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Self-Driving Cars
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Subject
Date
Self-Driving Cars
A self-driving car is considered a driverless car capable of detecting the surroundings and moving effectively and safely with less human input. These cars combine different sensors to check on the surroundings. The additional sensors include the inertial measurement units, odometry, GPS, sonar, lidar, and radar. The sensory information is interpreted effectively using the advanced control systems to tell the imperative signage, obstacles, and navigation paths. Possible implementation includes long-distance tracking, connected vehicle platoons, shared robotaxis, and personal self-driving cars (Sivak et al. 20). Multiple projects have been established to manufacture these types of cars. Waymo was one of the pioneers of these cars in Phoenix, Arizona. Companies such as Nissan, Tesla, and Google, among others, have announced in the previous years, their desire to establish autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars.
Advantages of the self-driving cars
Environmental gains
Energy consumption can be decreased in the transportation sector. One of these cars’ advantages is that there is more safety when the vehicle moves all by itself than when an individual does. The vehicles have established cruise control that can be used to save gas when in electric mode. Emissions can be decreased due to computerized systems’ ability to brake smoothly and accelerate equally (Shariff et al., 695). These systems have been programmed to select the best affordable and convenient fuel option. These cars would require to be replaced after a long duration resulting in reduced service costs and maintenance. The aerodynamic drag, electricity demand, and the added weight of the computers and the sensors used in these cars are critical to their greenhouse gas emissions and lifetime energy use. Notable, these cars’ design requires a focus on energy efficiency such that the transformative technology is visible. One primary argument is that self-driving vehicles have reduced greenhouse emissions compared to cars with combustion engines. The reduced emissions result from the fuel combustion inefficiencies when producing electricity.
Congestion reduction
The introduction of self-driving cars has benefits with the available road systems. The advantage of having a practical and comfortable transport system is to avoid any road violence, decrease the needed number of vehicles on the roads, and optimize traffic flows. The cars are the most effective considering the highway and the freeways with established interaction frameworks. This type of interaction helps in the decrease of visible congestion.
Keeps to the lanes
Additionally, autonomous vehicles stick to the required lanes when on the roads and do not have to sway, unlike humans when they are in control of cars. The case means that the cars can use narrow lanes. In the end, these cars will stick to one lane, which will require fewer infrastructures. Autonomous vehicles are characterized by lane controls, blind-spot monitoring, collision avoidance systems, and automatic braking. A reduced number of lanes are needed for self-driving cars that help save on the available infrastructure.
Moreover, no extra parking is required for these cars since the available parking can be saved. More autonomous vehicles will be used to offer transport services that will require people to disregard parking. With the other types of combustion-engine vehicles, the relevant authorities would require to add multiple lanes every time, which means more vehicles, could be dumped as quickly.
Societal cost savings
Autonomous cars have an advantage on the societal cost savings annually. These benefits are both societal and economic due to the autonomous vehicles’ full deployment. Examples of such cost savings due to the adoption of the technology are better transportation access, fuel efficiency, and reduced crashes. Even though these cars help decrease the different errors and behaviors, the number of such mistakes would have been increased in combustion-engine vehicles. Achieving a reduced number of road-related deaths can be achieved by self-driving cars.
Cons of self-driving cars
Expensive
Self-driving vehicles are essential on the roads due to the technological change that cars offer. The issue comes with the expensive nature of the technology and its growth. Modern technology has its disadvantages when it is matters concerning the cost. The technology becomes cheaper when the public accesses it. Not multiple companies have stated the prices for their cars.
Tech has gone wrong
Since programming plays a central role in self-driving cars, some issues could arise with unexpected tech errors. Self-driving vehicles are flawless during the manufacturing point and need to be operated with competence. Reaching navigation needs a complex environment, and thus on auto-pilot, they require the sensor systems. The required information is combined on board with various sophisticated systems that need to assess the vehicle’s position and the weather reliability. The vehicle map position needs to be reliable and precise in real-time. Particular situations are challenging with the blocked GPS signal, hand gestures, head nods, four-way junctions, unusual signage, and obscured lights that affect the computerized system. Overcoming all these situations and conditions need to be overcome with the need for computer algorithms, sensors, and improving maps.
Legal, Liability, and Ethical Issues
There are standards needed to ensure that the law is followed with the need for self-driving cars. Certification and Highway Code standards are required to ensure the law regarding such cars’ production is followed. The E.U. legislation is characterized by multiple challenges that these cars exhibit. One of the elements is the issue with the accident liabilities. If an accident occurs, the question to ponder will be based on who the automakers are, the car owner, and who bears the vehicle’s liability. The automakers’ liability should not be found on the obstruction of the improvements made but on the issues that help with the moral problems that arise with algorithm behavior and imminent crashing. Deep learning may assist with unpredictable situations, as human-like decisions could be passed to the autonomous vehicle’s system. The case requires a long learning duration, leading to delayed implementation. The infrastructure also needs to be adjusted to suit predictable road conditions. Due to the need for GPS data and high-precision maps, GPS satellite constellations need to be integrated.
Unemployment
One of the unexpected consequences of self-driving cars is rendering many drivers jobless. These drivers depend on driving vehicles for their livelihood. The drivers and their families will be significantly affected, and some may even break up. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 19.9 million individuals were trail truck drives in 2018. Also, 370,400 drivers worked as taxi and delivery while 680,000 were employed as bus drivers. The summation of these two categories of drivers implies that a total of 2.9 million jobs will be lost. Once these jobs are lost, it may prove difficult for them to switch to other well-paying jobs because driving is classified as a low-skill job. Therefore, getting a new job will be expensive due to the training required to acquire another job. Such statistics will significantly impact millions of lives and the economy as well.
Insurance premiums and accident reduction
Autonomous vehicles can have reduced accidents, as the cars are not prone to slow human reaction periods, bad driving behavior, and distraction. Therefore, it is expected that these cars require reduced insurance prices. Insurance firms will be subjected to different challenges with accidents. Thus, the insurance companies will have to eliminate the accidents cover and suggest establishing the National Insurance Fund to settle every damage due to the system failures and cyber risk.
The issue with anticipating the future is that when changes such as autonomous vehicles occur, innovation becomes increasingly embraced. Considering the pros that self-driving cars pose regarding reducing traffic and safety, these cars stand to change the world significantly. Multiple people, old and young, are influenced by automobiles due to the perception that these vehicles are commonly used as a source of transport. Therefore, if technology provides an approach that makes traveling convenient and efficient, then the said changes must be embraced. Due to their various capabilities, utilizing self-driving vehicles will help guarantee the pedestrians’ safety and confidence in drivers. Perhaps where the technology could help significantly is in the people’s lives. If people could consider autonomous vehicles’ ownership, there may be maintenance and sobriety on the roads. As discussed, sobriety on the roads includes road carnage reduction, decreased environmental pollution, and reduced traffic congestion levels.
Works Cited
Badue, Claudine, et al. “Self-driving cars: A survey.” Expert Systems with Applications (2020): 113816.
Boeglin, Jack. “The costs of self-driving cars: reconciling freedom and privacy with tort liability in autonomous vehicle regulation.” Yale JL & Tech. 17 (2015): 171.
Daily, Mike, et al. “Self-driving cars.” Computer 50.12 (2017): 18-23.
Greenblatt, Nathan A. “Self-driving cars and the law.” IEEE Spectrum 53.2 (2016): 46-51.
Hecht, Jeff. “Lidar for self-driving cars.” Optics and Photonics News 29.1 (2018): 26-33.
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/transportation-and-material-moving/heavy-and-tractor-trailer-truck-drivers.htmShariff, Azim, Jean-François Bonnefon, and Iyad Rahwan. “Psychological roadblocks to the adoption of self-driving vehicles.” Nature Human Behaviour 1.10 (2017): 694-696.
Shladover, Steven E. “The truth about “self-driving” cars.” Scientific American 314.6 (2016): 52-57.
Sivak, Michael, and Brandon Schoettle. Road safety with self-driving vehicles: General limitations and road sharing with conventional vehicles. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Transportation Research Institute, 2015.Urmson, Chris. “Self-driving cars and the urban challenge.” IEEE Intelligent Systems 23.2 (2008): 66-68.
The Distances Between Us—Turning the Story and System Upside Down (2)
The Distances Between Us—Turning the Story and System Upside Down
Name
Institution Affiliation
The Distances Between Us—Turning the Story and System Upside Down
Undocumented Immigration
I can trace my family’s journey to the United States back to the late 1960s. My grandparents had the idea of an American Dream before other immigrants caught wind of it. Just like the cliché immigration story, my grandparents came to America hiding in the back of a van that was ferrying some kind of groceries. As my aunt Lupe puts it…” you had to sit on a crate and place your legs against those adjacent so that they do not roll and crush your knees.” My grandparents had one child by then, of course my Aunt Lupe. My father was born in Texas early 1970, nobody is sure about the exact date, there was more to worry about at the time than to keep record of such an important event. Their bravery and sacrifice is the reason why I was born in the United States and a citizen by this right. My family came from San Antonino Castillo Velasco village in Oaxaca de Juárez, a city in the state of Oaxaca. It was here that my grandfather and grandmother got introduced by their parents and got married. This is as far as I can trace the origin of my family. In America and for my siblings and me our grandparents are the highest on the family tree. There is no one beyond that according to our knowledge although we have heard stories of great grandparents and so on but having not seen them to some extent makes them irrelevant.
The issue of undocumented immigration is something I think about on a daily basis, even if it was not because my people used the same route, the media won’t let me forget. I perceive the country’s reaction to this issue as hypocritical because it was built by immigrants and for the general majority I sense ignorance. I have interest in the issue of undocumented immigration and thus significantly well versed in it by my own standards. My stand remains that the approach to the irregular immigration issue is unwarranted and violates human rights and undermines the democracy the United States passionately boasts of.
The majoritarian story or perception silences (mutes) and considers irrelevant (moots) the voices that matter. In influencing platforms such as school and research, the lived experience of immigrants is minimized, the salience of race is denied. The creators of A Better Life tell the story of undocumented kitchen workers, marginal laborers, and Mexican rodeos and gangs that make the economy of Los Angeles. The story of Ramon the truck thief creates a better understanding of what creates the undocumented people joining gangs and stealing to make ends meet. Ramon is not a bad person but rather a desperate one. Immigrants have the burden of working for money to send back to people left back home.
Watching A Better Life brings to life the effect of anti-immigrants pundits, enforcement crackdowns and a discriminatory education system on undocumented immigrants. The effect has been to instill the fear of deportation among immigrants as indicated by Galindo’s reaction to purchasing Blasco’s truck. The fear of deportation subjects undocumented immigrants to vulnerability to exploitation. Galindo is willing to forego the American dream and continue working manual labor lest he gets deported. In addition, the integration of undocumented immigrants and their children into the American society is faced with obstacles with adult immigrants remaining on the margins of society. Their U.S. –born children are introduced to low education levels in addition to racial discrimination similar to what native-born minorities face.
After reading The Distances Between Us, the first thought is that of a family that escapes their home to find a better life. Most immigrants come to the United States with certainty that everything will work out in a short while. Reyna Grande illustrates this case clearly as he discusses papi’s belief that he would be able to earn enough money for a better life for his family in America in a short while (Grande, 2013). What follows is frustration as things do not turn out as he wishes. Reyna’s mother will have to accompany her father and pull forces to secure his dream. Reyna Grande illustrates the pain children of immigrants experience as their parents leave to find better lives for them. Through sacrifice and bravery, the children of immigrants get to be born Americans or get opportunities they would otherwise not have back in their homeland. If anti-immigrants considered this motivation and compare to what they do on a daily basis to provide for their families they would be more tolerant.
The Distances Between Us with its emotional tone disputes the popular notion that immigration is criminality. Illegal immigration is illegal but not criminal from the perspective of a person who cares for the struggles of a person with a family just like theirs. With the way Evila treats Reyna Grande and her siblings, the reader wishes that papi and mami succeed and pulls them out of there. When one reads the news or encounters headlines and debates against immigration and rage directed towards it you cannot help but fear for the people in those situations. You feel afraid for children in the same situation as Reyna and her siblings. The biggest mistake with the people that put a dark cloud on immigration is focusing on the endless arguments and unending news stories rather than looking at it as a human issue. In the distance between us, Reyna Grande gives an account of a human issue affecting actual people, an issue that is dismantling lives.
In the end, Reyna gets a piece of the American dream. She becomes the first in her family to attend and graduate college. He goes on to become a teacher having been inspired by her teacher- Diana. She hopes to become like her and inspire people as she did her. In her teaching experience with immigrant children, she realizes that they suffered the same fate as her, at one point in their lives they have had to spend time away from their parents. In the end as Papi, lies on his death bed, she is unable to deny the dying man a brief reprieve from her judgment. Her experiences combine to allow her to see the man as being imperfect, but a hero whose goal was to give his children a better life than he had.
After reading The Distances Between Us and watching A Better Life, one can help but admire the spirit and pluck of the immigrants to seek new lives in a place where there are more opportunities. Risking everything to change the narrative from a point where they have always had nothing to lose. People who work tough physically demanding jobs to send money back home to families left there. A group that brings new and fresh energy and vitality into host communities. As much as they use dubious and illegal ways they are everyday heroes as Sekuta Meta illustrates in his book This Land is Our Land (Meta, 2019). The story in The Distance Between Us, A Better Life and The Circuit rejuvenates the image of undocumented immigrants in a time when manipulators like President Donald Trump and Viktor Orban the Hungarian prime minister are politicizing their plight for personal gain. Having read The Distance Between US, The Circuit and watched A Better Life the images that have become common of children being separated from their parents sinks even deeper and is more heartbreaking. However, the egalitarian rhetoric of integration, inclusion, and opportunity has been unable to stand against the Republican idea of sovereignty and calls for a stronger border.
However, these stories and the image they create about immigrants do not sufficiently shorten the distances between us in an era where print has been overshadowed by the internet and electronic information transfer. People also tend to believe and are easily rallied by what is said on social media, what can be found on search engines and what popular people say. For this reason, the use of empirical data and deep-seated historical analysis is more effective. For instance, the economic impact of the immigrant population is quite significant. According to the CAP immigration team (2017), immigrants contributed $2 trillion to the United States growth domestic product in the year 2016. Although this number was mostly from immigrants flooding the labor force particularly blue-collar jobs, they also boosted the country’s productivity through innovation and entrepreneurship contrary to popular belief. By the year 2010, immigrants and immigrant children born in the country founded about 50 percent of fortune 500 companies (CAP Immigration Team, 2017). Looking at this fiscal data, immigration is positive to the country’s economy rather than negative and this is the kind of voice that is muted and rendered irrelevant.
Another issue is the common complaint that immigrants steal jobs from the natives. Empirical data to the contrary exist which suggests that immigrants do not compete with but instead complement the Native American workers, especially those that are lesser-skilled. Immigrant and U.S.-born workers have different skill sets regardless of similarity in educational backgrounds and for this reason tend to work in different industries (Carnegie, n.d.). Immigrants complement the skill sets of native resulting in their enhanced productivity. Another thing contrary to the propaganda of anti-immigrants, immigration impacted positively on the wages of individuals born in the U. S. increasing it by 0.4 percent each week. According to Heidi Shierholz, immigrants created this effect through the consumption of goods and services consequently creating jobs for both groups (CAP Immigration Team, 2017).
Talking of the United States activities in Latin America creates a better genesis to the whole immigration issue. At the precincts of the conventional expansive deadlock over this issue lies over a hundred years of U.S. interventions, that those against immigration and the government are not open to discussing. The U.S. has inflicted profound wounds through Latin America since Theodore Roosevelt’s declaration of the United States’ right to exercise an “global military policy” resulting in scars that will define the region for generations. This account of intervention cannot be separated from the existing Central American crisis of internal and external displacement and migration. For over a century, the United States has orchestrated military coups, neoliberal draining of resources, and commercial predatory that has left Latin America lost in poverty, violence, and instability that drive people from their homes.
Pundits are not willing to discuss how America has undermined democracy and stability in Latin America through military and economic interventions resulting in vacuums that create operating grounds for drug cartels and guerilla alliances. In less than two decades, CAFTA-DR – a bargain between the United States, the Dominican Republic and five other Latin Countries for free trade – has rearranged the region’s economy to rely on the United States through unimaginable trade discrepancies and the invasion by American agricultural and industrial products undermining local industries (Tseng-Putterman, 2018). Nonetheless, there is no significant connection drawn between the flagging of Central American rural agricultural markets by CAFTA and increased relocation from this region in the years since. In simple terms, the United States does not take any responsibility for the conditions that result in Central Americans migrating into the country.
There definitely are ways to fix the immigration problem beyond building walls, separating families and barely getting by. One way is enhancing legal migration. Giving people the hope of gaining entry into America pursuant to law is an effective way of reducing irregular immigration. In areas that the United States experience labor shortages, they can issue work visas. These are the areas that by far Americans are not signing creating gaps. Regular migration will help control organized crime that is being bolstered by people sneaking into the country. Lawful migration creates a win-win situation in the sense that it allows for proper security assessment.
The other solution is to assimilate immigrants. Assimilation should come in the form of training in basics such as the English language and civics. Helping immigrants learn the primary language of the country betters their chances for success. Acting against reverse assimilation is another way of reducing the tension between U.S. born individuals and immigrants due to fear of cultural diffusion. The American system for some time has been teaching anti-Americanism, which has allowed other cultures to come in and displace the native culture. The creation of institutions that help immigrants assimilate is for their own good because anti-Americanism harms immigrants by keeping them from embracing the host culture.
In conclusion, the system is biased, uncaring and does not guarantee the rights of individuals as it should. The main problem lies in the exclusion of the people that are directly affected by the immigration debate during the creation of policies and regulations. The country needs to take responsibility for its contribution to this problem and take on the weight as appropriate. It is time to give voice to people like Reyna Grande who experience the problem first hand. It is time to be aware of the problems of the people whose intricate stories have been reduced to headlines.
References
CAP Immigration Team. (2017, April 20). The Facts on Immigration Today: 2017 Edition. Retrieved from https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/reports/2017/04/20/430736/facts-immigration-today-2017-edition/
Carnegie. (n.d.). America’s Story: An Immigrant Story. Retrieved from https://www.carnegie.org/interactives/immigration-reform/#!/
Meta, S. (2019). This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto (1st ed.). New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Grande, R. (2013). The Distance Between Us: A Memoir (1st ed.). Washington, WA: Washington Square Press.
Tseng-Putterman, M. (2018, June 28). A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis. Retrieved from https://medium.com/s/story/timeline-us-intervention-central-america-a9bea9ebc148
Transformation of the Juvenile Justice System
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution
Date
Transformation of the Juvenile Justice System
The juvenile justice system is a formal arrangement by the government that is meant to deal and handle children who engage in crimes that conflict the law. This structure takes into consideration the juveniles rights and their best interests in how cases are handled. Since the past, responses toward juvenile crimes have been based on punishment and rehabilitative approaches (Monaham et al. p.588). For the last two decades, the juvenile system in the state have shown changes and demonstrated that the use of secure institutions as a response to the behaviour of young youth, produces poor results at very high costs (Seigle et al. p.8). Thus this calls for an effort to transform the system through; abolishing the whole system and reinvesting in community-oriented programs and reducing racial and ethnic disparities.
The adoption of a community-based alternative will help in reducing the costs incurred. The system uses a lot of money to maintain the jails and in confining the high number of youths jailed each year. Most of them are exposed to unfavourable conditions resulting in high rates of recidivism. With the increased drug use among juveniles and rise in their gangs, this program will help serve the youth safely in their communities. It has been proved to be cost-effect (Patrick et al. p. 2). A program like this, when implemented, will favour both the government system and the offenders.
Another form of transformation that needs to be addressed is a decrease in racism and ethnism. Most youths of colour are underrepresented in court and thus charged with cases that lead to their confinement in jail (Leiber et al. p. 589). The theme of discrimination is depicted here and may lead to innocent youths getting being jailed for cases not committed. Correction towards this issue may be achieved through; engaging juvenile justice practitioners to look into it and to work together with community members such as the advocates. Equality will ensure that all races are fully represented in court.
The transformation of the juvenile system will help in ensuring that the juveniles are handled carefully. Favourable conditions in community-based programs will encourage continued growth among the youths. Also, it will ensure that minors are held accountable for their actions through programs such as community services. The above suggestions may play a part in ensuring the future of the juvenile justice system is achieved.
Works Cited
Leiber, Michael J., and Rebecca Fix. “Reflections on the impact of race and ethnicity on juvenile court outcomes and efforts to enact change.” American journal of criminal justice 44.4 (2019): 581-608.
McCarthy, Patrick, Vincent N. Schiraldi, and Miriam Shark. “The Future of Youth Justice: A Community Based Alternative to the Youth Prison Model.” (2016).
Monahan, Kathryn, Laurence Steinberg, and Alex R. Piquero. “Juvenile justice policy and practice: A developmental perspective.” Crime and justice 44.1 (2015): 577-619.
Seigle, Elizabeth, Nastassia Walsh, and Josh Weber. Core principles for reducing recidivism and improving other outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system. Council of State Governments, 2014.