User:Adrianna.thompson19

How did the idea of autonomy in vehicles come about? To answer this question, we must first look at the implications of carbon fueled vehicles and their detriment to the environment. Currently, the world, including the United States, is in an energy crisis. The balance between being ecologically conscious and the relative ease of utilizing fossil fuels and their current accessibility. According to the National Post (2007), Nissan Motor Company had the largest carbon emissions rates over all other vehicle manufacturers in a fifteen-year period (National Post 2007). This demonstrates how vehicle manufacturers were steadily increasing the world’s carbon footprint in their race to create vehicles that please the masses. But at what cost? The carbon footprint was growing, the ozone layer thinning, and air pollution was on the rise. An alternative was necessary. Soon, we began to replace carbon fueled vehicles with electric vehicles. But what was next? Soon the idea of autonomous vehicles was in the forefront of technological and vehicular creators’ minds. How do autonomous vehicles work? In the words of Bill Robertson (2017), autonomous vehicles use electromagnetic waves in the form of radio waves, laser beams, sounds, and the recordings of sounds in order to operate (Robertson, 2017, p. 73). In essence, autonomous vehicles rely greatly on the calculations of human beings. The biggest problem in this aspect is the great possibility of human error causing malfunctions in the technology. Nonetheless, steps were taken in creating semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles. However, only semi-autonomous vehicles are the only models that have been successfully integrated in society. In 2015, Kevin Balke wrote a journal on the ITE workshop discussing the shift from carbon vehicles to autonomous vehicles. Balke (2015) states that several issues faced the probability of autonomous vehicles, such as “planning, design, congestion, traffic control, parking, and safety” (p. 17). This shows how much depth is required when tackling the prospect of integrating autonomous vehicles into everyday life. Currently, these obstacles have proven to be more of a point of emphasis than rushing the technology to be quickly integrated into society.