Driverless, Non-autonomous Traffic Management System

MIS602 Data Modelling & Database Design

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Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u Introduction: PAGEREF _Toc39305842 h 3Advantages of self-driven cars PAGEREF _Toc39305843 h 3Disadvantages of driverless cars PAGEREF _Toc39305844 h 4The road traffic authority: PAGEREF _Toc39305845 h 5Traffic lane operations: PAGEREF _Toc39305846 h 7Refueling of driverless vehicle: PAGEREF _Toc39305847 h 7Security Requirement: PAGEREF _Toc39305848 h 9Conclusion: PAGEREF _Toc39305849 h 9References: PAGEREF _Toc39305850 h 11

Driverless, Non-autonomous Traffic Management System

IntroductionA self-driven car also referred to as an autonomous vehicle, driverless car, or robotic car, is a vehicle that has been designed with capabilities of sensing its environment and moving safely with less human input. There are various combined sensors that driverless cars use, such as radar, sensor, GPS, and inertial measurements system. Driverless cars have installed advanced control systems that are responsible for interpreting sensory information to identify suitable navigation paths, besides obstacles and other relevant signage. In the present-day, several companies inclusive of Google, Audi, Volkswagen, and Ford are developing and testing such cars. Nonetheless, there are no legally driverless cars operating in the United States at present. Consequently, automotive technology is becoming more common and could potentially transform the transportation sector (Chen, Chen&Chen, 2017). Therefore, the future for driverless cars seems bright with the world set to realize unending possibilities and positive impacts on the technology. Driverless cars have been established to play a critical role in environmental sustainability, road safety, and efficiency in comparison to normal vehicles.

Advantage and disadvantage of autonomous vehicle (AVs)

Advantages of self-driven cars The primary benefit of these cars is that there is a likelihood of fewer accidents occurring as compared to the typical vehicles operated by drivers. The leading cause of most accidents in the world today is driver error. Some drivers are mostly under the influence of drugs such as alcohol or other narcotics, thus predisposed to aggressive speeding, over speeding, increased road indiscipline, ignorance of road signs, among others. A supplementary advantage of self-driven cars is the reduction of road-related issues such as traffic congestion primarily contributed by selfish drivers as established by Kaur and Rampersad (2018).

Additionally, driverless cars consume lesser fuel. With a car to car communications systems enabled, driverless vehicles would detect what the vehicles in front of them are likely to do slow before they do so. For instance, if a car is ahead of another vehicle and about to break or slow down, all the cars behind it will instantaneously and simultaneously brake wasting fule due to hard braking. On the contrary, an automated vehicle will detect the action before it happens by communicating with the system of the automated car ahead of it, consequently slowing down or breaking in advance hence forestalling hard-breaking in the process saving fuel. Self-driven cars are thus programmed to eliminate the above type of problem associated with fuel inefficiency, particularly with the common cars that require human input.

Self-driven cars will similarly enhance the mobility of the elderly, disadvantaged population such as the disabled, as well as children. This is a significant advantage for the populations that are not capable of driving, such as the elderly and the disabled, when running their errands. Children can equally use the vehicles when attending their school or getting home with zero inconveniences as with the common cars that require a driver or someone to drive them to and from school. The technology will enable the successful picking and dropping of individuals to various destinations, thus transforming the lives of individuals like the disabled that require extra attention. For instance, blind individuals will be easily picked up from their homes and transported to their workplaces or their desired errands on time by the automated vehicles with zero inconveniences. The above is bound to improve the productivity of both people and society directly and indirectly by saving on time and other resources.

Most importantly, driverless cars can substantially contribute to the reduction of congestion in public roads and highways by mitigating mechanical issues normally associated with the stall of vehicles in roads, slow driving, ignorance of traffic rules leading to accidents, and congestion due to selfishness by some drivers. Such would contribute to environmental sustainability by promoting environmental conservation since the vehicles would only spend little time on the road hence reducing the emission of carbon dioxide due to less mechanical issues and efficient fuel combustion. Moreover, automated vehicles majorly boast sophisticated technological systems that enable them to communicate with one another, thus finding more quicker and less congested routes saving on time and energy (Torok & Pauer, 2018). The cited would further be supplemented by the detection of the actions of the leading cars in traffic informing their ensuing automated cars of the actions, consequently saving on the time spent on the road by making a calculatable change of lanes and directions (Zhang, Zhang & Bi, 2017). The above mentioned is enabled by the installation of laser range fields, radar lenses, and optical cameras effective in sensing permitting the vehicles to adapt to their real-time environment with high accuracy. Besides, all the commands each driverless car will give to each other would render other road users more space to speed or divert hence reducing traffic congestion. Disadvantages of driverless carsComputer errors are a common problem in any technological field, systems, and gadgets. Therefore, trusting a particular program or computer system might be risky. Computer programmed systems are prone to failure at times and thus may not function effectively endangering the lives of those depending on them. This is a major drawback for automated cars that might not function properly in case of such an error; as a result, harming those on board. Cases of increased cyber insecurities and hackings are also on the rise, as witnessed by the high volume of corporations, both public and private, attacked through malicious softwares. Ill motivated perpetrators of cyber hacking might thus attempt to control such vehicles based on numerous reasons. Through their skills and knowledge of how their systems operate, the individuals might gain the ultimate control of the cars using them to fulfill their goals, such as infliction of injuries to others through accidents.

A second drawback is there presently exists no licensing infrastructure to regulate the operation of automated vehicles. These vehicles might pose a challenge to the state and the licensing authorities. The companies that make these cars might claim them to be safe for the sake of profiting their corporations but later prove otherwise. Local car licensing services must, therefore, ensure that these vehicles perform as advertised with zero glitches or technological malfunctions. Public safety can be put at risk if society ignores or refrains from questioning the safety of such technologies raising numerous questions regarding their manufacture and approval for use.

Correspondingly, the security of the car control systems is questionable in the wake of the misuse of consumer data and proliferated cyber attacks. The use of the car is already proof that the manufacturer monitors its functionality and operation, which implies consumer privacy such as location and destination is not assured and might be accessed by third-parties. Since the car can communicate its location with the central control and data center, critical consumer information might leak to third parties, which tenders a lot of uncertainties on the safety of the consumers (Salonen & Haavisto, 2019).The Road Traffic AuthorityAutomated vehicles will have a programmed system that can enable them to communicate with another detecting when to accelerate, slow down, or stop when behind another, especially when in traffic. The above means that autonomous vehicles (SB) can reduce or increase their speeds rapidly, unlike the common vehicles that require human input. Their efficient technology would enable them to travel at higher speeds and be closer to other vehicles with a condensed risk of collisions. People get bored fast when driving and or when in traffic because their desire is mostly to get to their destinations fast as stressed by Yeh and Jan (2017). Nevertheless, the presence of automated cars will address the above issue by only issuing commands and focusing on other things without apprehensions. At the same time, the occupant might engage in other activities such as completing their work report or dispatching important emails with zero distractions. The automated system would also ease the occupants’ worries on issues such as the highways that are less congested or parking lots that are empty at the park, grocery stores, and other institutions. The installed systems would assess such things for the occupant mush rapidly, saving them on time and resources such as fuel as common in the time and fuel wasted when looking for less busy highways or parking spaces with the common vehicles (Xu, Dherbomez, Hery, Abidli & Bonnifait, 2018). Looking for parking spaces, less congested highways, and roads will thus be a thing of the past with the inception of the driverless car.

Most people rely on transportation but cannot drive. However, with driverless cars, their mobility would irrefutably increase as affirmed by Yeh and Jan (2017). An individual will no longer require a driver’s license for one of these vehicles implying that every individual would get a chance to move from point A to point B with less struggle. Still on the same, quite a high population of people across the world are disabled hence unable to drive or get to their destination without help. The aged also encounter such difficulties. For such, both groups of individuals can greatly benefit from the technology of the driverless car, increasing their mobility as well as independence (Özkul & Unapuni, 2015). Such people have for ages experienced challenges in their lack of mobility, but this would be something of the past. Furthermore, with such a new technology, the majority of people will be less apprehended to leave their car under the control of their company, and without the need for a driver while still running errands such as taking their children to and from schools while attending other duties. The cited would substantially improve the individual’s quality of life-saving them on time, and other resources incurred with the common cars that require the presence of a driver (Chen, Chen Chen 2017). With self-driving vehicles getting closer to reality, even as technology improves, questions and doubts remain about the impact automated vehicles would on society in the contemporary time when a larger percentage of individuals are already used to driving. Notwithstanding the above, numerous automobile companies such as Nissan, GM, and Mercedes are extensively adopting such technologies and are hoping to release them on the market soon.

The future of automated cars is indeed bright, as established by the active role played by tech giants that have no prior records of developing automobiles. Ginat tech corporations such as Google have currently undertaken significant software development towards this end. For example, Google claims to have accumulated 300,000 miles of autonomous driving with no accidents. They hope to sell their software to automobile manufacturers. Their testing prototypes have about $150,000 in equipment on board, including a $70,000 LIDAR system (laser radar). On the “budget-conscious” end, researchers at Oxford University are working on technology that combines some car-mounted laser-mapping sensors and an iPad interface that has some limited features for about $10,000 (although it does not use GPS).

Presently, California, Nevada, and Florida are the only states that allow self-driving cars on the road for evaluation purposes only. Texas offers the law on autonomous vehicles (Google self-driving cars with employees inside moving downtown Austin with nothing more – because the book rules only man-owned vehicles!). Lawmakers are, however, seeking to establish laws requiring licensed drivers to occupy the vehicles during their use. The Texas bill is under consideration for restricting the self-administration of vehicles from the use by persons with disabilities or the elderly, jeopardizing one of the potential social benefits of the high-alert technology. Self-driving capabilities range from; staying between “straps” on the road, automatically starting and stopping per the traffic rules and signals, to changing lanes around slow drivers, and even self-parking in the empty parking spaces. The US Department of Transportation recommends that “driverless vehicles remain unauthorized except for testing.” The department also acknowledges that “semi-autonomous features, such as vehicles located in the middle of the lane and regulation of their speed extensively depends on the position of the front car.” This is critical in the future balance between “safety and flexibility for innovation.” The common belief is that the tension between regulation and technological innovation will continue for years.

Traffic Lane OperationsInarguably, autonomous cars play a vital role in environmental sustainability. However, several potential disadvantages exist and might affect people if this type of car is out in the future. Foremost, the presence of sophisticated technology in an autonomous car would increase the price of the car besides other software failure concerns. A computer malfunction, even just a minor glitch, could cause worse crashes than anything that human error might bring about. Since it’s a computer or robot controlling a self-driving car, there is no 100% guarantee that it will always work. There might be a glitch that will make the car malfunction. When it comes to an autonomous car driving in heavy rain, serious damage to car sensors can be done, meaning the technology might fail at certain times. According to John Capp, GM’s director of Global Active Safety Electronics and Innovation, the primary task of developing GM’s autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle is to be safe under any situation. The next problem is that drivers may rely more on the semi-autonomous vehicle, which is dangerous for themselves and others on the road. The cited is because it cannot be guaranteed that the semi-autonomous vehicle is 100% safe. After all, this is a new technique and is developing in the beginning stage. For example, some drivers or occupants might fall asleep in the semi-autonomous car during a drive, which might cause some terrible outcomes if something unexpected happened (Özkul & Çapuni, 2015).

Furthermore, the liability for some accidents is not apparent because there are no standards or specific laws about automated vehicles. At the same time, few regulations can be applied to automated vehicles in the state government with such ethical dilemmas significant in this case. The automated vehicles are designed to reduce the injuries caused by car accidents but would create more wounds if it were not designed well hence the ethical issue (Lumpkins, 2014).

Refueling Of Driverless VehicleAccording to the technology, automated vehicles will be installed with a sensor similar to the typical dashboard sensor that would detect the fuel when the level reduces. The sensor signal is placed in the driver’s dashboard and provides virtual feedback. In the older model, the driver sees residual fuel levels based on the decision to stop the fuel injection. Today, the latest car models are based on the driving behavior of the last mile and its estimate of how many miles a car can travel until the tank is empty. Therefore, the usage of AVs would be beneficial to consumers by rapidly detecting the level of fuel and establishing the fuel needed to reach their destination (Talley, 2017).

The Need for Automated Vehicles in Contemporary Time

Essentially, the improvement of the efficiency of public transport is beneficial citizens, especially those who are unable to afford their automated vehicles as well as the environment. The inception of automated vehicles is irrefutably the solution to air pollution environmental problems. Environmental protection is a critical subject today with calls to conserve the environment rampant across the world and societal institutions. According to Wang (2015), the US Environmental Protection Agency states that the transportation sector is the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, accounting for 27 percent of emissions. The above is an affirmation that the current motor vehicles produced emit large volumes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere hence among the major contributors to environmental pollution and global warming (Özkul & Çapuni, 2015). Autonomous vehicles are thus the solution to the above hence the need for the production companies to inform the public and various stakeholders in the society on how automation technology is the answer to the increased environmental pollution in the transportation sector. After their inception, consumers would also need to know how to operate them with government monitoring and setting definite standards for their use. Such stakeholders have a high impact on the technology as it is a new technique that is challenging for all people and institutions. (Kaur & Rampersad, 2018). Therefore, the companies producing them need to provide adequate information to their consumers and their various stakeholders (Özkul & Çapuni, 2015).

With 35,092, a significant number of deaths associated with traffic accidents, autonomous vehicles were designed to reduce the injuries and deaths linked to road accidents through its sensors and obstacle detection technology. However, the above is not a guarantee since any system failure or malfunction might contribute to the much-mitigated road carnage. Faced with such an ethical dilemma, GM chose to delay the launch of its CCC 6 Series SuperPower vehicle, establishing that they required more time to improve their systems. However, Tesla has decided to test its autonomous vehicles to gather more data to help them find and deal with possible problems like the one above, as they believe it can reduce fear and anxiety. The industry has received overwhelming support from other companies such as Google that desire to design driverless vehicles (Drage, Kalinowski & Braunl, 2014).

Conclusion

Autonomous vehicles, without a doubt, will revolutionize the automotive industry and provide people with quality public transportation. However, numerous security and ethical issues have emerged in their production. Men have the power to make independent decisions instantly, unlike automated systems. Autonomous vehicles lack this capability. The system must be, therefore, be complex to execute such commands in critical circumstances (Gain, 2019). Despite concerns about the future of self-driving cars, the technology is still being tested to addresses the issues raised on their safety and efficacy. The advantages of such vehicles can, however, not be overlooked for their innovation and distinct functionality.

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