Topic: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life. accountability and ethical governance.
7) What do you understand by Autonomous Vehicles?Discuss the Ethical concerns involved in their launch. (250 words)
why this question:
The article is in the backdrop of recent move by the Tesla that declared to offer fully autonomous vehicles by the second quarter of next year. The article tries to capture why the world is not yet ready for autonomous vehicles.
Key demand of the question:
The answer must provide for a detailed narration of what we understand by autonomous vehicles, what are the associated benefits and concerns, ethical issues involved and why the world is not yet ready to embrace the technology change.
Directive word:
Discuss – This is an all-encompassing directive – you have to debate on paper by going through the details of the issues concerned by examining each one of them. You have to give reasons for both for and against arguments.
Structure of the answer
Introduction:
write a few introductory lines about the move made by Tesla.
Body:
Answers must discuss the following aspects :
- What do you understand by Autonomous Vehicles? – A driverless car, also called autonomous car or self-driving car, is a vehicle which can sense its surrounding environment and can navigate without human input. It combines multiple sensors and techniques to perceive their surroundings like radar, laser light, GPS, odometer, computer vision, etc. The advanced control systems interpret the sensory information for identifying the obstacles, relevant signage and navigation paths.
- What are the issues involved in self-driving vehicles? – snow and weather; When it’s heavy enough to cover the pavement, snow blocks the view of lane lines that vehicle cameras use to find their way, Pavement lines and curbs, Dealing with human drivers, Consumer acceptance etc.
- Quote the Uber incident of March 2018 and elaborate on the ethical issues and concerns involved such as – responsibility of the accident, can machines make ethical decisions?, law aspects, life and death etc.
Conclusion –
Conclude with what needs to be done?
