Autonomous vehicles (AV)

The new technology in both robotics and communications has developed substantial influence on the daily lives of humanity and transportation has not been left behind. Technology has enabled the creation of autonomous vehicles (AV) that are aimed at reducing the pollution, crashes, consumption rate and the huge congestions experienced and similarly increasing the level of transport services. The development of these vehicles has created some level of challenges which might affect the transport industry (Casner et al., 72). One of the major challenges includes the liability of the accidents caused by these self-driving vehicles. Looking at the similar case where the Toyota Company previously faced a dark moment due to the faulty vehicles, it is inconclusive on who to be blamed on the self-driven vehicles. The malfunction in Toyota vehicles caused some people to be prosecuted while the mistake was the manufacturer of the vehicle.

The software was to blame for the Toyota case which ended up killing some people and injuring others in the process. The software is the main component in the autonomous vehicles which will make important decisions and also drive the cars from one place to the other. The current model by Google does not have any physical appliances which a person can use to control not even the brakes or steering. In case of an accident from an oncoming vehicle, the possibilities of survival are minimal. For the case of navigation in crowded cities, for example, the developing countries, the autonomous car has been designed to stop or slow down immediately there is the detection of humans (Casner et al., 75). The concern is the issue of a zebra crossing where the light turns red but people are still crossing. In this case, the car will be forced to stop for many hours since people will keep crossing.

Work cited

Casner, Stephen M., Edwin L. Hutchins, and Don Norman. "The challenges of partially    automated driving." Communications of the ACM 59.5 (2016): 70-77.