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Jesus Muniz

Trishia Briones

English 1302 227

3 April 2022

Self-Driving Vehicles

Introduction

Autonomous vehicles (AV’s or self-driving vehicles) are characterized by their ability to

drive without the need for human input. Thus, such innovation has brought about skepticism

amongst the public regarding the safety and implementation of AV technology. Most people

debate whether or not AV’s can actually be a safer option given that a computer lacks human

intuition and is vulnerable to machine errors which can place the passenger at risk. Despite said

uncertainties, it is clear that AV’s (autonomous vehicles) promise many beneficial features which

include improved road safety, improved public and private transportation, and reduced

greenhouse gas emissions. In recent years, AV technology has seen exponential advancements

aiming to guarantee the safety of the passenger and the surrounding environment. Nonetheless,

it's difficult to certainly assess what kind of impact AV’s will have over the coming years since

they are under continuous experimentation; however, this following excerpt will discuss the

impacts of AV’s based on current promising research in favor of autonomous technology.

Road Safety

Currently, most vehicle accidents are a result of human error such as drunk driving,

texting while driving, and slower reaction times compared to a computer. For instance, in an

article by Singh et al., “According to World Health Organization’s report on road traffic injuries
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(February 2020), there are approximately 1.35 million deaths per year, caused by road crashes.

Most of these crashes can be attributed to human error” (3). Meaning that a majority of road

accidents will be avoided with the introduction of self-driving vehicles. Although many argue

that electric vehicles are vulnerable to machine error, this percent of error can be controlled with

the addition of road traffic signals that communicate with AV’s apart from their sensors. For

example, in a research study by Jayaraman et al., in order to identify a level of trust between

AV’s and pedestrians, the authors discovered that “our findings demonstrate the importance of

incorporating the presence of traffic signal when understanding trust in the AV and help to

identify generalized situations during which pedestrians trust AVs” (12). Thus, with the

integration of AV’s in public roadways will not only be safer for other vehicles but for

pedestrians as well. As far as trust in AV’s, most people are hesitant to trust self-driving vehicles.

Accordingly, in a survey by Scheble et al., “Participants who were in favour or had positive

emotions towards self-driving cars were mainly driven by trust in technology and their

experiences with ACC-Features” (3). This proves that over time people will eventually learn to

trust AV’s out on the road. Moreover, AV’s have “safety improvements, which they suggest could

offer reductions in fatality rates of up to 99%, and improvements in congestion, due to shorter

headways, coordinated platoons, and more efficient route choices” (Grual, et al., 26). Since AV’s

have built in sensors, gps, cameras, and computer based systems, with such technology AV's are

able to communicate with other vehicles and the environment which can improve the rate of

traffic flow reducing reckless driving. Overall, AV’s are currently proving to be beneficial

considering their ability to improve road safety through integrated systems.

Improved Transportation
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It is evident that one of the major methods of transportation are attributed to privately

owned vehicles. Thus, transportation can be difficult with people of older age, lesser income, and

disabilities. Nevertheless, with a large-scale use of AV’s public transportation will be more

readily available similar to Uber and taxi services. Likewise, as stated by Hancock et al.,

“Driverless cars can provide mobility to those who cannot physically drive, such as children, the

disabled, or the frail elderly” (2). On the other hand, some argue that jobs in the transportation

business may be compromised such as truck and taxi drivers. However, more jobs will also be

made available from the fact that AV’s would need maintenance and supervision. In addition,

systems and computer engineers would see a rise in job applications for the construction of AV’s.

Similarly, as explained by Hancock et al., “However, jobs in the new transportation sector may

well diminish, as they have in other sectors radically changed by automation and now emerging

machine autonomy. It is true that some jobs will be created, e.g., in maintaining such fleets of

autonomous vehicles, and access to employment for those in economically depressed regions

could be improved with AV transport services” (7685). Furthermore, in an article by

Martinez-Diaz et al., “More and more, and particularly young people find it unnecessary even

inadvisable to own a vehicle for many reasons: private vehicles typically spend more time parked

than in motion, their acquisition and maintenance costs are high, parking and congestion in urban

areas is highly problematic” (279). Since AV’s can work as a personal taxi service, such

innovation can reduce parking lot buildings and lots as well as free up curb space. In doing so,

traffic due to searching for parking spaces and parking curb congestion can be diminished with

the adoption of AV’s. In addition, “the average car is parked at home for 80% of the time, parked

elsewhere for 16% of the time and is only on the road for 4% of the time. This implies that on an
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average a car spends approximately 96% of the time in parking” (Singh, et al., 2). AV’s can

revolutionize methods of transposition, remodel city infrastructure, and reduce traffic congestion,

all the while creating jobs and improving road safety.

Environmental Benefits

One of many factors in greenhouse emissions can be due to traffic congestion as well as

overcrowding of highways and city streets by vehicles. Therefore, self-driving vehicles can make

driving more efficient, through their smart integrated systems, and thus reducing fuel

consumption. However, some argue that since transportation may increase due to the fact that

more will be able to move around like mentioned in the previous paragraph, self-driving vehicles

will still release more if not the same amount of carbon emissions as automated vehicles. For

instance, in an article by Brown et al., increase in the use of AV’s will eventually decrease fuel

prices thus, “reductions in liquid fuel prices led to increased consumption, and the resulting

increase in air pollutant emissions offset a portion of the potential air quality benefits of

automation” (1). Although this is one possibility, AV technology will eventually develop into a

carbon-free sustainable energy since currently most AV’s run on electric motors. This means that

over the coming years, electricity generation will produce less and less gas emissions thus

making it a viable option for a climate-friendly environment. Correspondingly, in an article by

Lajunen “Automatization provides a higher degree of optimization of mobility solutions and

leads to greater flexibility, takes advantage of the ‘sharing concept,’ and provides solutions that

have lower greenhouse gas emissions” (2). Considering that AV’s have built self-learning AI

(artificial intelligence), over time AV’s will continue to improve on optimal travel routes, travel

speeds, and overall driving efficiency which will reduce CO2 emissions and gas consumption. In
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addition, present-day AV’s that are being test-driven are fully electric vehicles that don't release

any greenhouse gasses. Likewise, in an “optimization model to evaluate the impact of AV

scenarios on electricity generation for a case study of Austin, TX. They found that with heavy

sharing and electrification, AVs had the potential to reduce CO2 emissions from both

transportation and electricity generation” (Brown, et al., 3). Furthermore, in a research model

investigating the greenhouse gas emission of AV’s by Brown et al., they found “both increases in

per capita miles traveled and reductions resulting from shared mobility and less searching for

parking, also dramatic fuel savings” (3). As stated earlier, the improvement of transportation as a

result of AV’s reduction in traffic congestion will ultimately lessen the carbon footprints of gas

vehicles. As a result of AV’s electric motors and built-in driving efficiencies, transportation will

see impacts in the control of gas emissions and energy use thus positively affecting the

environment.

Conclusion

All in all, although AV’s have surrounding controversy such as being liable to machine

error and distrust among the community, AV’s can drastically improve the environment,

transportation, and road safety. That being said, even though AV technology is still being

developed, it is important to start assessing the problems that arise with the adoption of AV’s to

ensure a smooth transition into autonomous technology and that the beneficial promises are

applied to future transportation methods.

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Works Cited

Brown, Kristen E, and Rebecca Dodder. “Energy and Emissions Implications of Automated

Vehicles in the U.S. Energy System.” Transportation Research. Part D, Transport and

Environment, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2019,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6961821/.

Gruel, Wolfgang, and Joseph M. Stanford. “Assessing the Long-Term Effects of Autonomous

Vehicles: A Speculative Approach.” Transportation Research Procedia, Elsevier, 15 June 2016,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146516300035.

Hancock, P. A., et al. “On the Future of Transportation in an ERA of Automated and

Autonomous Vehicles.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 16 Apr. 2019,

https://www.pnas.org/content/116/16/7684.

Jayaraman, Suresh Kumaar, et al. “Pedestrian Trust in Automated Vehicles: Role of Traffic

Signal and AV Driving Behavior.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 28 Nov. 2019,

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2019.00117/full.

Lajunen, Timo, and Mark J. M. Sullman. “Attitudes toward Four Levels of Self-Driving Technology

among Elderly Drivers.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD,

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682973/full.

Martínez-Díaz, Margarita, and Francesc Soriguera. “Autonomous Vehicles: Theoretical and

Practical Challenges.” Transportation Research Procedia, Elsevier, 30 Oct. 2018,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352146518302606.
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Schneble, Christophe O., and David M. Shaw. “Driver's Views on Driverless Vehicles: Public

Perspectives on Defining and Using Autonomous Cars.” Transportation Research

Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Elsevier, 12 Aug. 2021,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198221001524.

Singh1, Sehajbir, and Baljit Singh Saini1. “IOPscience.” IOP Conference Series: Materials

Science and Engineering, IOP Publishing, 1 Jan. 2021,

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/1022/1/012028.