How will self-driving cars change our lives and solve ethical dilemmas?

Self-driving car technology is advancing rapidly, heralding an era where cars will be able to reach their destinations without human intervention. While a variety of sensors and deep learning are being utilized to increase safety, addressing challenges such as ethical dilemmas remains a major issue. The commercialization of fully autonomous vehicles will change the way we think about transportation and bring us a more efficient and safer future.

 

When I leave my house, my car pulls up to my driveway and greets me. I get in, tell it where I’m going, lie back and watch TV, and before I know it, I’m at my destination. This is not the distant future. In a Tesla Motors car, you can turn on Autopilot, enter your destination, and the car will drive itself without you having to get in the driver’s seat. This is self-driving technology. It’s not perfect yet, and it only works in limited situations, but recent advances in technology are making this once-imaginary technology a reality.
Aside from the body and powertrain, self-driving cars are almost like IT devices. They use multiple sensors to replace human vision. The Tesla Model S, which currently has the most advanced self-driving features, has a front-facing camera, forward-facing radar, ultrasonic sensors, and GPS. The front-facing camera is the closest thing to the role of the human eye. It can identify objects in front of it in high definition. It can distinguish colors, so it can see traffic lights, signs, the brake lights of the car in front of you, and reverse. However, because they rely on light, they have problems when the weather is bad or when headlights from the other lane make it difficult to see. Forward-facing radar and ultrasonic sensors help with this. Forward-facing radar, like a speed gun, uses the Doppler effect to identify moving objects and calculate their speed. They’re great for keeping your distance from the car in front of you, and are also used in blind spot warning systems and lane departure prevention systems. They’re weatherproof, but they can’t identify stationary objects. Ultrasonic sensors use ultrasonic waves to identify objects around you. They are used secondarily because they are not precise and cannot identify objects moving at more than walking speed. They are used in low-speed collision avoidance systems and self-parking features. GPS tells the self-driving car where it is. It uses a database of maps to see what roads, buildings, etc. are around its current location. It’s immune to weather and obstacles, but it can’t be used in tunnels or underground where satellite signals don’t reach.
These sensors receive information about your surroundings, which is then analyzed by a computer to steer the car software. It basically steers itself towards its destination. It maintains the direction and speed of the car based on the surrounding road conditions and traffic signs. It also performs automatic lane changes and overtaking based on the speed of surrounding vehicles. Warns you of possible unexpected collisions and automatically performs evasive maneuvers if you don’t react quickly enough. The dashboard displays the current speed and status of the car, as well as recognizing nearby objects and road conditions. At its core, the software is driven by algorithms that are inputted by the developer, but these days, the algorithms are constantly evolving and improving as they learn from the many self-driving cars around the world using deep learning, such as AlphaGo. This gives developers the flexibility to react to unforeseen situations, and the cars are becoming more and more reliable with each passing day.
There are ethical dilemmas that come with operating an autonomous vehicle. If a self-driving car is traveling at high speeds and sees five children in front of it, and the car is already unable to stop and has only two choices: hit them head-on and kill them, or swerve sideways and crash the driver into a wall and kill them, what choice should it make? To a third party, saving the younger and larger number of children may seem like the ethically better option. For the driver, the priority is to live. Insurance companies want fewer people to die. It’s impossible to align all of these different interests. Worst of all, if self-driving cars were programmed to allow drivers to choose to die, no one would buy them. This ethical dilemma must be solved before self-driving cars are commercialized.
Fully autonomous vehicles will change the face of our future. Today, when drivers own and drive their own cars, they are not just a means of transportation, but can be used to express wealth and social status. However, when autonomous vehicles are commercialized, the idea of owning a car will likely disappear, and it will be rented for a fee and used only for transportation. At some point, cars may become just a means of transportation for most people. The network of autonomous vehicles will eliminate car-to-car accidents completely, and other accidents will be significantly reduced from what they are today. It will also eliminate congestion and allow us to travel faster. With less travel time and the ability to do other things while traveling, individuals will be able to live more efficient lives. The overall cost of goods will be lower, especially if it takes less time to transport goods, and the overall cost of logistics will be lower due to cheaper labor. This is why many people refer to the commercialization of autonomous vehicles as a transportation revolution.
Most automotive companies are working with tech companies to develop autonomous vehicles, which will be their biggest market in the future. Deep learning is accelerating the pace of autonomous vehicle development. We will soon be able to enjoy these tremendous positive changes that autonomous vehicles will bring, and as autonomous technology becomes more advanced, the quality of human life is expected to improve significantly. Furthermore, self-driving cars will also revolutionize urban planning and infrastructure. Road designs will become more efficient and safer, and fewer parking spaces will be needed, allowing for more green and public spaces. More than just a revolution in transportation, autonomous vehicles will have a profound impact on our living environment and social fabric.