Introduction
This paper focuses on Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV), driverless, and autonomous trucks and cars—collectively referred to as “driverless and autonomous vehicles” in this paper. The transportation industry is one of the most important sectors in the world economy. It ensures that goods and services can freely flow within unrestricted (i.e. trade-able) areas. This is allowed through the fast and efficient (as much as possible) of commodities and people. The premise is that the faster and more efficient goods and people can be moved from one point to another, the more booming the transportation industry will be.
A booming transportation industry is theorized to have a major contribution to socio-economic development, by means of promoting trade, among other fundamental types of economic activity. A healthier and often higher level of trade is unlikely to be considered to have negative implications because it almost always leads to progress and innovation. Just like any other industries and sectors, the transportation industry has been subject to numerous revolutions, one of the most prominent of which is the technological or digital revolution. In the past decades, the automation of some of the most important processes and operations in some of the largest companies has been increasingly prevalent.
Today, big companies in the automotive industry consider the idea of making use of driverless trucks and cars or simply AGVs to change the future of the transportation industry. They envision an environment where drivers would no longer have to focus on the road while travelling because the smart technology embedded in the electronics and other systems of the vehicles they are using would have taken over of most if not all of the driving-related operations.
This vision is, in fact, slowly coming into fruition as more and more concepts of AGVs are being released. In fact, in the commercial space, commercialized and mass market-capable models of driverless automobiles have already been released. It is important to note, however, that compared to the state of the traditional non-driverless vehicles, the technology for AGV is still in its infancy. The information and discussion materials used and that can be found in this paper is a combination of theoretical and empirical materials, and primary and secondary resources, from previously published studies and other literary sources on the topic.
Features of the AGVs
With the current level of technological advancement in the automotive industry, riding and making use of AGVs in a commercial scale, is no longer a farfetched idea. Perhaps the most notable feature of AGVs is their ability to automatically navigate the roads in various conditions, safely, efficiently, and conveniently.
It is important to note that despite the fact that there are ongoing claims about certain models of AGVs that are already capable of going full automatic when it comes to road and street navigation, the technology is still in its infancy. There are still numerous issues that the AGV manufacturers and the developers of the software, hardware, and technology embedded in them have to improve. When it comes to the direction where this feature is going, however, it is clear that it is headed towards full automation.
In a study available through the Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium Workshops, the researchers examined the usability a driverless car technology in various urban and non-urban scenarios. According to the results of their study, the automation feature found in driverless cars and other smart technologies embedded in them make for a promising proposition when it comes to the idea of improving the current state of the transportation sector. This signifies that the future of the transportation industry is headed towards a more AGV friendly, or even an AGV-centered environment.
This is, after all, the point of this technology. It has been proven time and again that automation, within reasonable and realistic models, especially for redundant tasks that are often limited by human capabilities, is a boon for society and business.
Developments in the Driverless World
It is important to note that there are many individual technologies that contribute to the creation of semi or fully-driverless capabilities for cars and trucks and according to an article published in the Scientific American, these, at the moment, include Forward Collision Avoidance, Backup Cameras, Vehicle to Vehicle Communication, and Lane Detection. That list pertains to the technological advancements that the industries working on driverless and or autonomous vehicles hope to perfect in the short to medium term.
Forward Collision Avoidance
One of the major sources of apprehension and skepticism towards driverless and autonomous cars is their safety, specifically, how capable and effective they are and can be when it comes to preventing car to car, car to person, and car to object types of collisions. This can be a real deal breaker for those who are still in the process of considering driverless and autonomous cars as no one would normally want to trade their safety for convenience.
For drivers and owners of conventional trucks and cars, safety almost always comes as a first priority. This means that unless driverless and autonomous car manufacturers can make for a fairly convincing proposition that the cars of the future will be safe at the same time, the technology needed for the industry to progress to the driverless and autonomous car levels would remain in the sidelines. According to a study published by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, safety has always been one of the top concerns of passengers and drivers of driverless and autonomous cars when they identified the factors that influence the public’s trust in automated cars.
Backup Cameras and Sensors
One of the interesting features of driverless and autonomous vehicles today is their ability to park themselves. In some cases, there are driverless and autonomous vehicles that are capable of retrieving and presenting themselves to their drivers from the parking lots. Conventional vehicles still rely on the driver’s maneuvering skills and abilities when it comes to car parking and retrieval. One way how technology helps them with these often tricky processes is through the use of backup cameras.
They are meant to provide visual feedback so that the drivers would be able to see how aligned the vehicle is to the designating parking spot. Driverless and autonomous vehicles make use of the same concept; however, they do so in an automated manner. Instead of relying on drivers, they rely on computers that make use of a combination of cameras and sensors to determine the position of the car relative to the objects in its environment. A good example of a driverless and autonomous vehicle that has this feature is Tesla’s Model S.
Through the use of a complex set of cameras and sensors, it enables its users to park their cars and summon them from the curb automatically. The fact that the technology has already become usable for small and private use cars means that it would sooner or later be adapted for larger vehicles such as those being used for commercial purposes, especially trucks.
Vehicle to Vehicle Communication
Smart technology enables driverless and autonomous vehicles to communicate with each other. Through the use of a database, presumably one that can be accessed via the cloud, networking capable vehicles would be able to access information coming from other vehicles. In the same manner, they would also be able to upload and share their information. This creates a swarm of information that can be useful for data analytics and statistical purposes. The evolution of this technology creates a lot of possibilities.
An example would be the creation of a database that policy makers can access and use to synchronize the traffic management system in a targeted geographical location. The foundations of the vehicle to vehicle communication feature have, in fact, been set for quite some time already. Famous traffic management application Waze makes use of the same concept. Basically, they collect information from users, who are vehicle owners, and upload them in the application’s database. These data are accessible by other users of the application.
Lane Detection
The technology that allows driverless and autonomous vehicles to detect their lane is another safety-related feature. The goal, in reality, is for the vehicles to have the ability to detect not only their lane but also their position relative to other objects in the external environment so that similarly automated adjustments can be made in order to avoid collisions and crashes, without needing any action or response from the driver, or in the case of driverless and autonomous, passengers.
This feature is also made possible by the combination of cameras and sensors present in the vehicle’s hardware system. According to a journalistic entry authored by Armstrong (2016), driverless vehicles like the ones manufactured by Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Google, and Tesla, among others make use of advanced radar sensors that are dotted and scattered around the vehicle to make it aware of its surroundings.
Commercial Aspect
According to a study published in the journal Inderscience Online, a future characterized by ubiquitous driverless and autonomous vehicles is a theoretical possibility. The researchers in that study implied that the acceptance of driverless and autonomous vehicles (e.g. cars and trucks) in highly urbanized communities would be one of the keys that would launch it into mass reproduction. The only way for a newly introduced concept such as that of the driverless and autonomous vehicle to be popularized and profitable (from a commercial point of view) is if it would be mass produced.
There is, unfortunately, more to mass production than the ability of the producers to actually produce the product. There has to be a real demand for the product being slated for mass production. In fact, in most situations wherein the commercialization of a newly introduced or discovered product is being considered, the demand component first has to be present before manufacturers come in to the equation. A product that does not have a high level of demand, regardless of how technologically advanced it is would simply be unviable from a commercial point of view.
As for the driverless and autonomous vehicles, one way to assess the commercial aspect (in terms of commercial viability) is to check the level of interest and demand. Some relevant questions to answer would be the ones that ask whether the technologies and products for driverless and autonomous vehicles are being hyped up by media and whether the public is actually buying into those hypes. If the answer to both questions is a yes, then there is a good chance that there will be a high level of acceptance for driverless and autonomous cars in the future, high enough that there would be a continuously growing demand that in turn would also be high enough to seal the commercialization of driverless and autonomous vehicles.
Cultural Impact
It is important to note that the world is yet to emerge into an environment where drivers and their skills would not be needed anymore because of the presence of driverless and autonomous vehicles. The technology is simply not fully developed yet. However, what is guaranteed is the fact that once that happens, it would be a huge paradigm shift. One can grasp how great a paradigm shift that would be simply by evaluating how large the roles of cars and vehicles have been in society.
Automotive vehicles are used by all kinds of people; they use it to travel, deliver goods and services, and to get from one point to another. Automotive vehicles have become a large part of everyone’s life that introducing a major change with regard to how it is used and operated can be considered as an unacceptable change for many, one that would of course have a corresponding cultural impact.
Normally, cultural impacts caused by paradigm shifts are perceived negatively. This is because of people’s natural resistance to change. In the case of driverless and autonomous vehicles, the technologies being developed to make their commercialization possible are meant to significantly improve human dignity and condition. However, there is still a significant portion of the population who think that they are not worth it and that society should rather stick with the old and proven ways of operating automotive vehicles.
In a study featured in the Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting, for example, the researchers examined the public perceptions of self-driving cars. They made use of primary data to assess how the public perceives the rise of self-driving vehicles. The results of that study showed that “individuals are most attracted to potential safety benefits, the convenience of not having to find parking, and amenities such as multitasking while en route”.
On the negative side, the authors found that “individuals were most concerned with liability, the cost of the technology, and losing control of the vehicle”. This primary data-based evidence shows that cost and safety concerns are among the top causes of apprehension among prospective driverless and autonomous vehicle users.
Disadvantages of Driverless Technology
Just like any other product or technology, driverless and autonomous vehicles come with its own set of disadvantages. Cost, at this point, is still one of the major disadvantages of driverless technology. On average, a vehicle that is designed to be driverless and autonomous costs one and a half to more than twice the cost of a conventional vehicle that is in the same segment.
For most car owners who are on the lookout for options that provide the highest level of value, specifically those looking for low cost but high value products, driverless and autonomous may not even be considered. It is important to note, however, that cost typically goes down the more universally accepted a product becomes. The market for driverless and autonomous vehicles is still in its infancy.
Manufacturers still have not reached the point where they would be capable of bringing down their products’ price per unit; this is mainly because they have not reached the sweet spot that often comes with mass reproduction. The bigger the number of people who buys into the driverless and autonomous trend, the bigger the demand would be and the eventual result of that would be lower operating costs for the manufacturers. Those savings would later on be transferred to the consumers who could then buy the driverless and autonomous vehicles at a lower cost.
Guided Vehicles Regulations
One of the most commonly taken for granted disadvantage of driverless technology is its ability to potentially disrupt the way how legal liabilities that may be associated with driving a vehicle are being handled. Normally, when road accidents that lead to damage to property, injuries, and even deaths occur, the person driving the vehicle that caused the accident would be held legally liable.
In the case of driverless and autonomous vehicles, however, the presumed driver is, in practice, not the driver anymore. Rather, the car is the one driving (itself) because it is a driverless and autonomous car after all. This effectively creates a legal loophole that future owners of driverless and autonomous vehicles may use as an excuse to plead not guilty for the legal liabilities charged against them in cases where an accident happened. At this point, the same regulations being applied to conventional vehicle owners (in terms of legal liability) apply to owners of driverless and autonomous vehicles. However, as these products become more popular in the future, more policy changes are expected.
Success and Failures in the Autonomous Driving World
Conclusions
In conclusion, a future characterized by the presence of a bigger number of driverless and autonomous vehicles compared to conventional ones does seem likely. With the level of hype that is being released in the market, people are eventually going to realize the huge advantage that driverless and autonomous vehicles have over conventional ones. The premise can be summarized by the idea that suggests that automation comes with a significant improvement in the levels of efficiency and practicality. However, the level of discourse on the benefits and disadvantages of driverless and autonomous vehicles should be raised so that the best practices would be adopted and the not so good ones would be scrapped.
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