Day 50 – Q 1.How do autonomous vehicles operate? What are the concerns surrounding such vehicles? Examine.
1. How do autonomous vehicles operate? What are the concerns surrounding such vehicles? Examine.
स्वायत्त वाहन कैसे काम करते हैं? ऐसे वाहनों से सम्बंधित चिंताओं की जांच करें।
INTRODUCTION
Self-driving vehicles are cars or trucks in which human drivers are never required to take control to safely operate the vehicle they are also known as autonomous or “driverless” cars. Previously driver less cars were just in the realms of science fiction but they are now on the edge of becoming a reality- with lot of benefits and some concerns.
BODY
In the current world, transportation is one thing had has kept the world bonded together. Roads are like veins of the modern world; however, the technological advent of driver less cars has led to the following advantages vis-a-vis the traditional cars-
- Greater fuel use efficiency.
- Greater accuracy preventing collision.
- Reduced number of accidents due to human errors.
- To help and reduce the traffic congestion.
- It will improve the environmental health.
- It will save human efforts, which can be deployed at other productive places.
Autonomous vehicles is a technological innovation, due to the improvement in technological advancement -it has the following components for smooth functioning & it is operated through the mechanism given below-
- Radar sensors dotted around the car monitor the position of vehicles nearby.
- Video cameras detect traffic lights, read road signs and keep track of other vehicles, while also looking out for pedestrians and other obstacles.
- Lidar sensors help to detect the edges of roads and identify lane markings by bouncing pulses of light off the car’s surroundings.
- Ultrasonic sensors in the wheels can detect the position of curbs and other vehicles when parking.
- Finally, a central computer analyses all of the data from the various sensors to manipulate the steering, acceleration and braking.
However, “Autonomous cars” does not necessarily mean complete automation, because the level of automation could vary according to different levels of functioning-
Layers of autonomy
Different cars are capable of different levels of self-driving, and are often described by researchers on a scale of 0-5.
Level 0: All major systems are controlled by humans
Level 1: Certain systems, such as cruise control or automatic braking, may be controlled by the car, one at a time
Level 2: The car offers at least two simultaneous automated functions, like acceleration and steering, but requires humans for safe operation
Level 3: The car can manage all safety-critical functions under certain conditions, but the driver is expected to take over when alerted
Level 4: The car is fully-autonomous in some driving scenarios, though not all
Level 5: The car is completely capable of self-driving in every situation
In spite of the multi-dimensional benefits of automated cars, also options of different levels of automation according to the need, there are many concerns associated with automated cars, which could be explained as follows-
- Ethical concerns – It will be difficult to prove in cases of accidents, as to who is responsible for the accident- owner, manufacturer, other vehicles, technology or regulators.
- The fixation of accountability on various issues is a matter of concern.
- Extraction and availability of rare earth materials, the drive towards autonomous vehicles could lead to the depletion of rare resources.
- High expenditure with respect to the manufacturing of automated cars.
- Issues related to decision making with respect to ethical issues and during matters of crisis.
- It could be affected by cyber-attacks.
- It could take away jobs in labor intensive economies.
CONCLUSION
Thus, even though autonomous cars looks to be the next step forward in connectivity and making fiction a reality in the coming days- the possibility of domination of machines over man and over powering human intellect can never be neglected. Thus, a cautious approach taking adequate advantage of the technology but the same time keeping the concerns of machine been given extra powers into consideration is important.
BEST ANSWER: ANKITA MUNSHI
