The Many Impacts of Self Driving Cars

Self-driving cars are immanently poised to hit the market. Now is the time to develop effective strategies for welcoming the new and promising technologies, which have the potential to dramatically improve transportation infrastructure throughout the world. Driverless cars present unique legal, political, and economic challenges, as well as offering insight into the social and cultural factors that may present barriers to technology adoption. Self-driving cars can be integrated into a sustainable development program, while also solving some of the most pressing logistical and public health problems. The following is a brief analysis of the technology’s influence on society, considering social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental issues.
Social and Cultural Considerations
From inattentiveness to impairment, from speeding to decision-making or perceptual misreads, over 90% of driving accidents are caused by human error (Azmat & Schuhmayer, 2015). Driverless cars have the potential to radically improve public safety. The loss of productivity due to long commutes and congested roads is also an important social issue that is a primary impetus for immediately implementing a self-driving car infrastructure. Azmat & Schuhmayer (2015) estimate around $101 billion a year is lost due to the downtime related to commuting. Self-driving cars also lead to better overall land use in urban areas, and overall help promote a higher quality of life. Acceptance of self-driving cars is growing. Research has shown that consumers respond more favorably to self-driving cars and related smart roads infrastructure when presented with information that showcases the positive effects of these technologies (Nees, 2016). Cultural variables will impact the ways self-driving cars are marketed and presented to the consumer, and will have a huge impact in how lawmakers and policy makers discuss the public planning programs for welcoming driverless cars. Most members of the public will be willing to accept the technology when all information is clearly and credibly presented, and when viewed from a “long-term, evolutionary perspective,” and not just a means to achieve short term gains (Araujo, Mason & Spring, 2012, p. 4). At the same time, consumers will be most interested in their cost-benefits analyses, and how self-driving cars will affect their pocketbooks, public safety, as well as their personal safety. Therefore, it is critical to present information in honest and straightforward ways. Nees (2016) also found that misinformation or idealizing driverless cars can reduce overall trust in the technology. The social benefits of self-driving cars are an important reason why the technology needs to be implemented strategically, with due consideration for cultural variables. Furthermore, self-driving cars may be of especial importance in countries where infrastructure is underdeveloped. Self-driving car fleets in a car share model will open up transportation opportunities to people in rural areas who otherwise do not have access to jobs.
Political Considerations
By 2012, California and Nevada had already proposed bills to facilitate the integration of driverless cars within their existing public infrastructure (Araujo, Mason & Spring, 2012). By 2013, several more states including Florida and the District of Columbia passed laws authorizing self-driving automobile manufacturers to test drive their vehicles on public roads, with almost a dozen other states following suit (Howard & Dai, 2013, p. 6). Clearly, the political impetus to facilitate technological innovation is starting to outweigh the public fears of a new technology. Because much of the technology is driven from the engineering sector itself, politicians need to play a mediating role between communicating the results of scientific innovation to the general public. The healthcare and insurance sector will undoubtedly take heed of the numerous benefits self-driving cars have for improving public safety and reducing unnecessary accidents. Stakeholders in multiple sectors will be pushing politicians more vocally over the next few years, as the benefits of self-driving cars outweigh the drawbacks more and more as the technology and infrastructure become increasingly feasible to implement. There will always be political pulls in opposite directions, as resistance to change is inevitable. The key to resolving the political disputes is to encourage self-driving automobile manufacturers to work closely with policymakers every step of the way.
Economics
The biggest overall challenge to implementing self-driving cars on a wide scale, beyond the experimental testing phase, is cost. As of 2013, the cost of manufacturing one self-driving car was estimated to be as much as $150,000 (Howard & Dai, 2013). The additional costs associated with infrastructure updates, such as special lanes for self-driving cars, will also drive up the costs of implementing the new technology. However, these costs will likely plummet as demand for the technology increases and more companies are involved in manufacture. Competition will help ensure that the price of personalized driverless vehicles will be reduced, while also offering businesses the opportunity to invest in self-driving commercial vehicles for the transportation of goods or people. Legal considerations such as liability need to be worked out, as the manufacturers would assume a tremendous amount of costs associated with technology failures.
The economic benefits of driverless cars are in fact one of the most important attractions of the new technology. A driverless car will be safer, thereby reducing the burden on the healthcare system and on individual consumers (Azmat & Shuhmayer, 2015). With fewer accidents, law enforcement, insurance companies, and the court system will also liberate their resources. As Azmat & Schuhmayer (2015) also point out, the vast majority of the time a person’s vehicle remains stagnant and not in use. While Uber and other car share programs have helped reduce these wasted hours during which vehicles are not in use, a self-driving car model that is built around the concept of car sharing will liberate the resources currently diverted towards single-use vehicles. Self-driving cars are also designed specifically to reduce gasoline consumption, with the ideal model being a fully electric rechargeable model. Saving money on fuel will also help promote sustainable economic development around the world.
Environment
One of the clear benefits of self-driving cars is to reduce pollution and energy consumption. There are two main reasons why self-driving cars can help solve the climate change and pollution crises. The first is that self-driving cars are being developed with sustainability in mind, due to their independence from fossil fuels. The second is that self-driving cars are being proposed as a car share system. Instead of the current model of each person owning a vehicle, the self-driving model could enable a fleet of self-driving cars to be readily available on demand. This would reduce the number of vehicles on the market and in production, while also reducing the number of vehicles on the road. Thus, even the net environmental costs of charging the batteries on self-driving cars would be mitigated by the reduced overall consumption of energy. Roads would be less congested, leading to fewer driver frustrations.
Conclusion
There are still many barriers to implementing self-driving cars on a broader scale. However, public perception of self-driving cars has gradually improved as information about the technology is increasingly forthcoming. Adopting self-driving cars will radically transform public infrastructure, improve public safety, and improve overall quality of life.








References

Araujo, L., Mason, K. & Spring, M. (2012). Self-driving cars. Big Innovation Centre. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4115/e7cd1175d5eea31a57c5f1b135b9d559da3d.pdf
Azmat, M. & Schuhmayer, C. (2015). Self driving cars: The future has already begun. Vienna University of Economics and Business. http://www.ioeb.at/fileadmin/ioeb/dateiliste/dokumente/Downloads___Links/WS_IV_-_Azmat_Schumayer_-_The_future_has_already_begun_.pdf
Howard, D. & Dai, D. (2013). Public perceptions of self-driving cars. https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~djhoward/reports/Report%20-%20Public%20Perceptions%20of%20Self%20Driving%20Cars.pdf
Nees, M.A. (2016). Acceptance of Self-driving Cars: An Examination of Idealized versus Realistic Portrayals with a Self-driving Car Acceptance Scale. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2016 Annual Meeting. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1541931213601332