousands of miles in the roads (streets, highways, interstates, etc.) of California, though a monitor rides in the vehicle prepared to intervene any time it is necessary (2011). The models are furnished with a scanner on top of the roof of the vehicle, which measures the distance of nearby objects, according to Kathy Sykes, who is a physicist and broadcaster for Google (2012).

An additional system integrates GPS knowledge and lasers on the front bumper and sides of the vehicles, which calculates “acceleration and rotation” (2012). Every evidence regained by the resourceful lasers and cameras onboard are processed in the vehicle’s intelligent computer system and software (2012). “The system can make choices swiftly and controls the steering, acceleration, and braking with implausible speed,” says Kathy Sykes (2012). Society will sooner or later taste the innovative transportation as no one has ever witnessed before, as this exciting technology advances.

Several others comply. Autonomous vehicles’ systems will feel their surroundings and will drive to its destination “without assistance from a human,” according to scholars for the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (Kim, Yoon, Yu, & Kang, 2012, pg. 761). The researchers proceed to state that the combined systems are made up of “navigation technology for location approximation; control technology for regulating direction and speed; sensing technology, for observing the nearby setting; and cognitive/decision making technology to figure vehicle movement” (Kim, Yoon, Yu, & Kang, 2012, p. 761). Autonomous vehicles will effortlessly drive their way through stream of traffic on roads with the control and knowledge of their clever computer systems.

However, the advanced systems in the vehicle don’t just suffice. Highway and road infrastructures surrounding the driving vehicle will also contribute. A futurist speaker for Google, Thomas Frey defines the current highways like this: “…highways today remain as little more than dumb surfaces with virtually no data flowing between the vehicles and the road itself,” (2013, p. 38). Despite that, roads are envisioned are to be much more than their current condition. The goal is for the roads to communicate with the cars and the cars with the road. Some believe in allowing self-driving vehicles to communicate with one another. That way, in such a scenario, multiple vehicles could work in harmony to allow a safe pathway out for the car in peril. This would, of course, require extreme rapidness in communication between the vehicles. It would significantly lower the chances of an accident occurring, but not prevent it in every case.

Nevertheless, Frey elaborates on this situation: “As cars become equipped with driverless technology, important things begin to happen. To compensate for the loss of a driver, vehicles will need to become more aware of their surroundings. Working with cameras and other sensors, an onboard computer will log information over 10 times per second from short-range transmitters on surrounding road conditions, including where other cars are and what they are doing. This constant flow of data will give the vehicle a rudimentary sense of awareness,” (2013, p. 39). Consequently, in time, society will get a feel of the roads and their cars flowing information from the road to the vehicles and vice versa.