The Pros And Cons Of Autonomous Vehicles

Blaine Minden

IT Ethics

4/8/2018

The Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles and their impacts This paper will focus on the ethical problems surrounding the use of autonomous vehicles as well as the future impacts of autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are defined by Technopedia as “a vehicle that can guide itself without human conduction.” This definition includes trucks, busses, and cars as well as any other vehicle that operates on public roads. Also, I will sometimes used the term as more of an umbrella term to include cars who are not fully autonomous but may have some autonomous elements/capabilities. There is a common scale used to describe the level of autonomous vehicles in 5 levels. The first being driver assistance and the last being

Looking at the full deployment of current technologies, Intelligent Transportation Society of America states the technology could “achieve a 2 to 4 percent reduction in oil consumption and related greenhouse gas emissions each year over the next 10 years.” This number includes all of the levels of autonomous vehicles. One of the things not entirely researched is the way that autonomous vehicles could allow for less expensive electric cars to be more attractive/usable for most consumers. For example, an electric car that only gets 70 miles on a full charge isn’t something a lot of people would be willing to put money down for. But, if that same car was able to drive itself to your job and then charge itself in the parking lot, it’s potential would be realized. The Niskanen Center explains in an article about the benefits of autonomous vehicles “the McKinsey Global Institute has suggested that CO2 emissions ‘could be reduced by as much as 300 million tons per year,’ which would be the equivalent to a 50 percent reduction of CO2 currently emitted as a result of commercial aviation.“ This would really hope America decrease its carbon emissions and reach the goals it has set. The Niskanen Center goes on to explain “In an October 2013 report from the Eno Center for Transportation, congestion and fuel economy benefits were determined to be the primary drivers of economic savings from autonomous vehicles. Annually, almost 3 billion hours of travel time could be saved as a result of less congested roadways.” So, because of the decrease in accidents caused by autonomous vehicles as well as the benefits of the cars making better decision than their human counterparts we will see a decrease in traffic congestion. The article ends by saying “[By 2025] The total sum of potential economic impacts could be as high as $2 trillion.” Now, this is a best case scenario but it the specific number isn’t the important part. The