Running head: IT MANAGEMENT: AUTONOMOUS CARS

IT Management: Autonomous Cars

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IT MANAGEMENT: AUTONOMOUS CARS

Abstract
Autonomous cars have become a real reality in the modern world, and various individuals
from different parts of the world see the cars as a likely way of creating a system where
computers are going to take over the art of driving from human beings trained to be drivers
(Wurman, D'Andrea & Mountz, 2008). Autonomous cars being one of the current inventions in
the transport sector, it is considered necessary to look into factors such as the advantages the
autonomous vehicles, the disadvantages of the autonomous cars and how the cars will promote
efficiency in the transport sector. The objective of the work is therefore to come out with the pros
and cons of the autonomous cars in the transportation industry. Also, how the autonomous
vehicles operate or driven and their cost are highlighted (Sukkarieh, 2000).
Abbreviations: PSV- Passengers vehicles
Introduction
Autonomous cars (Driverless Cars) refer to the vehicles which have the ability to guide
themselves without control by the human beings that is, autonomous cars are driverless cars that
do not need a driver for them to operate. The cars are therefore the special type of cars which are
run by the computers and require no drivers (Wurman, D'Andrea & Mountz, 2008).
The Advantages of the Autonomous cars.
The autonomous cars are today becoming popular in the sector of transport due to some of its
numerous benefits which include;
The autonomous vehicles are not operated or driven by human beings, a result of lack of
human error due to the normal while driving, the cars usually lead to a much safer journey

IT MANAGEMENT: AUTONOMOUS CARS

without involvement in any accident. The ability of the vehicles to lower the rates of accidents as
they move from one place to another is considered to be one of the most important futures they
possess.
The autonomous cars can reduce the traffic rates on the roads they travel in as the
autonomous cars possess sensors which enable them to pack closer together to each other thus
allowing more vehicles on the roads at the same time. The ability of the autonomous cars to pack
closer is their main feature reducing the traffic rates on the roads (Wurman, D'Andrea & Mountz,
2008).
Autonomous cars make it easier to drive as everybody can control the cars without going
to driving test and therefore the driving license. Anybody is in a position of driving the
autonomous cars whether they have some of the physical disabilities that are, the cars make
disability not to be a factor that hinders driving as anyone will be able to drive the autonomous
cars.
The fuel consumed by the autonomous cars are less compared to other ordinary cars. The
ability of the cars to conserve fuel enables the cars to cut or reduce the transport cost making the
passengers experience a smoother and affordable transportation experience.
The autonomous cars can reduce or shorten the journey for passengers as the speed limits
of the cars are likely to be increased thereby reducing the traveling period. Also, the stress of
parking vehicles is significantly reduced as no special skills are required to operate the
autonomous cars.

IT MANAGEMENT: AUTONOMOUS CARS

The Disadvantages of the Autonomous cars

Although the autonomous vehicles have several advantages as a means of transports such
as saving fuel and cutting off the carriage cost in the environment, the cars also possess some of
the significant disadvantages in the transport sector which include:
Since computers are human-made machines, there is usually worry of the computers
failure or crushing or sudden malfunctioning of the computers which are likely to results into
fatal collisions which may lead to loss of lives as well as damages of the autonomous cars.
During the first appearance or release of the autonomous cars to the transport industries,
the cost of purchasing them are likely to be expensive making them unaffordable for many
individuals in the environment. The expensive nature of the autonomous cars on their first
release does not favor all the people with interest to buy in the environment making them
selective (Wurman, D'Andrea & Mountz, 2008).
The introduction of the autonomous cars is likely to result in loss of job opportunities in
the transport sectors as the ordinary PSV are likely to be eliminated making the ordinary PSV
drivers in the transport sector to be jobless. Through the introduction of the autonomous cars in
the transport sector, the driving profession is likely to die which may result in adverse effect on
the economic growth, that is, the autonomous cars do not need drivers to drive them leaving the
drivers jobless which is considered catastrophic to the economy of any given nation or state in
the world as driving is one of the professions that boost the economy to the required standards
(Sukkarieh, 2000).
The autonomous cars make it difficult to identify the cause or the source of fault or the
individual responsible for the cause of the computer failure resulting into the accidents or

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collisions by the autonomous cars as they do not have drivers to take care of the situation or the
Google software designer and the crashes are worse than those caused by the human error. Also,
the computers are case sensitive, even an error by a comma or just a minor clinch or full-stop in
the computer program is likely to cause worse collisions and loss of life among the passengers
(Wurman, D'Andrea & Mountz, 2008).
Being that the autonomous cars are needs no human drivers, it is very difficult for the
computers which drive or controls the autonomous cars to understand the signal such as the hand
signal and the reverse signal. The cars also make it difficult for the traffic police to assist in the
cases of collision and criminal activities caused by the autonomous cars as they are driverless.
The introduction of the autonomous cars requires the upgrade of the infrastructure
especially the roads where the cars will be operating in and taking the passengers to their
destinations. The traffic, as well as the streets lights, will as well require being upgraded to be
able to cope up will the required standards of the autonomous cars in the transport industry.
The Cost of the Autonomous cars
The autonomous cars being incredibly innovative and made through the application of the
advanced technology the cars are very expensive (Sukkarieh, 2000). For instance, the software
used in controlling the cars as well as the measured design by the Google software engineers is
much advance which requires a lot of money to develop making the utilization of the cars more
expensive as well as their operation process that is, the cost of self-driving technology will be
around $9,000.

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Conclusion
Autonomous cars form one of the advances and modern technology in the transport
sector which does reduce not only the traffic congestion on the roads but also reduce the time of
traveling taken by the passengers while moving to different destinations. However, autonomous
cars are very expensive to acquire or buy, and only a few individuals in the environment can
afford, and it also results in unemployment among the drivers as it does not require drivers to
operate it (It is controlled by computers). The damages caused by the Autonomous cars can also
be fatal than the ones caused by the ordinary PSV making them not much preferred by most
people.

IT MANAGEMENT: AUTONOMOUS CARS

References
Wurman, P. R., D'Andrea, R., & Mountz, M. (2008). Coordinating hundreds of cooperative,
autonomous vehicles in warehouses. AI Magazine, 29(1), 9.
Sukkarieh, S. (2000). Low cost, high integrity, aided inertial navigation systems for autonomous
land vehicles (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Sydney).
Krogh, B., & Thorpe, C. (1986, April). Integrated path planning and dynamic steering control for
autonomous vehicles. In Robotics and Automation. Proceedings. 1986 IEEE International
Conference on (Vol. 3, pp. 1664-1669). IEEE.