Feasibility of Autonomous cars in India
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), India has been declared as a country with the highest number of accidents in the world. 430,654 people were killed in road traffic crashes in India in 2010 according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB 2010). This is attributable partly to an increase in the number of vehicles on the road, and partly to the absence of a coordinated official policy to control the problem. These numbers translate into 1 road accident every minute and 1 road accident death every four minutes. Given this scenario, I was wondering ways of limiting road accidents thereby loss of precious human lives, less crimes on violations, etc. What struck me on pondering this topic for some time was feasibility of using autonomous cars on Indian roads. While surely it could bring down number of road accidents and loss of human lives, roadmap of introducing these types of vehicles needs to be clearly drawn. Feasibility study around how to handle practical glitches like slow moving traffic, traffic rules, punishable offences, responsibility vehicle operators and manufacturers would be keen. Availability of electrical energy for operating these vehicles (which is already deficient in supply), operational approach to measure success of this mode of transport, policy changes required at Central Government and different State Governments and more importantly timelines by which all related procedures, and regulatory
Imagine being able to get into your car and simply typing in your desired destination, and then reclining your seat to watch a movie or text a friend. During this time, the car is basically driving itself. Well, soon this may be possible this invention is called an autonomous car. An autonomous car, or driverless/ robotic car, is a car that is designed to drive without human interference. Essentially, drivers can program their destination into the car’s GPS system and then sit back and relax. Some of the world’s largest car companies are currently creating autonomous vehicles, such as Audi, Toyota, Volvo, Mercedes, and countless others. The driverless vehicle is now becoming a clearer and more present reality, and has been discussed and planned for decades. The autonomous vehicle offers significant benefits, but raises many questions and difficulties.
In her article “To Hit the Road, Driverless Cars Must Be Safe, Not Perfect,” Nidhi Kalra argues that because humans are untrustworthy when it comes to safe driving, we should adapt to driverless cars. She provides three premises to support her argument. First, she presents the data of deaths and injuries that were caused by human mistakes. Second, she points out that even though driverless cars may never reach perfection, they would never make miscalculations or mistakes that human drivers make all the time, such as drunk driving, drowsy driving, or driving with distraction. Third, she argues that driverless cars offer benefits such as bettering mobility and efficiency, reducing congestion costs and land use. With these primary premises, Kalra persuades that driverless cars should hit the road one day to reduce amounts of accidents that are likely made by human drivers.
“Ninety percent of our road accidents are related to bad driving behavior; driving recklessly and speeding under the influence of alcohol, changing lanes without signaling, driving on the hard shoulder and passing through red lights.” -Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Commander in chief of the Dubai Police (Olarte, 2011). The majority of car crashes are caused by human errors, and if this proposition is implemented, the number of fatalities due to car accidents per year will dramatically plummet. In 2012, a Google driverless car had driven over 300,000 miles, with only two accidents being reported, both of which had been a human’s fault (Emerson, 2012). Autonomous cars will have quicker reflexes than humans, make more reliable judgments and will not commit silly mistakes such as texting whilst driving. As a collateral for reducing accidents, this innovation could theoretically also save the government trillions of dollars each year.
The article, “The Promise of a Post-Driver Life” states, car accidents occur every day, leaving someone seriously injured about every seven-seconds and one dead about every fourteen minutes (Humas). Surprisingly, driverless vehicles are on the rise and people do not know how to react or what to think about them. While the number of accidents on the road has increased over the years. Driverless cars could be a solution to help to mend the problem and help eliminate driver errors. Some people believe we should have driverless vehicles while others say they would be too dangerous. Many people in the United States feel driverless cars can create a decrease in the number of accidents, create a better traffic flow, and create greater mobility for those who cannot drive, while others say it would be too hazardous with possible computer malfunctions, cyber attacks, and relying on algorithms to make ethical decisions.
Many great technological feats have been accomplished in the past few years, one of the most notable would be the creation of self-driving cars. Along with the topic of what can be done with this technology, there is also the topic of what should be done with the technology from an ethical standpoint. Self-driving cars while not perfected are worth their innumerous benefits, despite the current limitations and drawbacks. Every year there are numerous incidents where the driver is responsible for a crash or even death. A self-driving car could be the very solution necessary to solving the abundance of accidents that occur daily across the nation. There are different levels of automation ranging on the amount of the drivers control of the vehicles. This technology is already being implemented in creative and helpful ways, and has been successfully tested.
Car crashes are one of the leading causes for death in many countries all around the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “About 1.24 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes.” This number is increasing rapidly and the WHO predicts it will reach 1.9 million deaths annually by 2020. To put that into perspective, that is almost like the entire population of Latvia dieing out over the course of a year because of car crashes. Speeding and driving under the influence (DUI) are two other prominent reasons for road traffic collisions. It would be close to impossible to stop all crashes, so the best thing we can do now is to do what we can in order to protect the people facing these tragic occurrences.
Many people lose their lives or loved ones in accidents involving cars and other types vehicles like semi trucks, farm equipment, construction vehicles, and motorcycles. People are involved in car accidents due to reasons such as distracted driving, drunk driving, inability to drive, driving in an unsafe vehicle. Many of the accidents can be can be prevented. There are many precautions that can be taken to decrease the amount of people hurt in these accidents. Options range from enforcing harsher laws for vehicular accident or simply making the car itself safer, and making it mandatory that vehicles are safer. As well as new laws that could created. There are many small things that people can do to become a better driver and cause less accidents.
According to today's society, we can see a drastic change in technology today. Most Americans today tend to believe that self-driving cars are going to become very widespread over the next couple decades. The purpose of self-driving cars are to dramatically reduce traffic accidents; In other words, self-driving cars will be safer and more efficient than a normal car. For example, Psychologist Peter Hancock in his article titled, “Are Autonomous Cars Really Safer Than Human Drivers” asserts that over 90 percent of car crashes in the U.S. have been due to human error. ASIRT (Association for safe international road travel) has also calculated that, “Over 1.3 million people die every year from
Since the beginning of self-driving cars which first began in 1925 with the creation of the Houdina Radio Control; a car operated by two cars, a transmitter, and an antenna, to now - the futuristic dream of these autonomous cars have transformed into the reality of cars we see now. These cars are nothing short of the new technology advances that have occurred over the past decade. However, with these advances many question whether or not these cars are ready to be sold, due to the fatal accident that occurred May 2016 involving the autonomous Tesla and a white truck. Due to the Tesla not being able to detect the white tractor because of technological issues, the tesla failed to stop, and since the driver was not prepared to steer, it lead to the fatal collision eventually leading to the death of the tesla owner. With the increase of these cars on the road, from companies like BMW, Daimler, Ford, Apple, Uber, and Google, this poses a serious threat to not only the people operating this autonomous vehicle but also to the surrounding drivers. I believe that autonomous cars should not be put on the road, and that these cars are not beneficial to the population.
With the technology of self driving cars traffic fatalities would be reduced by 90 percent. In 2013 32,719 people died in car crashes which means that using the number of fatalities in 2013 self driving cars could save 29,447 lives a year, That's nearly 300,000 fatalities prevented over a decade, and 1.5 million lives saved over a half-century.
With uprising technology, self-driving cars still need to have more research done antecedently they can be legalized on the U.S. roads. In the Newsela article by Robert Peterson, under the heading “Taking Technology Further ”, paragraph 5, stated, “As anyone who owns a computer knows, computers develop glitches. A computer glitch is annoying when it happens at your desk. It could be deadly when it happens on the highway.”. For this reason, self-driving cars can glitch just like a computer can, but the repercussion can be deadlier than if one's computer just has a virus and needs to be taken to a store to get repairs; lives cannot be repaired like a computer can. However, some can see how another may
In the recent years, the United States government has been enforcing stricter mandates on auto manufacturers to create safer vehicles, and on construction companies to create safer roadways. Matthew Jensen wrote a dissertation for the Graduate School of Clemson University titled, A Methodology for the Analysis of In-vehicle Operating Data and Design of Intelligent Vehicle Systems for Improved Automotive Safety. In his abstract, Jensen evaluated the future of vehicle manufacturing and traffic-related incidents. Of course, every year more vehicles are manufactured, which in theory means the number of miles driven in vehicles increases. He points out how the World Health Organization (WHO) found that automobile crashes was the ninth
One of the major incentives for developing autonomous vehicles is the potential impact on vehicle safety. In 2009, there were 10.8 million motor vehicle accidents in the US, resulting in 35,900 deaths (Census 2012). It’s estimated that over 90% of all accidents are due to
Google’s autonomous car had clocked up 1 million miles on public roads, and the researcher planned to do more road test in the future in order to expedite launch the Google’s car. (Protalinski, 2015) The technology of autonomous car is mature enough to use. In addition, the law for autonomous car has been already passed in serval states including Florida, Nevada, and Michigan. (Boeglin, 2015) It seems to be obviously that autonomous are coming into and bringing profound effect in our daily life. However, before greeting this revolutionary vehicle, there are several problems that need to be solved, such as ethical dilemma, liability and privacy problems. In this essay, which decision is moral in emergency, who will be responsible for an accident made by an autonomous car, and how much intimate information of owner can an autonomous car use will be discussed.
Violations in traffic laws are very common in a highly populated country like India. The conditions are even worse in metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai Bangalore and Chennai. The accidents associated with these violations cause a huge loss to life and property.