ABOUT ME
For all my life, I have had an interest in cars. Cars captivated me - there was something about the design and style of them that was fascinating. I had a massive Matchbox and Hotwheels collection. I would take the cars with me everywhere I went. I took them on road trips and rolled them around the window sills in my parent’s car, to church to roll them out on the floor, and even in my mom’s garden to do serious off roading on the flaky mulch (To this day, my mom and I are still finding cars buried in the garden). I do not know how the collection started; they were just there, sitting in my room, to what it seems like, since I was born.
I never outgrew the childish toy. Recently, I placed four toy cars in a PC I had recently built. As I got older, my time with the toy cars declined; I am not rolling the cars on the church floor anymore. It is not to say my interest in cars has diminished. Of course, the bigger road cars still interest me. My dad owned a 2010 Ford Taurus. Every time he drove the car, I always spotted a flashing yellow light on the mirror. I had learned that the signal fulgurated every time another vehicle appeared in his blind spot. The system was not a toy; it was a safety feature. The blind spot monitoring system is one of several systems that are helping prevent accidents from human errors. While the safety features are not embedded in my toy cars, I still found the larger road cars and their technologies and complexities interesting.
In August 2020, while considering topics for the senior thesis, I decided to focus on autonomous vehicles. Aside from my interest in cars, I chose autonomous vehicles because automakers are slowly and carefully working on making their vehicles fully self-driving. Autonomous vehicles will become a reality and are highly likely to affect our daily lives in the future. This thesis touches upon the advantages, disadvantages, and impact of autonomous vehicles. Based on the research I have done, I will determine whether automakers and federal agencies should pursue the advantages of driverless cars and work towards a fully autonomous future or should hold back on the idea due to the magnitude of the disadvantages.
Honors Thesis
At least ninety percent of the 36,000 plus fatal accidents in the United States are due to human error. The errors include texting while driving, impaired driving, and speeding. To reduce the fatalities, the automotive industry and government agencies are collaborating to deploy autonomous vehicles safely. Autonomous vehicles are highly likely to bring an economic impact to industries outside of the automotive world. Autonomous vehicles bring advantages, such as reduction in traffic, but can potentially bring disadvantages, such as hacking vulnerabilities. To overcome the disadvantages, domestic and international governments will converse with automotive manufacturers, concerning regulations to ensure that autonomous vehicles will be safe.
“When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said ‘nah, what’s wrong with the horse?’ That was a huge best he made, and it worked.”
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- Elon Musk
“If you recognize that self-driving cars are going to prevent car accidents, AI will be responsible for reducing one of the leading causes of death in the world.”
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- Mark Zuckerberg
“The vehicles will be fully self-driving. So you have your own personal space where you can sit back and relax.”
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-John Krafcik, CEO Waymo.
