Evans 1

Makell Evans
Tamara Webb
English 1010
April 29 2015
The New and Helpful Self-Driving Vehicles
The Advancement of technology has always been pushing toward creating robots and
other machines that can be run without the aid of a human. Google is creating a self-driving
vehicle that will give new independence, improve the economy, and help people be more
efficient. However, people have concerns about the safety of such vehicles. Rest assured safety
will be a top priority as google nears their release, which is predicted to be within the next
decade.
There are many people that depend on others for their transportation for various reasons.
According to Ronald Bailey, Self-driving vehicles will increase the mobility of the disabled,
elderly, and those too young to drive. For most of us we can go visit a friend, pick something up
from the grocery store, or maybe just go out to eat. Dependent people can now do these things on
their own without the help of others.
Google had some elderly test drive their self-driving car. They were all so amazed by the
car and all the things it could do. Annie a test driver, You dont have to do anything. It knows
when to stop and it knows when to go (Urmson). Judy, It drives better than my car (Urmson)!
Walt explains, My wife Linda likes it, because it slows down before it goes on a curve, and it
accelerates in the curve. She always asks for me to slow down on the turns (Urmson). Nick

Evans 2

explains, The human feeling of it is very well engineered and it is very smooth. Theres nothing
that makes you feel the least threatened. Its impressing, Im in love with this concept (Urmson).
Steve says, A lot of people can go places where they need to go and do thing. Theres a big part
of my life that is just missing, theres a big part of my life that self-driving cars will give back to
me (Urmson). This is some of the feedback that the elderly gave to the testers of the self-driving
vehicle. It shows that even the elderly are excited for this car to come out.
There are numerous ways that self-driving vehicles can be used to help the economy.
Self-driving vehicles no longer need a driver and large corporations can take advantage of this.
Freight trucks can now run 24 hours a day as there is no need to stop for rest or food. We no
longer need to worry about truck drivers falling asleep on the road, and the sensors on the vehicle
will keep the truck in its making it more pleasant to drive by.
Currently most vehicles dont run for the majority of the day, they either sit in a parking
lot or a driveway. Since you can tell your car where to go after you reach your destination, there
will be less cars in the parking lot. With self-driving vehicles you can now provide a more
economic means of taxi service. Once the rider has reached their destination the taxi can now
move on to service other patrons.
The self-driving vehicle will also help us be more efficient. While we are in our vehicle
getting to our destination, we can be using this time to do unfinished business. I am going into
computer science and with my job and a lot of other jobs you can use the time that you are stuck
in traffic to be working on your career. If you do have a job that you cant do in the car you could
use that time to be getting your sleep in, watching movies on your devises, and many more
things that could be done sitting down. When you are on a road trip with your family or friends,
you wont have to take time to pull over to switch drivers because the driver gets too tired. You

Evans 3

would be able to turn around and talk to your family or friends, or if you have a baby that is
crying you could turn around to help them without possibly getting in a crash. Now when your
kids want to go to a friends house you can send them alone in your vehicle while you are
sleeping, catching up on laundry, or just doing daily chores around the house.
Arent you tired of stopping at almost every stop light? In many cities, traffic signals are
now coordinated to improve traffic flow or to respond to real-time traffic conditions (Teigen,
Anne, Wheet, and Rall). Wouldnt that be nice to pull up to the intersection and just be able to go
when there is no cars going the other way? When the majority of people own self-driving
vehicles this is how it is going to be.
Many people are worried and scarred about self-driving vehicles, but a lot of the
technology that we rely on now people use to think was scary to when they first came out. Some
of the things that people are wondering about is who will pay for the crashes that they so rarely
get in. What will happen if the computer system inside the vehicle crashes? Will we be able to
use our phones and other devices?
Bailey suggests that whoever purchased the vehicle would be the one paying for the
crash. The self-driving vehicle has cameras all around it so when they do get in a crash the police
knows exactly what happened so that no one can lie about how the crash happened. Right now
there are only four states that allow self-driving vehicles to drive in their state. When they passed
the law of self-driving vehicles they also passed the law that if you are in a self-driving vehicle
you can use you phone and other devices.
The self-driving vehicles have cameras where our blind spot is, and a is car-to-car
communication system (Fitzgerald). Per Liljas introduces the features of the self-driving vehicle

Evans 4

such as the screen that shows the route to your destination and stop and start buttons. Onboard
sensors all around the car that can detect any object within a distance of two football fields. With
the help of the sensors you wont have to spend 20 minutes just to find a parking spot. The selfdriving car knows where the closest parking spot is and the fastest way to get there. The selfdriving vehicles will help get rid of the human error, but will keep all of our instincts like
choosing the action that aims to protect their occupants (Bailey).
Ronald Bailey explains more than 90 percent of all traffic accidents are the result of
human error. In 2011, there were 5.3 million automobile crashes in the United States. In 2013
Googles self-driving vehicles completed 300,000 miles without any major accidents
(Fitzgerald). In 2014 Googles self-driving vehicles completed more than 700,000 miles with
only one accident, when a human driver rear-ended the vehicle (Bailey). If in one year a vehicle
can go from no major accidents to only one crash, (that was caused by a human) just imagine
what other improvements they are going to make with the car.
Once the superior safety of driverless cars is established they will dramatically change
the shape of the cities (Bailey). Bailey asserts because self-driving cars would be safer and
could thus drive closer and faster, switching to mostly self-driving cars would dramatically
increase roadway throughput. When almost everyone in the United States has self-driving cars
they will change the lanes to be closer so we could have more lanes. This would help traffic flow
better, because there would be one more lane on each road.
The self-driving vehicle is programmed to follow all the traffic laws. Once most of the
vehicles are self-driving vehicles we wont need to hire as many cops. All the vehicles will be
obeying the rules so all they need to look for is lights that are out, vehicles that arent insured,
and other things that the owner of the vehicle is in charge of.

Evans 5

One of the features on the self-driving vehicle is the senor. When the tester is in the selfdriving vehicle they have a laptop, and everything that the car is based upon shows up on the
laptop. The car knows the difference between a vehicle, object, and a pedestrian. The pedestrian
shows up as a different color than the vehicles do. When there is a pedestrian on their bike, the
sensor knows the different hand signals and will slow down so that they dont hit the bicyclist.
The sensor can also detect the difference between diesels and other vehicles. When they are
driving by a diesel they give the diesel more space. If the diesel is on the right side of the vehicle
they would scoot to the left of their lane, but they are still in their lane. Ronald Bailey explains,
The car includes a camera that provides a pretty comprehensive record of what happens while it
is driving. The car also can detect the traffic flow, and it knows the fastest route. When there is
construction on the road it knows what way to go.
The vehicle relies on commercial tech. When a self-driving vehicle is driving next to or
by another self-driving vehicle they have car-to-car relationship. The blind spot that we humans
have will no longer be a blind spot because the self-driving vehicle has cameras where the blind
spots are. One of the things that the self-driving vehicle relies on is the cruise control that we
have had for a while.
When people go out late and they get drunk and they dont know what they are doing,
they wont be a threat to us anymore. When they get done partying they can get in their car and
tell it where to take them. With drunk people their vision isnt clear and the objects look further
away than they actually are. With the self-driving car it cant get drunk so it will always be safe
to drive.
This new self-driving vehicle is going to make such a big change in everyones life. In a
decade almost everyone is going to either have one or they will know someone who does have

Evans 6

one. Wouldnt you feel so much better about your parents or even your kids getting in a car if
you knew that they were in good hands? Now when you send your kids on the bus or even when
you are driving you know that they will be safe and that they wont get in a terrible accident that
could result in death or serious injury.

Evans 7

Works Cited
A First Drive. Dir. Chris Urmson. Perf. Annie, Judy, Walt, Linda, Janet, Ethan,
Nick, and Steve. Google Self-driving CAR , 2014. Test Drive.
A Ride in the Google Self Driving Car. Dir. Priscilla Knox. Perf. Priscilla Knox.
Google Self-driving Car, 2014. CARS .
Bailey, Ronald. The Moral Case For Self-Driving Cars. Reason 46.4 (2014):
18 19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Fitzgerald, Michael. 15: Self-Driving Cars Hit The Road. Discover 34.1 (2013):
35. Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Teigen, Anne, Alice Wheet, and Jaime Rall. Driving The Future. State Legislatures
39.3 (2013): 12-15. Academic search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.

Liljas, Per. This Is Googles Most Detailed Prototype Yet Of A Self-Driving

Car. Time.Com (2014): 1.Academic Search Premier. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.