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Hampton Lesemann

Professor P

English 102

2 May 2017

The Autonomous Industrialization

Driving a vehicle is a staple around the world enjoyed by some and dreaded by others.

With over a billion cars on the road there are very large and wealthy corporations leading the

technology industry. From over 130 years ago we have gone from a top speed of 10 miles an

hour to an unreal 270, but one major thing stays the same: you have to drive. It sounds very

simple, but this is exactly what those corporations were thinking and now solving. There are

major complications with autonomous cars including liability as well as simply the ability for

humans to trust technology with their lives and be able to react when needed. Many

manufacturers already have semi-autonomous cars out today but some are skipping that because

it includes the hardest issue to solve: humans are not sufficient backup plans. You may assume

that we would not need to intervene often, but last year a Tesla vehicle malfunctioned

autonomously every three hours in California according to the DMV proving reliable human

interaction in vital. This data combined with a few fatalities shows that truthfully we are not

ready yet, and begs the question is it right for us to have these machines in the publics hands

already? The differences in the way we drive cars of today and cars of the past usually have

improved the experience, but this is the first time it is possibly deteriorating. Should corporations

be allowed to release autonomous systems before we have these basic, although complicated,

issues figured out? Or, should we continue sporadically research and developing future ideas?
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This chart shows a few surprising statistics, and interestingly enough only 50% of people feel

safe getting in an autonomous car.

Last year in January the Obama Administration changed their approach on self-driving

cars completely because the approach was too chaotic. Before then it was all up to automakers to

fund research and development of safe autonomous cars around simple guidelines, and this is

important because it means that the government was not originally invested in the project

financially or working on guidelines for the industry. This approach was taking too long and the

Obama Administration pledged to invest $4 billion and to remove hurdles to develop

autonomous vehicles and set further guidelines for them within 6 months(The New York

Times). Removing hurdles entails that they will do the best they can to find a solution to the

multiple guidelines that have been holding back companies because they were under-developed

and in turn too strict. The Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stated they would use the $4

billion over the next 10 years for research projects and infrastructure improvements that would
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aid driverless cars on the road. This includes work on roads to ease driverless cars environment,

and increase traffic flow. Mr. Foxx stated that as many as 25,000 deaths could have been

avoided last year if driverless technology had been in widespread use. I agree with the moves to

spend more on infrastructure and research projects because the car industry is far too large to

underestimate. Manufacturers including Google and General Motors agree and welcome the

proposal, believing that a partnership between car makers and regulators is crucial to get this

done right and done safely(The New York Times). The government already allowed 2,500

autonomous vehicles to deploy through an independent company for a two year period, and this

shows that we are on the fast track. Personally it is surprising to know there is this much effort

being put into this industry simply because of how new and different it is to anything we have

had before. This article shows throughout that there is a large effort being put into this industry

and is widespread throughout the world, and only means that it is a matter of time. There are

regulators speeding things up as we speak, and for years now companies have vowed to have

autonomous vehicles on the production line in the next 10 years.

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The most critical issue for automakers is disengagement. This means that when an

autonomous vehicle fails or is limited because of a certain situation the autonomous mode

disengages. In turn, the driver must be aware, quick enough to react, and react in the exact

manner needed all within seconds. TEDx published a Ted Talk by Tyron Louw that brought very

interesting points to light. Louw studies human interactions and reactions, and without a doubt

this has a great deal to do with self driving cars. Tyron Louw is a human factors expert working

on understanding drivers' capabilities along with the limitations in their interaction with an

autonomous driving system. Louw is a Ph.D. student at the Institute for Transport Studies at the

University of Leeds, and he works with Volvo, Ford, the German Aerospace Centre, and other

research institutions. He does European projects investigating various aspects of road users'

interactions with automated transport systems. Mr. Louw had a great analogy about the feeling of

when you wake up in a hotel room and feel as if you are lost and dont know where you are, and

compares that to as if you were writing a paper while your car is driving you to work and all of

the sudden there are sounds and lights going off and you must intervene(TEDxTalks). The reality

is that when that happens chances are you are going to make the wrong decision, because you are

simply unaware of what is going on and what you need to be doing to fix it. There has been

experiments with talented racecar drivers who have reaction times of milliseconds, and they were

still unable to make the correct decision after they were distracted. This is one problem of many

to solve for this industry. I believe we should be going at this full throttle, but we do have to

realize the magnitude of the car industry and the amount of people it affects.

Also in this Ted Talk Mr.Louw mentions a story from when he was in Africa and it relates

to the amount of lives that could have possibly been saved.. He witnessed a large van packed

with men, women, and children to the rim. It was violently swerving and dodging vehicles as it
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swerved into the opposite lane. It over-corrected, flipped, and landed in a ditch and sadly 13

people died. This tragic scene influenced Mr. Louw and he stresses that if we had autonomous

systems in place this could have been avoided. Elon Musk owner of Tesla, the largest

autonomous/electric vehicle company to date, is on the way to being the first to solve this issue.

Musk has also mentioned research into a brain chip that could connect humans with machines,

and stated that human trials will begin soon. He already has cars out that can stay in the lane,

follow the car ahead accelerating and stopping when needed, and can move the car in simple

situations using just the key. This is great, but in Japan a trash truck backed out of a road and a

tesla was in auto-mode and did not see the back of the truck because the tires had not reached the

road yet. The back of the truck went through the windshield and killed the driver, and the brakes

were not applied once. This could be seen as the drivers fault because he could have payed

attention and stopped, but this is the exact problem that automated cars allow: to not pay

attention at all. This shows that we still have issues, and Mr. Musk is stating that we will have

cars driving themselves completely by 2021. To top that off the cars will be the ones he has

already sold because they will only need a simple over-the-air update. Is this the appropriate way

to approach something of this magnitude? Once a large percentage of cars are autonomous will

these vehicles still be considered safe or up to date with the autonomous world?
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A surprisingly small amount of people actually want to see self driving cars. I would not

doubt this would change if they had a turn in a fully autonomous car, but the question is would it

seem any better or safer than you originally thought? The positives of having autonomous

vehicles out there are very hard to ignore, but the negatives are extremely time and money

consuming. I am studying engineering and it is obvious that the larger or more daunting task,

chances are you will have a greater and more important outcome. To assume that in the next 5

years you will step into a car without a driver is daunting and somewhat unbelievable because of

how much we are used to driving. Although realistically if we are able to do that in the next 5

years the other accomplishments that come along with it will be astounding. When we invented

planes you went from being able to receive mail thousands of times quicker, but I could assume

that was not the sole reason we invented planes. The main point is that there will be multiple

achievements coming with the driverless car and will make the efforts worth it in the long run. I

strongly believe we should be research and developing with full force, but we must do it right

considering the massive industry and insane amount of people it will drastically affect.
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Works Cited

Walia, Arjan. "Why Elon Musk Is Advocating For Brain Chipping The Human Race."

Collective Evolution. N.p., 10 June 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

TEDxTalks. "Are we ready for the self-driving car? | Tyron Louw | TEDx University of

Leeds." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Feb. 2017.

"Driverless Car of the Future (1957)." Paleofuture - Paleofuture Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 07

Feb. 2017.

Vlasic, Bill. "U.S. Proposes Spending $4 Billion on Self-Driving Cars." The New York

Times. The New York Times, 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Davies, Alex. "The Very Human Problem Blocking the Path to Self-Driving Cars." Wired.

Conde Nast, 01 Jan. 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2017.

Richter, Felix. "Infographic: Consumer Concerns About Self-Driving Cars." Statista

Infographics. N.p., 21 Sept. 2016. Web. 01 May 2017.

Alter, Lloyd. "Study finds that people are not really interested in self-driving cars."

TreeHugger. N.p., 24 May 2016. Web. 01 May 2017.