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AV Essay

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However, AVs are not just an uncomplicated technique which can be operated by a single system, as they require the integration of various complex systems to function. For example, radar, laser light, GPS, and computer vision must cooperate precisely to establish an accurate map which could show the relative position between vehicles and the surrounding environment. With this map information high-speed computers plan all the detailed operations rapidly by variety of rigorous algorithms, and also continuously monitor all circumstances and updates instruction. In fact, several prototypes, such as Google self-driving car, Mercedes Distronic Plus, Audi AI, and Tesla Autopilot have already integrated these kinds of technologies. Generally, AVs …show more content…

According to the statistics of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were 32,166 fatal crashes which resulted in the death of 35,092 lives only in 2015 in US and that is 10 times more than the September 11 attacks. Estimated 94 (±2.2) percent of these fatal accidents have resulted in driver-related critical reasons (Singh, 2015), and the number of death has not decreased much since 1994 (NHTSA). Moreover, globally 1.25 million lives were lost because of road accidents in 2013 (WHO, 2017). These statistics point out that the actual situation of road safety is extremely severe, yet governments seem not to place emphasis on it. However, Fleetwood believes that AVs might be able to save up to 90% of fatal accidents only in the USA by removing human errors (2017). Furthermore, they could save 10 million lives per decade which would be the most momentous success of public health in the 21st century (Fleetwood, 2017). According to the data of NHTSA, the causes of these fatal crashes are 18.1 percent of speeding driving, 11.1 percent of drunk or drug driving, 7.1 percent of failure to yield right of way, 6.9 percent of failure to keep in proper lane, 6.7 percent of distracted (phone, eating, talking, etc.) and various traffic violations of improper driver behaviors which at least over 40% in total (2015). Apparently, all of these behaviors would be eliminated by utilizing driverless system, so compared with human-drivers, AVs should be quite trustworthy.

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