The Cost of Autonomous Vehicles - More than Just Money
The impact of autonomous vehicles can have a great impact on our wallets (in good ways and in bad ways), a great impact on our time (and how we spend it), and a great impact on daily life.
An article by Fast Company, a leader in business journalism, calculates the costs of production of a car can be up to $320,000, far more than what the average American can afford for a new car (around $20,000). Though in the same article it cites a study by IHS automotives which predicts that autonomous functionalities can add anywhere between $7,000 to $10,000 to a car's ticket price in 2020, and less than $3,000 in 2035 when the technology becomes easier to produce and more mass-produced, easily affordable for the average American, and easily affordable for companies to buy massive fleets of cars to replace workers.
What affect will this have on the global economy? According to experts at The Hollywood Reporter, it could at a whopping $1.3 TRILLION to the United States' economy due to the reduction of shipping and transportation costs.
But the impacts aren't just in our wallets; the impact can be to the environment. With more cars on the road, you may think that it would heighten CO2 emissions. Wrong, with vehicles able to travel 24 hours a day, rush hours in the morning will become partially dispersed, and highways will be equally busy at night, decreasing the overall business of highways. This coupled with vehicles programmed to travel at peak fuel efficiency will continue to lower CO2 emissions to the environment (as well as providing a better fuel economy for every vehicle equipped with autonomous driving). Clean Technica, a magazine on eco-friendly technology, predicts that CO2 emissions can be lowered by up to 95%!
The impact can also be on our daily lives. Various services will can be replaced by autonomous cars to the benefit of the business owners. Pizza delivery drivers can be replaced with cars modified to accept money and deliver pizza. Mail and package delivery can replaced with cars or trucks modified to distribute mail into mail boxes or onto a driveway. City transportation services will be able to run 24 hours a day, due to lower costs of transportation, allowing workers to work 24 hours a day with no problem of transportation. And all of these services, from not having to employ (or tip) a pizza delivery driver to not having to have part of our taxpayer money go to mailmen, will be easier on our wallet.
And the most important impact on our lives, will be our lives. With the accidents from autonomous vehicles now swarming the highways, accidental vehicular death will be greatly reduced. Drunk driving will no longer be an issue as long as a potential drunk driver owns an autonomous car, and autonomous cars will more easily avoid accidents with drunk drivers than would a human driver. The previous article cites that introducing autonomous vehicles can reduce accidents by ten times their current occurrence.
All of these benefits are on the horizon, and the rewards outweigh the costs.
posted by Nathan Archer @ 8:06 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
I’m not sure about the 95% reduction in CO2 stat unless all autonomous cars would be 100% electric, which is what I think was implied in that link you provided. I could see that having the cars programmed to drive at a speed that leads to optimal fuel consumption would lead to a reduction in emissions, but I’m not sure that reduction would anywhere near 95%, or any significant amount. The self driving delivery cars sounds like a good idea to me, although some people will be losing their jobs. If they can reduce accidents by 10 times, I think the first thing to be replaced should be big rigs. Those drivers have to drive so many miles that fatigue has got to set in some time, creating dangerous situations. Self driving 18 wheelers would be a lot safer.
I can see where these vehicles would be great ideas for companies. Like for a taxi service, or a rental car service, so that the person could get their cars back from where they were being rented from/for. But still for personal cars I don't believe this idea will fly. Yes the cars would be more efficient and they would most likely be safe, but at that point I would just rather ride the bus. I love being able to drive myself around, and an increase in CO2 emissions isn't gonna stop me. I drive a big old long bed truck and love it. everyone needs to be able to drive and drive well, makes a happier place.
Hey Nathan,
Very interesting blog. I never thought I would see an autonomous vehicles taking over the roads in my life time, but maybe they will. I don't agree with the statement that the roads will be less occupied even with more vehicles on the road since cars can run for 24 hours, this is because people can't run for 24 hours. People are still going to have that 9-5 work schedule which means their will be two rush hours every day. I do agree with everything else though. I would also say that it is better to have autonomous vehicles, but as you mentioned, they are just to expensive, but if their price becomes more affordable, the world will change for the better. One great example you gave is Drunk driving, the threat of putting people in jail obviously does not stop drunk driving, but it seems here that you have the solution. Thanks for the interesting blog.
The prospect of an autonomous car looks very promising with its advanced technology and all the facts you stated. It can also be considered that this technology is safe and well-tested and it would help reduce the carbon emissions too. On the other hand, reduction of carbon emission up to 95% seems too far fetched. Also, when you said that these autonomous cars will not need drivers for pizza delivery, you have to consider the other aspect that many people would be losing their jobs too, and that will also have an impact on our economy. From your article, it seems like we still have a couple decades before these cars can become affordable.
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