Autonomous Cars

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Autonomous Cars

• A self-driving car (autonomous car or driverless car) is a vehicle that uses a combination of sensors and artificial intelligence (AI) to travel between destinations without a human operator.

Five levels in the evolution of autonomous driving

• Level 0: The driver controls the car without any support from a driver assistance system.
• Level 1: Adaptive lanes assist or parking assist.
• Level 2: Steering and lane-keeping assist and remote-controlled parking.
• Level 3: Driver can partly take his eyes off the road.
• Level 4: Stands for “Fully Automated Driving”, with no hands-on steering.
• Level 5: Fully Automated without any human input

Benefits of Self-driving Cars

• Expected benefits of autonomous cars include a reduction in traffic congestion by elimination of human interventions.
• With no labour cost, transportation cost is expected to reduce by 40%.
• As a result, urban CO2 emissions may also be reduced worldwide.

Issues in Self-Driving Car Adoption

• Robotic output: Such cars are programmed robots with predetermined situations and solutions.
• Ethical and legal dilemma: With no human responsible for accidents by such cars, ethical and legal issues will come up.
• Discriminatory algorithms: Discriminatory algorithms are not uncommon and are expected to interfere with driving.
• Cybercrime vulnerability: As is the case with any other digital technology, self-driven cars are also prone to such attacks.
• Employment: Such systems are expected to raise issues of employability, especially for low-skill labour.