ATILIM UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES

Instructor: Müge Umaç

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF

AUTONOMOUS CARS

Ali AKBULUT/ Mukhlis YULCHIBEKOV/ Eren Berkant DULKADİROĞLU

Faculty of Civil Aviation

Department of Pilot Training

Ankara,
Spring, 2022
 ABSTRACT

The purpose of this report is to examine autonomous cars and it develops a comparative

evaluation between the advantages and disadvantages of autonomous cars. The first section of

the report is devoted to, the advantages of autonomous cars such as increasing safety and

being a facilitated way of transportation are presented. The second section of the report is

allocated to three major disadvantages of autonomous cars, which are imperfect technology,

lack of infrastructure and ethical problems, are introduced and the result of each disadvantage

is described in detail. It has been determined that autonomous cars should not be used to solve

world’s traffic problem until these problems are solved. Future researches should build on the

conclusions of this study to look at the interconnected mechanical, social, ethical, and

geopolitical difficulties that come with a major growth in the use of autonomous cars around

the world.

2
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………...ii

I. INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………4

II. ADVANTAGES OF AUTONOMOUS CARS……………………...............6

2.1. Increased Safety…………………………………………………………………..6

2.2. Accessibleness of transportation………………………………………………...6

III. DISADVANTAGES OF AUTONOMOUS CARS…………………….......8

3.1. Imperfect technology……………………………………………………………..8

3.2. Lack of Infrastructure…………………………………………………………...8

3.3. Social Problems…………………………………………………………………..9

IV. CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………...10

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………...11

3
I. INTRODUCTION

Autonomous cars are one of the most discussed technological developments of today.

It is thought that there will be many changes and transformations with autonomous cars. The

issue of how beneficial or harmful this change and transformation will be on which subject is

debatable. In this article, we will talk about the benefits and harms of autonomous cars. Some

people claim that by using autonomous cars, lots of problems like traffic accidents or

insurance costs can be solved. However, using autonomous cars has a lot of hazardous

consequences such as privacy and security concerns like hackers and terrorism. In addition to

this, autonomous vehicles will increase traffic congestion, thus carbon emissions will

increase. Also, autonomous cars require advanced infrastructure, and it is a crucial problem

for poor countries. Therefore, autonomous cars should not be considered as a reasonable

alternative to classic cars unless it is made completely safe. The possibility of autonomous

cars was recognized in the late 1920s or early 1930s; it impressed engineers because it

allowed people who had to spend their time on the road by driving a vehicle to use this time

by reading a book, coordinating their work in the form of a car office or similar way (National

Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA], 2021, para. 7). Hence, companies started

to invest a lot of money on autonomous cars and the first self-sufficient and truly autonomous

car appeared in the 1984 with Carnegie Mellon University’s project (O’Callaghan, 2020,

para.5). After this development, lots of autonomous cars appeared in lots of different

countries. However, more than 5000 autonomous car accidents have occurred to date showed

that autonomous cars are too risky.

This report has been written to compare the advantages and disadvantages of

autonomous cars to prove that there are too many vital things to sacrifice in order to use

autonomous cars. Despite its advantages, autonomous cars can badly harm the humanity.

4
To support the contents of this report, some articles, internet sources and books have been

used. This scope of this report is restricted with the comparison of advantages and

disadvantages of autonomous cars in order to prove that the disadvantages of autonomous

cars overweigh its advantages. The first part of the report focuses on the advantages of

autonomous cars. The second part explains the disadvantages of autonomous cars. The

conclusion verifies why the disadvantages of autonomous cars overweigh the advantages.

5
II. ADVANTAGES OF AUTONOMOUS CARS

Today’s world, cars have become an integral part of human life. Cars that provide

transportation of people from one point to another have been changed and improved every

day with the development of technology. Thanks to the development of technology, one of the

last points that cars have come to is that cars are autonomous. Some people claim that, in the

future all cars can become fully autonomous. At this point, advantages of autonomous cars,

especially, increasing safety and accessibility of transportation will be presented.

2.1 Increased safety

Sometimes people can be careless while driving, or they can break the rules by

increasing their speed to catch up somewhere. This situation leads to accidents that result in

many injuries and deaths. “The Tri-Level Study of the Causes of Traffic Accidents published

in 1979, found that "human errors and deficiencies" were a definite or probable cause in 90-

93% of the incidents examined.” (Smith, 2013, p.2). Since autonomous vehicles are

technologies aimed minimizing human error, they include systems such as road support

systems, anti-collusion systems, and speed stabilization systems. By using these systems in

the cars, “Autonomous cars will at least eliminate the likelihood of human errors that account

for 94% of traffic accidents” (Hussain & Zeadally, 2019, p.7). In addition, with the high

security systems used in cars, the car has been made more difficult to be stolen and safety has

been increased.

2.2 Accessibility of transportation

Autonomous cars facilitate transportation and save people time because autonomous

cars do not need people while driving. In this context, for the people who can drive a car, it is

ensured that the driver can take care of other things while the car is going on its own, for

6
example for the people with disabilities who cannot drive a car, they can go from place to

place without needing anyone by taking the car on autopilot. This situation applies not only to

people with disabilities. “Like safety and congestion, travel behavior may also change

significantly. Avs may provide mobility for those too young to drive, the elderly and the

disabled, thus generating new roadway demands.” (Fagnant & Kockelman, 2016, p.5). In that

way, this situation can make our lives compassable.

7
III. DISADVANTAGES OF AUTONOMOUS CARS

Although there are advantages of autonomous cars, it should also be noted that there

are disadvantages of it. The most noticeable ones are imperfect technology, lack of

infrastructure and social problems.

3.1 Imperfect technology

Technology has significantly changed areas such as health, education and law in our

lives, as well as greatly influenced the field of transportation. The development of

technologies used in cars has increased rapidly from the past to present and autonomous cars

have been one of the last points where it has come from. On the other hand, technology has

not always been perfect, as well as its adaption to autonomous cars have not been perfect.

Systems adapted to autonomous cars with technology can lead to many accidents, as they do

not have the ability to think and make decisions like the human brain. For example, disruption

of the navigation system or remote hacking of the car and seizure of the control are some

possible dangers. According to Krasniqi and Hajrizi (2016), because of the lack of a good

software, Tesla accident happened in May 2016 where Tesla’s car failed to distinguish a white

tractor- trailer crossing the motorway against a bright sky (p. 272). The example shows us that

the autonomous cars which have problems or imperfect technology can harm people or other

vehicles. In this context, autonomous cars which have imperfect technology, they can even

cause the death of people.

3.2 Lack of Infrastructure

As the human population increases day by day, the increase in people’s income levels

or need to easily move from place to place has led to the fact that everyone has one or more

cars. In this case, the possibility that autonomous vehicles may decommission if adequate

8
infrastructure is not provided should not be ruled out. “The technologies that will require the

most infrastructure changes are traffic sign recognition, automated assistance in roadwork and

congestion, auto-valet parking and driverless cars.” (Kockelman, 2016, p.24). This can

manifest itself mainly as physical or legal infrastructure, problems such as accidents and

burning of vehicles may arise if physical infrastructure conditions such as roads are not

suitable for autonomous driving, autonomous cars’ margin for error cannot be provided

because the behavior of non-autonomous cars are unpredictable. Legally, the lack of the

necessary infrastructure, comes across a question mark about how to follow the procedure for

autonomous vehicles at the time of a possible accidents or deaths.

3.3 Social problems

Autonomous cars, can cause social problems in people’s lives. These risks and

challenges highly effects human behaviors. “The autonomous car technology brings

significant benefits such as improved safety, traffic management, time management, ease of

access and so on. Similar to other new innovations, the autonomous car is also susceptible to

social risks and challenges.” (Hussain & Zeadally, 2019, p.32). With the introduction and

spread of autonomous vehicles, the need for manpower has decreased in driving, as well as

the need for drivers who drive public transport, taxis has decreased. This situation, on the one

hand, has increased the labor force in the manufacturing part of autonomous vehicles, while

on the other hand, it restricted another area of labor. For example, while the employment

created in the productions factories of autonomous cars is increasing, the employment of

drivers and people who earn money by driving may decrease. This leads to social injustice of

income and ineffective distribution of labor force. Also, ethically, cars cannot predict human

behavior because they do not have the decision-making mechanism like humans, and this can

9
lead to problems among humans in their social life. It can cause conflict on the traffic and

happen discussion between autonomous cars and standard vehicles.

IV. CONCLUSION

The findings of the report show that there are several advantages of autonomous cars

that cannot be ignored such as minimizing human errors and to use the time spent in traffic

with something else. On the other hand, there are crucial disadvantages of autonomous cars.

Disruption of the navigation system and remote hacking of the car and seizure of the control

are serious disadvantages that can badly harm the humanity. In addition to this, advanced

infrastructure which is needed for autonomous cars is a crucial problem for poor countries.

Most important of all software cannot predict human behavior unlike us, it is another

disadvantage that affects people. Based on this evidence, autonomous cars do not stand out as

a well-reasoned option to solve world’s traffic problem since autonomous car accidents might

cause irremediable effects. Social injustice of income and ineffective distribution of labor

force put the countries under tremendous pressure. As a result, the disadvantages of

autonomous cars have bigger impacts than its advantages, so the disadvantages of nuclear

energy overweigh its advantages.

When all these findings are taken into consideration, it could be recommended that

people could be informed about the consequences of autonomous cars and government

policies about using autonomous cars could be altered. Using autonomous cars must be

avoided until these problems are solved. Moreover, future researchers should also think about

the interconnected highly specialised, commercial, ecological, and legal difficulties that will

face a significant increase in the use of autonomous vehicles over the world.

10
 REFERENCES

O’Callaghan, J. (2020, September). Five things to know about: making self-driving cars safe.

Horizon the EU Research &Innovation Magazine, para.5. Retrieved from URL

https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-magazine/five-things-know-about-

making-self-driving-cars-safe

National Highway Traffic Safety Adminisration. (2021). The Evolution of Automated Safety

Technologies. Para.7. Retrieved from URL

https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety

Smith, B. W. (2013). Human Error as a Cause of Vehicle crashes. Para.2. Retrieved from

URL http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2013/12/human-error-cause-vehicle-crashes

Kockelman, K., Boyles, S., Stone, P., Fagnant, D., Patel, R., Levin, M. W., …Sharon, G.

(2016). An assesment of autonomous vehicles: traffic impact and infrastructure needs- final

report. The university of Texas at Austin center for transportation research. 5-24. Retrieved

from URL http://library.ctr.utexas.edu/ctr-publications/0-6847-1.pdf

X, Krasniqi., & E, Hajrizi. (2016). Use of IoT Technology to Drive the Automotive Industry

from Connected to Full Autonomous Vehicles. 49(29), 272. Doi:

10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.11.078

11