Grant Sonafrank

Himmelreich, Johannes. (2018). Ethics of autonomous vehicles in mundane situations. Ethical

theory and moral practice. https://link-springer-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/article/10.1007/s10677-018-9896-4. Accessed 13 March 2019.

This developed article from a popular source is an unbiased look at the argument

between the safety and ethics of whether autonomous vehicles should be on the roads.

The main points of this article define how an autonomous car decides what path to take

when driving. The example that makes the ethical dilemma easy to understand is the

runaway trolley problem, this problem simplified is that if there is a trolley carrying

passengers about to hit some pedestrians or swerve and crash into a wall what decision

should be made. The answer is more complex than the question because the number of

people on board is something to consider as well as who the people are. One example

given was if there is a one person on the trolley but five in the road you can just go by

the numbers but what if the five people are wearing Nazi uniforms and the one on the

trolley is a nurse. The dilemma is, should you give this life-threatening choice to a

computer.

This source is very objective because it states both sides of the argument without

picking one or the other. Himmelreich talks about letting a robot make decisions

unethical but also talks about how the studies have shown where the autonomous

vehicles are safer. The is an academic source, having ties to Stanford university.
 Grant Sonafrank

The usefulness of this article is great in helping to develop my research paper because it

describes the human aspects of autonomous vehicles and will do a good job of

connecting people to technology in the research paper.

Danryd, E. (2018). AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES. Crit, (82), 46-47. Retrieved from

https://librarylink.uncc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-

com.librarylink.uncc.edu/docview/2092793954?accountid=14605. accessed 13 March

2019.

This scholarly peer reviewed article elaborates on how soon people can expect to see a

majority of cars on the roads to be autonomous and what changes that might come with

them. Danryd talks about how public transportation will be all autonomous but, get rid of

jobs but make the bus system more smooth. Another change will be the lack of private

ownership of cars because services such as uber will become more frequent and more

economical because drivers will not need to be paid for. A few other changes that are

possible deal with parking and construction designs due to the fact that people will not

need to walk to their cars because they can just pick you up. If this is the case with

parking, cars could be instructed to park in safe locations and just drive back to their

owners when they are needed. Another thing to consider is if fewer personal vehicles are

owned there will be less of a need for parking in general because the uber kind of self-

driving cars will just leave after dropping off a passenger.

 Grant Sonafrank

This article is a good source to have because it lays out many possibilities for the future

of these cars. The only concern about this article is that it comes off a little bias in the

sense of how it mentions autonomous cars as mostly a positive outlook and tells that

they might come sooner than most people think. This is also credible because it is from

Woodbury university.

This article will be beneficial to the development of my paper because it brings up many

talking points and presents future developments of these cars. This article describes the

positives of the future of self-driving cars and what non-direct changes might effect

people in the long run.

Matthew.lynberg.ctr@dot.gov. “Automated Vehicles for Safety.” NHTSA, National Highway

Traffic Safety Association, 28 Nov. 2018, www.nhtsa.gov/technology-

innovation/automated-vehicles-safety. Accessed 13 March, 2019.

This reliable website tells about the legal aspects and potential for the safety of these

vehicles. Within this website it tells about the six technical levels of autonomous vehicle,

ranging from level one where the car is sometimes able to aid with steering and braking,

all the way to level six where the car has no reliance on human interaction with the

locomotion of the vehicle. This NHTSA also explains the possible societal benefits of

transporting people who are unable to drive themselves due to a disability, injury, being

under the influence, etc... The idea of autonomous vehicles could possibly eliminate the

need for people to get a driver’s license reducing state income from the dmv’s.
 Grant Sonafrank

This article is bias because at the bottom is states that the NHTSA is dedicated to the

potential of vehicle technologies. But that being said this website is produced by a

national organization about safety. This is reliable to use because of the organization is

all about transportation and always is looking for the newest trend to report and debate

about them.

This website will be useful to the development of my research by giving a legal and

government view of the new technologies. This information about how this technology

being implemented will help to address the problems of the other articles. This is also

useful by having the results of safety testing and connections to other highly regarded

sources.

“Self-Driving Cars Explained.” Union of Concerned Scientists, 21 Feb. 2018

www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/how-self-driving-cars-work. accessed 19 March 2019.

This article has three sections to it, the first being a brief description of the different

levels of what a self-driving car is and the amount of human interaction that is needed.

After this the article describes how there are many different types of technologies doing

the same purposes in self-driving cars. Autonomous vehicles use a combination of

lasers, radar, cameras, and sensors. These cars may have multiple of each of these

technologies to improve on accuracy and precision. After these sensors get the data it is

processed by software to give directions to the actuators (the things that control the
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gas, breaks, and steering). The software is coded in great detail to the point where it can

distinguish a motorcycle from a bicycle. The last part of this article is where the motives

of the union of concerned scientist address what they want in that the development of

self-driving cars is aware of what other changes to people’s lives and the environment.

this article is objective for the most part because when stating the current

developments in the autonomous vehicles it was nothing but the facts and what where

the future developments are projected to go. The only bias part of this article is when

the union of concerned scientist start to talk about how the environment and jobs can

be affected, and what tings should be kept in mind when creating new innovations.

This article will be a contributing source to my research paper because of how it gives a

general overview of how self-driving cars operate and a few current goals for the

development of the new technology. As well as it stated a few unexpected companies to

watch out for in the furthering of this technology (google, uber, tesla, and Nissan).