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Julian Campos
Mrs. Campos
ENG 101
31 October 2023
The Truth Of Self Driving Cars
Many people assume that self-driving cars cause more pollution than human-driven cars.
According to Charlotte Elton, “The energy required to power the computers [of self-driving cars]
would emit more than 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.” (Elton). However, if we
were to do the math with one billion cars like it says in the article, self-driving cars would make
150-200 million metric tons of pollution a year. One billion gas cars, however, make 4.6
gigatons. That’s approximately 24 times less pollution by self-driving cars. Another issue people
have with self-driving cars is their safety. News about self-driving cars crashing is often only
widespread whenever the self-driving car causes the incident. At first glance, drivers, especially
those of the older generations, appear to be more worried and even fearful about self-driving cars
and their implementation. On closer inspection self-driving cars are a leap in the right direction
for the world. It is important because we shouldn't let fear stop us from taking that first step in
the right direction. Although self-driving cars gain a bad reputation for their pollution and their
use of AI, this is not the entire truth, they, in fact, increase safety on the road, they reduce traffic,
and pollution will decrease.
To fully understand the benefits of self-driving cars we must first understand what a
self-driving car is. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Has made six different levels To
classify self-driving cars. Levels 0 to 2 are classified as non-self-driving cars while levels 3 to 5
are classified as self-driving cars (Carney). A Tesla, for example, is a level 2 self-driving car.
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Although they can self-drive through an autopilot system, they do not have a second backup
support system in case the main system fails, which makes the car a level 2 on the SAE scale.
Tesla's autopilot system works through “cameras and neural networks” in the computers
supporting the vehicle (Krietzberg). In other words, a self-driving car must have a way to
identify what is in front of it and a learning system that allows the AI to become more advanced.
This Learning System is called a neural network because it simulates the human brain. In this
paper when talking about self-driving cars I am talking about any cars from Level 2 to Level 5.
While the majority of self-driving cars are electric, this essay focuses on The benefits of the
self-driving aspect rather than the electrical aspect. By understanding these Basics we can fully
understand The benefits that self-driving will bring to safety, traffic, and pollution.
By using self-driving cars everyone on the road becomes safer by taking out human
imperfection. From a sample of eight million miles traveled in self-driving cars crashes only
occurred every 60,000 miles “A large majority appeared to be the fault of the other driver.”
(Lee). In instances where the self-driving car was the one at fault, it was small crashes such as
scratching a bumper while parking or hitting an abandoned shopping cart. This is not the only
example of self-driving cars proving themselves to be better than their human counterparts in
terms of safety. Neil deGrasse Tyson Declared that “the current deaths from Automobile
accidents are 40,000. if we were to switch to Self-driving cars it would decrease to 6,000 or
5,000 right away.” He then goes on to explain that as coding gets better and AI improves the
death rate “would systematically go down to zero” (Tyson) Overall with crashes taken into mind,
the safety of a self-driving car versus a human-driven car is incomparable, a self-driving car
would win any day.
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In addition to fewer car accidents, there will be less traffic because of self-driving cars.
As stated by Valiente Mott “One of the biggest benefits of self-driving cars is that they can
communicate with each other, being able to communicate in real-time cars can travel at
optimized distances from each other, and they can also determine the best route you could take,
eliminating traffic jams.” With a decrease in traffic, there will also be a decrease in pollution as
cars will not just be sitting there for hours on end making Smog. By helping to eliminate
pollution and stopping traffic jams this will save many people's lives as they will not get sick
from smog. From research done by the Human Rights Watch air pollution kills 7 million people a
year (Horne). Stopping deaths from pollution on top of The deaths already prevented from fewer
accidents Really brings home the lifesaving aspect that self-driving cars will have on current
Society. From stopping deaths to pollution and through traffic self-driving cars are an all-around
Improvement to current cars.
Self-driving cars reduce pollution because they are more efficient with gas usage than a
human. In the article “Five Reasons You Should Embrace Self-Driving Cars” by Drew
Hendricks, Drew proclaims that “While many self-driving cars might still emit the same
materials, their improved efficiency would be a huge step forward towards a cleaner future.”
Current cars make More than half the carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide pollution in our air
(Hendricks). By using self-driving cars we “can reduce fuel consumption by 18 percent and
carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent” (Zewe). This is because self-driving cars are more
efficient than their human counterpart. The majority of humans Cannot calculate exactly when to
stop as efficiently as a computer can, a human also cannot stay at one speed consistently while a
computer can. And this is with just gas cars. If we look at electric self-driving cars which are
even more efficient than gas cars carbon emissions would decrease yet again (Moseman).
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Electric vehicles already produce less pollution than gas vehicles, by adding self-driving to the
equation an electric vehicle produces much less pollution than any gas vehicle. Whether a
vehicle Uses gas or electricity By being more efficient it reduces the pollution in our air.
In the opposing view, a big negative about self-driving cars would be the concern that AI
is taking over. According to Martin Ford “In the US, where the worker shortage has hit the
restaurant industry especially hard, the White Castle chain has introduced french fry automation
to work alongside its new hamburger robots, while the national restaurant chain Sweetgreen
acquired a startup company that provides robotic kitchen technology.” Because these big
corporations are making robots to man the food and to take orders, as we all have seen at
McDonald's, the part-time job industry is decreasing. Without part-time jobs teens and people
who may work multiple part-time jobs to support themselves and their families lose that ability
to make money. For teens, this is important because this is often the time when people get their
first job and start to become independent from their parents. Without the money they get from
their job, they may not be able to go out and socialize with their peers. And without that
experience of having a job teen may fail if the world of their first job is something super
important. For those unfortunate enough to have to have multiple part-time jobs to support them
and their families, they would lose their source of income and without money, people can’t even
go to school to get a better job. Thus it is taking away the opportunity that they once had to seek
a better life for themselves and their families. Overall with robots taking jobs and AI becoming a
bigger and bigger part of people's lives, it will hurt people with the unintended consequences of
technology.
Another thing that is a deterrent to self-driving cars is the ability people have to hack
them. According to Andy Greenberg “You guys [hackers] basically brought this car to a
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standstill on the highway while I was driving” In the video “Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on a
Highway” Andy drives a 2014 Jeep Cherokee and as the video goes on, hackers Charlie Miller
and Chris Valasek start messing with the car more and more. To the point where Andy’s bracks
and acceleration no longer work. And at lower speeds, they can even control the steering wheel.
This poses a huge problem for almost all modern cars. Seeing as this is from 2014 imagine what
hackers can do with your car now. To finish this off they do all this haking of the car from miles
away in the safety of their own home. Hackers are posing a bigger and bigger threat to public
safety as most if not all current cars can be hacked remotely by hackers.
Although we will lose jobs to AI we will gain many more jobs, AI will take 85 million
jobs however it will create 97 million (IANS). In the article “How Does Artificial Intelligence
Create New Jobs?” author Macro Iacoviello proclaims that, “AI has the potential to create new
jobs—provided there is an effective synergy between artificial intelligence and human skills.”
When talking about how AI affects jobs the first thing I must talk about is skill upscaling.
Because AI will be taking over simple jobs many people will have to learn more about AI and
how to control it. That will be the biggest increase in jobs, maintaining AI systems. Maintaining
AI systems includes making sure the AI keeps human ethics, no one gets into the AI and messes
with it, and quality control for AI/robot-produced products. These are just some of the jobs that
are created from the introduction of AI. Overall with the introduction of AI, the number of jobs
will increase dramatically resulting in higher employment rates.
Hacking is a big problem for self-driving cars and most cars nowadays in general so
learning how best to combat hackers and perhaps learning a bit of coding yourself will help to
prevent hackers from getting into your vehicle. According to Mark Yarm from GEICO, “We’re
still in the ‘infancy stages’ of this problem, says Tyler Moffitt, senior threat research analyst at
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Internet security firm Webroot.” Although this problem is not well spread yet it is always best to
be ahead of the game so Geico has presented five easy ways to help prevent hackers from getting
into your car. The first and best thing you can do is to simply “Make sure the manufacturer has
your most up-to-date contact information” (Mark) this is so that they can notify you if there is an
update to the car or if the cars need to be recalled they can get ahold of you much fast. The next
thing goes hand in hand with the first. Keep your car updated. This is mainly targeted toward
self-driving cars and electric cars but keeping up to date about the system in your car can help
you know if anyone has made a way to hack into it. To update your car it is suggested that you
bring it directly to the dealer so that they can update everything for you and no possible mistakes
are made. If you want to do it on your own Mark says the best way to do so is to “download
updates from the manufacturer—and only the manufacturer (make sure by going to their official
site), then use a USB drive to install them in your car.” Nowadays most cars just turn on at the
push of a button as long as the keys are in the car, however, hackers can get into your keys and
open your car from hundreds of feet away. The best way to keep this from happening is to put
your keys in a metal box when you are not using them as this prevents the hacker from
connecting to them. And if you have one lock the car into your garage. The fourth thing you can
do to keep hackers at bay is to turn off your Bluetooth when you are not using it. If you are using
the built-in system to play music or to navigate turn off your Bluetooth as “Bluetooth is
susceptible to data attacks, which can cause a device to crash or expose security holes.” (Mark)
The last thing you can do is to not keep your WiFi password in the car. This is for cars that
support WiFi hotspot functions. If the hacker can somehow find that password they will be able
to get into your car’s system and steal any information you keep in your car. Basically, yes
haking is a problem that can occur in self-driving cars however, the chance of it happening can
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be reduced or even prevented by doing some easy steps that most people might already do
subconsciously.
For many the idea of self-driving cars is just too much to handle. Many people do not
trust the cars to drive them around and would rather have a human driver or be driving
themselves. Currently, self-driving is only a means to have less stress and more assistance in our
driving. In the future, however, it will be the most effective way of transportation. Self-driving
cars gain a bad reputation for their pollution and their use of AI. This is not the entire truth
though; they reduce the death toll on the road, they reduce traffic, and unlike what many believe
pollution will decrease not increase. Self-driving cars are the way of the future.
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Works Cited
“AI Likely to Augment Rather than Destroy Jobs: UN Study.” IndustryWeek, 22 August 2023,
https://www.industryweek.com/technology-and-iiot/article/21272191/ai-likely-to-augmen
t-rather-than-destroy-jobs-un-study. Accessed 31 October 2023.
Carney, Dan. “The different levels of self-driving cars, explained.” Popular Science, 29
November 2021, https://www.popsci.com/technology/autonomous-vehicles-explained/.
Accessed 31 October 2023.
Elton, Charlotte. “Driverless cars: The dark side of autonomous vehicles that no one's talking
about.” Euronews.com, 18 January 2023,
https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/01/16/driverless-cars-the-dark-side-of-autonomou
s-vehicles-that-no-ones-talking-about. Accessed 31 October 2023.
Ford, Martin. “Robots: stealing our jobs or solving labour shortages?” The Guardian, 2 October
2021,
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/02/robots-stealing-jobs-labour-shortag
es-artificial-intelligence-covid. Accessed 31 October 2023.
Greenberg, Andy, et al. “Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on a Highway | WIRED.” YouTube, 21
July 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK0SrxBC1xs. Accessed 31 October
2023.
Helfrich, Thomas. “How AI Creates More Jobs.” SwissCognitive, 8 February 2022,
https://swisscognitive.ch/2022/02/08/5-ways-ai-is-creating-more-jobs/. Accessed 31
October 2023.
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Hendricks, Drew. “5 Reasons You Should Embrace Self-Driving Cars.” Startup Grind, 2016,
https://www.startupgrind.com/blog/5-reasons-you-should-embrace-self-driving-cars/.
Accessed 31 October 2023.
Horne, Felix. “Air Pollution Kills Millions Every Year: Action Needed.” Human Rights Watch, 7
September 2022,
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/07/air-pollution-kills-millions-every-year-action-need
ed. Accessed 31 October 2023.
IANS. “IBM: AI will necessitate employees to reskill in the next 3 years, ETHRWorldME.” HR
News Middle East, 22 August 2023,
https://hrme.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/ibm-ai-will-necessitate-emplo
yees-to-reskill-in-the-next-3-years/102917251. Accessed 31 October 2023.
Krietzberg, Ian. “What's stopping Tesla from achieving Level 3 self-driving.” TheStreet, 30
September 2023,
https://www.thestreet.com/technology/whats-stopping-tesla-from-achieving-level-3-self-d
riving. Accessed 31 October 2023.
Lacoviello, Marco. “How Does Artificial Intelligence Create New Jobs?” Forbes, 9 March 2019,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/07/26/how-does-artificial-intell
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Moseman, Andrew, and Sergy Paltsev. “Are electric vehicles definitely better for the climate
than gas-powered cars?” MIT Climate Portal, 13 October 2022,
https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powere
d-cars. Accessed 31 October 2023.
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Tyson, Neil deGrasse. “';;.'” ';;' - YouTube, 9 March 2019,
https://youtube.com/shorts/4tKPmLc7TxE?si=-xFae8x0y4qkve72. Accessed 31 October
2023.
Yarm, Mark. “How To Help Prevent Someone From Hacking Your Car.” GEICO Living,
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