Autonomous Automobiles

Alli Rakes and Nicole Sale

Evolution of the Autonomous Car

A nationwide competition of autonomous vehicle testing centers lead to the US Department of Transportation choosing nine states to be the “proving grounds” for self-driving cars. These nine states are Pennsylvania, Texas, Maryland, Michigan, California (which has two sites), Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida, and North Carolina. Tech companies are automakers will compare data and relay the information to the government as they test their vehicles in everyday road conditions. 

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/23/14357564/dot-self-driving-car-testing-sites-nine-states

Pros of Autonomous Vehicles

The technology in autonomous cars would take a substantial amount of danger out of driving. 81% of car crashes are a result of human error. Unlike humans, a computer will not get distracted while driving. Computers decrease risk because they are specifically programmed perform a certain task. Humans, on the other hand, have other concerns while they are driving and can easily lose focus on the road. Human drivers come at a very high cost. The U.S. Department of Transportation states that, “there is a dollar value to every individual's’ life ($9.2 million) Therefore, there would be a significant cost savings in many different venues like insurance costs and healthcare costs associated with accident recovery alone,” (Top 20 Pros and Cons Associated With Self-Driving Cars, 2017). The use of technology in vehicles can even lead to a boost in the economy. If autonomous cars can save lives, then they are a positive economic factor. Time is also a growing cost in the present day. Autonomous cars would allow people to get back time that they would normally lose while driving. Saving time can directly correlate to saving money in a business sense. If every employee in an office were able to get back an hour of their day everyday, the company could be much more efficient and much more profitable. Another way autonomous cars can reduce the cost of lost time is the possibility of having higher speed limits. If all vehicles on the road were autonomous, the roads would be significantly safer to the point where higher speed limits could be considered. People would then be able to reach their destinations faster and get back previously lost time. 


Source: http://www.autoinsurancecenter.com/top-20-pros-and-cons-associated-with-self-driving-cars.htm

Cons of Autonomous Vehicles 

While the technology and development in autonomous cars presents a great amount of opportunity to change the automobile industry, it also presents many challenges. The aim of autonomous car engineers and manufacturers is to create a safer environment on the roads, but how feasible and realistic is this? In order for consumers to be able to utilize an autonomous car, they will require an education on how to use it according to Teletrac. Users may not be actually be performing the actual driving anymore, however they will still need to maintain some knowledge on it’s proper use and it’s various safety features. This new technology that is being presented to the marketplace also comes with a rather high price tag. Many are speculating if the average American will be able to obtain this type of technology. Yet another challenge that autonomous cars presents is the transition into incorporating these cars onto roads and the rate of consumer adoption. When autonomous cars are on the road alongside traditional manually operated cars, the interaction with human drivers may present some danger and accidents may still occur. In order for autonomous cars to successfully achieve their goal of increasing safety on roads and decreasing the amount of accidents, they will need to be widely adopted by society, however the high price tag of typically more than $100,000 makes this seem unrealistic. Autonomous car engineers and manufacturers claim that their main goal is to increase safety with these vehicles, however the amount of technology used in these cars could potentially make them more susceptible to security breaches and hackers. If a hacker was to hack into the system of an autonomous car and hijack it they could turn the vehicle into a weapon that could put many lives at risk on the road. Various weather conditions could also prove to be a major obstacle in ensuring safety to consumers who use autonomous cars. These vehicles would need to be able to operate at a high level of safety in all weather conditions. This level of safety seems unrealistic due to the fact that heavy rain can damage laser sensors mounted on the car’s roof which may disable the car from performing its various functions. 

This groundbreaking technology has surely created jobs in engineering and manufacturing, however the effect that these vehicles will have on other jobs and the economy as a whole is unclear. A major downside that autonomous cars presents is the possibility to eliminate the need for various jobs. If society makes the transition over to relying heavily on autonomous cars, this could eliminate the need for jobs primarily in freight transportation and public transportation (i.e. taxis, uber drivers, etc.), which could have a negative effect on unemployment rates and the economy as a whole. This could also reduce or eliminate the need for driving schools due to the fact that there will be less of a need to educate people how to drive. In addition to this, the transition over to these cars will have a negative effect on the oil and gas industry due to the fact that the majority of these cars would be electric. 


Source: http://www.autoinsurancecenter.com/top-20-pros-and-cons-associated-with-self-driving-cars.htm 

How Will Autonomous Vehicles Affect Car Insurance?
The transition and adoption of autonomous cars presents a controversy when it comes to auto insurance. Currently, individuals receive insurance rates based on driver attributes and driving records. In addition to this, insurance companies have been collecting data from smart dashboards in current automobile models in order to set appropriate insurance rates to individuals. So what happens when individuals are no longer actually driving their cars anymore? Will there even be a need for an insurance policy? Warren Buffet, the current owner of Geico a major car insurance provider, remarked that “if the day comes when a significant portion of the cars on the road are autonomous, it will hurt Geico’s business very significantly”. A driverless car will begin to shift the liability from car owners to automakers. Rick Gorvett is the staff actuary for the Casualty Actuarial Society, which is a trade group that analyzes risks presented to insurance firms. Gorvett says that “autonomous vehicles will help reduce the human error that is the cause of the vast majority (90 percent or more) of accidents”. This means that yes, the rate of accidents may be reduced, however the likelihood of these accidents being caused by human error is much smaller, meaning that it will be due to machine defect or fault. Because of this, court cases will be much more controversial in terms of deciding who is at fault for an accident as well. For now, there is no formal adjustment to insurance policies and fault is currently determined on a case-by-case basis, however if the world shifts over to driverless cars there will need to be more defined lines when it comes to accidents that involve autonomous cars.
Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/04/03/522222975/self-driving-cars-raise-questions-about-who-carries-insurance

Other Links:

Wired (2017).  Let's Face it the American Way of Driving is Over.


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