The auto industry has come a long way from its humble beginnings decades ago, giving us driverless vehicles. Also called autonomous vehicles, these can offer a number of benefits, including making road transport safer and more affordable. As such, the taxi service industry is expected to implement autonomous vehicles with some already being created. Los Angeles, for example, has already begun creating its very own autonomous taxi service. But what exactly can we expect this service to look like?
How Do Autonomous Vehicles Run?
Autonomous vehicles don’t need a driver, which means that they can help bridge the gap in driver shortages. This is a sure way to make public transportation more readily available, ensuring that it’s possible to get taxi services wherever you are and whenever you need them. As far as their running goes, they create a map of their surroundings and maintain it using sensors that are installed in various parts of the vehicle. Additionally, radar sensors are used to monitor nearby vehicles while video cameras detect traffic lights, track other vehicles, look for pedestrians, and read road signs.
These vehicles are most likely going to be built to run on electricity, and the various sensors will have a ready power supply. This is not likely to be a lot of electricity, with small electrical appliances, according to The Spruce, generally needing 15-amp circuits. By running on electricity, these vehicles are bound to be great for the environment as they won’t cause excessive emissions.
What Are the Risks of Autonomous Vehicles?
It should be known that autonomous vehicles come with risks as well as benefits. One of these risks concerns safety, whereby the autopilot system may fail when it needs to activate, or activate when it shouldn’t. As such, the tech may not stop for pedestrians who are jaywalking or sense when other road users aren’t following the road rules. In this case, there may need to be new laws put in place to handle matters concerning autonomous vehicles. On this note, keep in mind that in certain states, like Ohio, you have to file a personal injury claim within a period of two years from the date when you were injured, with a few exceptions.
Another risk concerning autonomous vehicles is that one may get hacked, something that could result in serious issues. With the world of cybersecurity still trying to safeguard existing software and protocols properly, you can expect hackers to find a vulnerability that they won’t hesitate to exploit. Current road safety is still an issue that needs to be dealt with, although there are laws to help govern it. For example, the statute of limitations on auto vehicle accidents in states like Texas, according to NOLO, is typically two to three years, and 95% of car accident claims are settled pretrial.
What Are the Benefits of Autonomous Vehicles?
Finally, autonomous vehicles offer a number of advantages as mentioned, with the main one being that they can travel closer together with no risk of causing accidents. This allows more vehicles to fit in a particular space, which will improve road capacity without the need to expand the road. Autonomous vehicles also have lower emissions as they can carry out journeys very efficiently, which also improves productivity for routine operations that involve the transportation of goods and materials.
These are a few of the details of the way driverless vehicles can improve transport as a whole. Since tech is evolving all the time, it’s possible that a number of the current issues will have a solution by the time autonomous vehicles are rolled out. That said, autonomous vehicles are something to look forward to without a doubt.
