For the Capstone project, my main inquiry question was “How do the levels of car automation vary and what are the pros and cons of a completely self-driving car?” These days, I put all my researching time into answering it, and this is like the main part of the project, where all the time you spent pays off into this one part. We even had to write a really good essay, which was really challenging because I’m not the best at writing, but I met with my teachers and they helped me a lot in making the essay.

My essay is:

How do the levels of car automation vary and what are the pros and cons of a completely self-driving car?

by Steven

According to Annual Global Road Crash Statistics, nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year which is about 3,287 deaths a day. Self-driving cars can drastically reduce this number of deaths. We used to only see self-driving cars in movies about futuristic societies, but it is likely that in about 15 years, humans may not be driving cars anymore. Instead, there will be self-driving cars that travel on the roads without human intervention. For my Capstone project on self-driving cars, the main inquiry question I’m trying to answer is: “How do the levels of car automation vary and what are the pros and cons of a completely self-driving car?”  

Car Automation

Car automation development involves many different levels, from 0 to 5.  The higher the level, the more self-driving it is. Each level contains a new feature, allowing it to become more automated, until level 5, which is completely self-driving.

According to an article by Machine Design, the automation levels of cars is described: The level 0 car has no automation, in which the human driver does all the tasks. The level 1 car has a few changes, which could be lane assist, or cruise control. Cruise control is when the car automatically stays at the same speed. Lane assist is making sure the car is in the middle of the lane. The level 2 car can do some things all by itself, like it can parallel park. The level 3 car can drive on the road itself, but the human driver needs to take over when something goes wrong. The level 4 car is almost self-driving, and can handle most situations, but when something is really confusing, like an aggressive driver, or a blocked intersection, the human has to intervene.  The level 5 car is a car that is completely self-driving, can handle itself with all situations as well as a human can, with more precision.

Those are the general levels of the self-driving cars, which were created by the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers). These levels describe all the self-driving cars that have been manufactured. These days, the level car that is used the most is still the level 0 car. The most known self-driving car company is Tesla, but their cars are level 2-3.

Pros and Cons of Self-Driving Cars

Many people think self-driving cars are the future to our transportation, but other people still disagree with the use of self-driving cars. Both sides have good reasoning, and there are many pros and cons to self-driving cars.

Cons of Self-Driving Cars

However, the people that discourage self-driving cars have some cons that should also be taken into consideration, because these citizens should still have a say in what their transportation is. The cons that disagree to the use of self-driving cars are:

• The car system could get hacked, and it could crash.
• The cars are somewhat expensive.
• A lot of the world’s population could lose their jobs (e.g., taxi drivers), and countries’ economies would get less money.
• Less people would use buses, so the government might get less money than usual for more federal issues.

• If a radar breaks down in a self-driving car, and there is no steering wheel, what could happen?
• Bad weather can interfere with the radars.
• Self-driving cars could be used to carry bombs, without the hazard of the terrorist dying.
• Some people like the feeling of driving, and don’t want the computer to do it for them.
• They could have trouble with some unique driving laws in certain areas.

The most important cons that argue against the creation of self-driving cars are that the self-driving cars can get hacked, self-driving cars are really expensive, and many, many people could lose their jobs. These cons are crucial because if self-driving cars are on the road, and they get hacked into crashing, that could cause many deaths to people that didn’t even realize their cars were hacked. Also, self-driving cars are really expensive, and mass-producing self-driving cars would cost millions of millions of dollars from the companies that manufacture them, because they cost from $70,000 to $150,000 per car. Lastly, self-driving cars could replace the taxi and bus drivers, and they could lose their jobs without having any choice but to leave the job they have been doing for a long time. And if the taxi and bus drivers all lose their jobs, America would lose 2% of the entire workforce. Also, most self-driving cars would probably be electric, so they could help the environment, so gas stations would probably go out of business. Also parking lots could be destroyed, because the head manufacturers say that they drop you off, and then they go to another destination without stopping in a parking lot, so about 3 million  people that live in the US will lose their jobs.

Pros of Self-Driving Cars

First, are the pros. The pros of self-driving cars list many reasons why the use of self-driving cars is encouraged. Some pros people need to consider are:

• Less driving mistakes, which can save many lives.
• Reacts faster than human drivers.
• The disabled can use these cars.
• Self-driving cars are more environmentally friendly than regular cars.
• They use accurate lasers to figure out the distance between the object and the car, making the car really safe.
• Self-driving cars can be more efficient than human drivers, because if they are safer, they can go faster than a human driver should.
• Humans could rest, or do work while not worrying about driving.
• If they work well, it can stop traffic.
• The self-driving car doesn’t need to sleep, and can’t get distracted.
• They could go faster than human drivers, making the drives shorter.

I think the most compelling reasons for self-driving car encouragement is that self-driving cars can save more lives, the disabled can also use the self-driving cars, and that humans can work or rest while the self-driving car is driving.

I think that these pros are the most important because if self-driving cars can save many lives, and ages 16-19 get into the most car crashes, so they could get into less crashes throughout the world.

Also, if the disabled can use self-driving cars, things will get more convenient for a lot of people around the world, because there are around 40 million disabled people in the US alone.

Also, if the human doesn’t need to focus on driving, they can use the extra time to work or rest so humans can get a lot more productive, and will be more likely to take initiative to the problems they face, which is why many people want self-driving cars to be sold all around the world.

Based on my research about self-driving cars, I feel that self-driving cars could be used, but they should be tested so they are really safe. I think that companies could research these cars before they sell them to the public for 20 years or so, because I fear that the self-driving cars won’t be safe enough. The researchers should test interactions between the varying levels of self-driving cars, since no one is a perfect driver, and everyone has a different personality, so one driver might be a little bit more aggressive than others. Also, if one person is speeding, how will the self-driving car react? If one person is getting late for work, will the self-driving car block it, or will the self-driving car let it pass? When these questions are answered by more researchers, then we could have higher level cars on the streets.

 

It took me a ton of time to do, but when I read it, I think it looks really finished and I feel proud about being the author of this essay. I also started to prepare for my final share for Capstone, and I’m going to do a TED Talk presentation on self-driving cars. I have already started my script and presentation, and I feel that I have a good start, but they still need to get better. I really liked to make the slideshow, and the script was really hard, because I copied my entire essay into the script, and I had to shorten it and make it better for a presenting use.

I think that my presentation and Capstone project is really coming together, and I can’t wait until I share!