Driverless Cars Will Change Life

Hong Kong Nang Yan College of Higher Education

[pic 3]

English in the Media

2017-2018

 (GEGC02)

Final Essay Assignment

Instructor: Mr.Charles C. Chen, Jr.

Student: Lee Chun Yuen 1600093

This is the age of science and technology. The 21st century is a time when there is no falling behind and no looking back. One of the greatest boons that man has been able to benefit from this modern scientific age is machine. This age is also an age of mechanization and machines have altered the working and social lives of mankind. In the near future, artificial intelligence will be able to tasks that are currently done by humans. Man is able to get the news of the whole world right from one corner of his drawing room. After television, computers, and internet the engineers and scientists are now trying to develop driverless cars that would have multiple uses. These vehicles will be quick, smooth and safer. Driverless cars it will also help in reducing the chances of accidents on roads that has now become a major problem (Fagnant & Kockelman, 2015).

Driverless cars will surely change our lives as they will make life much easier, safer and comfortable.

This age is the age of modern scientific developments and advancements. On one hand the lives of human beings are being made easier and on the other hand, the risks to their lives are salso being increased a great deal. Just as a coin has two opposite sides, each scientific advancement and inventions that take place are also having both advantages and disadvantages as well. One of the advantages of the scientific life-saving drugs and low high birth safety has increased life expectancy and at the same time has given rise to overpopulation (Bonnefon, Shariff & Rahwan, 2016).  As the population increases, the number of cars is also increasing day by day. As a result of this; the concentration of cars on the roads is increasing and making the roads very congested. This is giving rise to the risk of accidents (Litman, 2017). Deaths due to car crashes have become one of our major problems. If one goes by the statistics, one can see that the after New York, Hong Kong lies next in terms of major road accidents and fatalities.

[pic 4]

Figure 1: Traffic fatality and injury rates

Sources: (Greenblatt & Saxena 2015)

So, one of the major reasons for concern is looking after the road safety measures. One of the major reasons for supporting the invention of self-driven cars is that most of the time, the drivers are at fault for all accidents. The drivers often feel weary and fall asleep after long hours of driving. This might make them go off track or they might end up hitting the pavements or pedestrians walking along the road (Naughton, 2018). 

One of the most important cases that is cropping up in the modern days is the drink and drive accident. There are many drivers who are just neglectful or are illiterate and do not really care about the traffic rules or are in a rush and thus end up in creating accidents.

 Another major disadvantage is that the normal cars also cause a large-scale pollution that hampers the environment a great deal. Self-driven cars will be using eco-friendly things like clean energy fuel, which will make sure that the level of emissions in the atmosphere is less. So, it is for this reason that there is the need for developing self-driven cars. The technology of these self-driven cars will also be such that they will help in making the cars aware about any other objects around it like any other vehicles or any other pedestrians (Jo et al., 2015). The software installed in the cars will be such that the cars will receive the signals and avoid obstacles. So, there will be more space on the road and at the same time, a number of vehicles can also be operated at the same time.

Another major advantage is that the companies will be using technologies that will assure that the chances of accidents will be totally minimized. PCS or the Pre-Collision System, LKA or the Lane Keeping Assistance, BSM or Blind Spot Monitoring and many other such systems will make sure that passengers are carried from one place to the other in complete safety.

 However, many people hold the opinion that as the self-driven cars are a very new concept it can so happen that people will not really be able to accept this invention in a proper way right at the beginning. Moreover, the drivers are also not technically literate enough to understand the mechanisms of the driverless cars (Lin 2016). So, it will really be a huge problem to make them understand the mechanisms, including battery energy storage of the self-driving cars. Apart from this, there is also this common threat that self-driven cars will largely be based on the software and the program that will be installed in them. So, it may be a major problem that this will be highly vulnerable to hacking. On the other hand, if the concept of the self-driven cars is not popularized widely the people will not be able to understand that the usefulness of it and the chances of accidents will also not be minimized. People will naturally have this fear that who will be responsible or liable for any kinds of accidents that might be caused due to the faults of the technology.