When you hear the word “autonomous vehicle” what comes to mind? Is it a vehicle that has the capability to drive itself without any human intervention at all? If so, then what you’re thinking of is a level 5 autonomous vehicle. Unknown to many people, autonomous vehicles come in a variety of levels from 0 to 5. In fact, cruise control can even be considered a level 2 autonomous vehicle. Autonomous vehicles can be described as vehicles that make use of lasers, sensors, cameras, various different monitors, and/or GPS to ensure that the vehicle is reliable and safe to use. This enables a wide variety of vehicles to be autonomous from personal vehicles to semi-trucks to buses, or even taxis that don’t have any pedals or steering wheels. |
Design & Prototyping
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Ever since the possibility of autonomous cars became within reach, Google has been one of the leading companies that has been at the forefront of designing and (as designs come to fruition) testing autonomous cars. As of October 2016 Google cars had covered over 2 million miles and had 58 vehicles on the road. (Warren, 2016). At the head of Google’s autonomous car program is a woman named YooJung Ahn. Ahn has led the company to win the Red Dot Luminary Award “a prestigious international award in the design community, for its prototype of the self-driving car” (Warren, 2016). Not only is it uncommon for lead designers to be female but Ahn also wasn’t trained as a traditional car designer which allowed her to get outside of the box and focus “on maximum visibility, technology, safety, and what the users needs were” (Ahn, 2016). Before working at Google, Ahn studied at Hong-Ik University in Seoul, South Korea where she majored in industrial design and then went on to Illinois Institute of Technology and got a master’s degree in design methods and strategies. Google, however, is one of the few companies whose designers are female. While Ahn is the head designer, most of her team and most other autonomous car designers tend to be male (CB Insights, 2016).
Manufacturing & Production
Although Google is the forerunner of the autonomous car trend there are a lot of other car companies that are aiming to have driverless car technology by 2020. These companies include most commonly known car companies like Toyota, Nissan, Ford, and GM as well as some higher-end car companies like Tesla and BMW and even some other companies like Uber and Lyft.
Due to the competitive nature of the autonomous car industry many companies refrain from advertising where they manufacture their products. However, GM announced in December 2016 that they would start building autonomous cars in Michigan in order to take advantage of the adverse weather conditions when testing and the technical resources in nearby cities during production.
Due to the competitive nature of the autonomous car industry many companies refrain from advertising where they manufacture their products. However, GM announced in December 2016 that they would start building autonomous cars in Michigan in order to take advantage of the adverse weather conditions when testing and the technical resources in nearby cities during production.
The people employed in the factories varies depending on the company but overall, most factories tend to have male workers; in fact, only 28.9% of the total workforce in manufacturing are female (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2016).
Marketing
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While autonomous cars are still very much so in development, they’re already being marketed across the world. For instance, Uber and Volvo hope to release autonomous cars in Pittsburg by August 2016 and fully autonomous cars in China by 2020. BMW is focusing on releasing their cars in China by 2021 while Nissan is plans to release their in 2020 (Gibbs, 2016).
Currently there doesn’t seem to be a specific gender that companies are marketing to. Instead, companies seem to be pushing the benefit of safety. For example, one ad I found features a man who’s riding in the backseat of a level 5 autonomous car. As he goes through the city, he causes an absurd amount of accidents when people stop paying attention to stare at the autonomous car. The narrator talks about how the car can recognize stop lights, avoid unexpected obstacles, and turn without any human intervention. A Volkswagen ad demonstrates a level 3 autonomous car: a teen and her dad are driving down the road and the dad is getting distracted talking to her. They almost get in a car crash when someone cuts him off but the autonomous car automatically breaks.
Currently there doesn’t seem to be a specific gender that companies are marketing to. Instead, companies seem to be pushing the benefit of safety. For example, one ad I found features a man who’s riding in the backseat of a level 5 autonomous car. As he goes through the city, he causes an absurd amount of accidents when people stop paying attention to stare at the autonomous car. The narrator talks about how the car can recognize stop lights, avoid unexpected obstacles, and turn without any human intervention. A Volkswagen ad demonstrates a level 3 autonomous car: a teen and her dad are driving down the road and the dad is getting distracted talking to her. They almost get in a car crash when someone cuts him off but the autonomous car automatically breaks.
Sales
Most autonomous cars are being sold by car companies and so the people selling them tend to be car salesmen rather than saleswomen. In fact, women only hold 21.2% of all sales positions at any given car dealership (Catalyst, 2016). Although women are under represented selling the cars, they’re starting to make progress when buying them. Since car salesmen have a reputation of taking advantage of women and their lack of automotive knowledge, women started to do more research before going to buy cars. This resulted in women getting up to 17% less on their monthly lease payments (CBS, 2016).
User Support & Maintenance
Because not all levels of autonomous cars are available to the general public, user support can only be discussed for levels 0-3. These levels include car features like cruise control, automatic braking, automatic transmission, and lane-centering. Where car owners get support from highly depends on what the problem is and how complex it is. For example, if someone just wants to know how an automatic transmission works they can look it up online. On the other hand, if something goes wrong mechanically with the vehicle, many users take it to a mechanic shop to get it fixed rather than doing it themselves. Part of this is because cars have gotten more technical over the years making it more complicated to work on. In addition, the Baby Boomer generation grew up working on cars with their fathers whereas the Millennial generation hasn’t.
Out of the people who do have the technical knowledge, they tend to be males rather than females. Not only is mechanical work stereotyped as a masculine trait but males tend to be exposed to mechanics more frequently and at an earlier age. For example, in the U.S. only 7.3% of automotive repair and maintenance employees are female (Catalyst, 2016).
Out of the people who do have the technical knowledge, they tend to be males rather than females. Not only is mechanical work stereotyped as a masculine trait but males tend to be exposed to mechanics more frequently and at an earlier age. For example, in the U.S. only 7.3% of automotive repair and maintenance employees are female (Catalyst, 2016).
Recycling & Disposal
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Since autonomous cars will be very similar to normal cars, the recycling process should be approximately the same. When a car eventually stops running and is no longer worth being fixed, people tend to send their cars to the scrap yard where the non-recyclable parts are removed and the car is shredded into chunks that are sent to steel mills or secondary processors where it’s used to make new steel. In fact, most car shells have a minimum of 25% recycled content and more than 18 million tons of steel from cars are recycled each year (Steel Recycling Institute, 2014).
Autonomous cars will however use more wires and computer chips which are not as easily recyclable as steel. A lot of computer chips used are composed of crystalline silicon which is easily recycled after it’s been removed from the computer chip with a mining purification process (Environmental Literacy Council, 2015).
The process for recycling cars, both the steel and the computer chips can be done in most countries by specified recycling companies like Metal Management Inc., Triple M Metals, Schnitzer Steel Products Co., Solar Silicon, Si Pro, and Poseidon Solar Services.
Autonomous cars will however use more wires and computer chips which are not as easily recyclable as steel. A lot of computer chips used are composed of crystalline silicon which is easily recycled after it’s been removed from the computer chip with a mining purification process (Environmental Literacy Council, 2015).
The process for recycling cars, both the steel and the computer chips can be done in most countries by specified recycling companies like Metal Management Inc., Triple M Metals, Schnitzer Steel Products Co., Solar Silicon, Si Pro, and Poseidon Solar Services.
Biological Effects
In autonomous vehicle studies it has been found that “up to 10% of American adults are expected to experience motion sickness often in autonomous vehicles” (Sivak and Schoettle, 2015). Motion sickness most often occurs because our body does not have control over our movements and it’s ability to anticipate direction decreases. This can lead to nausea, dizziness, and other physical discomfort. However, aside from motion sickness, I can’t see any other ways that autonomous vehicles would impact human biology. It is assumed that men and women will use the product in the same manner and that design will appeal to both men and women as well.
Social Effects
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As of July 2016, “90 people die each day in the US from crashes” (CDC, 2016). Autonomous vehicles have incredible potential to decrease this number, however, it also has the potential to increase this number due to over reliance. When test driving autonomous vehicles, users are able to completely trust an autonomous vehicle on average, within 10-15 minutes (Digital Trends, 2016). This means that the user assumes the technology will warn them or intervene if something should go wrong; this assumption is a risky one. While people are safer, technology can’t always do everything and there may arise specific situations where a person needs to be able to take control. However, when required to resume control, it took users 30-45 seconds to regain control and focus on the situation (Cunningham and Regan, 2015).
This increased reliance is an issue that we’ve seen before in the automotive industry. The image tothe right shows general trends of motor vehicle crash deaths per 100 million miles traveled from 1975-2015. As you can see, there are a few points of decrease on the graph: around 1991 when a law was passed requiring airbags in all vehicles. While the total dipped initially, you can see that it went back to increasing as people grew more comfortable with the technology and began to rely on it for safety.
This increased reliance is an issue that we’ve seen before in the automotive industry. The image tothe right shows general trends of motor vehicle crash deaths per 100 million miles traveled from 1975-2015. As you can see, there are a few points of decrease on the graph: around 1991 when a law was passed requiring airbags in all vehicles. While the total dipped initially, you can see that it went back to increasing as people grew more comfortable with the technology and began to rely on it for safety.
Cultural Effects
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While autonomous vehicles don’t seem to be very influenced by gender of origin, their origin is influenced by country and class. Both country and class can set the function and perception, and even spurred the creation of autonomous vehicles.
Humans in general tend to try to find ways to replace simple tasks with technology/robots and driving is no exception. In this way, the upper and middle-class created demand and therefore set the desired function of autonomous vehicles: to be able to do other things while in the car without having to hire a driver. Class continues to influence the function and perception of autonomous vehicles as they’re being further developed by guiding the demand of the product.
Many countries are currently involved in the development of autonomous vehicles and each country adds their own influence into their design.
For example, in Japan where there is a high population density and large quantity of public transportation, autonomous vehicle designers have been focusing on the ability of a car to pick up and deliver people to where they need to go (Burns, 2016). Because of the culture, the focus has been on making cars that will basically replace taxis and be more efficient. Another example is in Michigan where the focus has been on the varying weather and the safety factors related to the area.
Humans in general tend to try to find ways to replace simple tasks with technology/robots and driving is no exception. In this way, the upper and middle-class created demand and therefore set the desired function of autonomous vehicles: to be able to do other things while in the car without having to hire a driver. Class continues to influence the function and perception of autonomous vehicles as they’re being further developed by guiding the demand of the product.
Many countries are currently involved in the development of autonomous vehicles and each country adds their own influence into their design.
For example, in Japan where there is a high population density and large quantity of public transportation, autonomous vehicle designers have been focusing on the ability of a car to pick up and deliver people to where they need to go (Burns, 2016). Because of the culture, the focus has been on making cars that will basically replace taxis and be more efficient. Another example is in Michigan where the focus has been on the varying weather and the safety factors related to the area.
Economic Effects
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Since autonomous vehicles are still being made common, most economic effects are only speculated. Autonomous vehicles could cause a loss of jobs, a change in our infrastructure, an increase in efficiency, and a loss of $1.2 trillion total or $3,800 per American per year (University of Texas at Austin; 2017).
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to decrease car crashes which could lower demand for auto repairs, traffic police, insurance, and legal services. In addition, the potential increase in vehicle-sharing could end up putting taxi’s out of business or at least drastically decreasing their demand.
As autonomous vehicles become more commonplace, our infrastructure may end up changing as well. For example, if people don’t need to park their cars, the need for large parking structures may become obsolete which would open up land for new development. This new development could end up spurring the economy and providing more homes for people.
Another benefit of autonomous vehicles becoming commonplace is the increased efficiency in travel. With vehicles that utilize sensors to stop on a dime, cars will have the ability to drive closer together while still maintaining a factor of safety. If autonomous vehicles are able to communicate with one another by planning their route and making it available for other cars, the space on the road may be used more efficiently as well.
One industry that is expected to increase efficiency a lot is the trucking industry. Whether it’s because the truck drivers are able to sleep during low-risk times of days or the trucks are utilizing remote controlled driving, the trucking industry is expected to be able to move more goods in a shorter amount of time. The remote controlled truck is a semi-truck that basically follows a semi-truck driven by a person at a distance of only 15 feet. This small distance allows for more trucks on the road.
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to decrease car crashes which could lower demand for auto repairs, traffic police, insurance, and legal services. In addition, the potential increase in vehicle-sharing could end up putting taxi’s out of business or at least drastically decreasing their demand.
As autonomous vehicles become more commonplace, our infrastructure may end up changing as well. For example, if people don’t need to park their cars, the need for large parking structures may become obsolete which would open up land for new development. This new development could end up spurring the economy and providing more homes for people.
Another benefit of autonomous vehicles becoming commonplace is the increased efficiency in travel. With vehicles that utilize sensors to stop on a dime, cars will have the ability to drive closer together while still maintaining a factor of safety. If autonomous vehicles are able to communicate with one another by planning their route and making it available for other cars, the space on the road may be used more efficiently as well.
One industry that is expected to increase efficiency a lot is the trucking industry. Whether it’s because the truck drivers are able to sleep during low-risk times of days or the trucks are utilizing remote controlled driving, the trucking industry is expected to be able to move more goods in a shorter amount of time. The remote controlled truck is a semi-truck that basically follows a semi-truck driven by a person at a distance of only 15 feet. This small distance allows for more trucks on the road.
Political Effects
One of the largest ways that autonomous cars will effect the political sphere, is in regards to driver liability laws. Currently, many states have laws requiring people to have insurance in case an accident happens (GEICO, 2017). However, with autonomous vehicles the rate of crashes is expected to decrease and product liability is likely to replace individual liability.
Educational Effects
Unless autonomous school buses because commonplace, the education industry will most likely not be affected directly from this product. While some public transportation methods are being converted to be autonomous (mostly taxis), it will most likely be some time before buses begin to be converted and I believe that school buses will most likely be one of the last conversions. Autonomous vehicles could potentially get more kids interested in mechanical engineering and computer software, however.