First of all, the economic impact autonomous cars could have would be negative overall. A sudden increase in fully autonomous vehicles would negatively impact industries, a push for progress toward full vehicle autonomy is only possible far in the future, and the price of these self-driving vehicles would be too costly to provide a profit for any company or to be affordable for an average consumer to purchase. Industries such as auto insurance and repair and maintenance would be negatively affected by the introduction of fully autonomous vehicles (Alonso et al. 9, 10). The auto insurance industry would suffer due to fewer personally owned vehicles. Economics expert Adam Hayes explains how “people will rely more and more on calling a driverless car from a shared fleet” which would produce a problem of fewer insured private vehicles. In turn, people would refrain from buying cars, vans, or trucks due to insurance prices rising quickly from the diminishing number of insured vehicles. Hence, autonomous vehicles produce more questions with every question they solve (Alonso et al. 9). Regardless, the repair and maintenance industry would also suffer because of the sudden introduction of questionable technology and the demand reduction for repair and maintenance services. New technologies would leave most repair and maintenance shops unable to handle many of their clients’ vehicles because, due to fewer accidents occurring, the majority of the issues would lie in the advanced technology controlling the vehicle; confirming how autonomous vehicles still need more time to allow people to familiarize themselves with technology similar to it (Alonso et al. 10). Furthermore, the development of self-driving vehicles has only presented partial results, even after the immense amount of money that it has used. Companies have already spent a total of sixteen-billion dollars on the research and development of autonomous vehicles. However, the only results that have come from those billions of dollars include incomplete artificial intelligence systems that still require a physical driver to be present at all times (Baldwin). Waymo, the company that has spent three and a half billion dollars developing autonomous vehicles, has only made partially autonomous cars (Baldwin). Waymo’s car can drive without the presence of a physical driver, yet it still requires constant monitoring from a van behind it; and if it ever gets lost, a human driver has to take control (Baldwin). Once again, proving the fact that a considerable amount of time is needed to have the opportunity to solve the primary questions behind the development of autonomous vehicles. Lastly, autonomous vehicles are too expensive to provide any benefit to a regular individual or a corporation. The CEO of Silicon Valley startup Luminar, Austin Russell, reveals how “the first generation of truly autonomous cars could cost $300,000 to $400,000 apiece” (Edelstein). Also, converting a conventional vehicle into a fully autonomous vehicle could cost over one-hundred-thousand dollars, which is not affordable for the average working individual; confirming how much more time is needed to lower the prices of autonomous vehicle parts (LeVine).
Second of all, the purposes of autonomous vehicles, regarding the environment and the state of various job opportunities, have shortcomings to them. As stated previously, autonomous cars would make commuting more convenient and straightforward. The number of active vehicles would significantly increase, due to how many people would be using services similar to Uber (Hayes). For example, Payton Chang points out how autonomous vehicles “could also increase energy consumption up to 200% [through] the total number of miles traveled by vehicles [increasing] because car travel would become a lot easier”. People would become inclined to commute in an autonomous car more often for longer durations, thus causing higher demands for gas rather than saving gas; proving how the purpose of being more environmentally friendly results in the opposite, when considering the popularity autonomous vehicles would gain (Chang). This energy consumption would be largely from conventional gas-powered vehicles due to the immense and unrealistic cost of switching to solely electric vehicles. For example, the average price of a fully electric vehicle is approximately nineteen-thousand dollars more expensive than the average price of a conventional vehicle (Palmer). Moreover, occupations such as taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers, and delivery drivers would be rendered useless if autonomous vehicles were to be fully introduced into society (Ryan). Just these jobs alone could mean leaving over four and a half million people unemployed (Hayes). Nonetheless, the total loss of jobs could be nearly double that when accounting for the positions depending on the driver’s existence: supervisory staff, management staff, and support staff (Hayes). Autonomous vehicles do not solve as many questions as they create, which in this case relates to how it simplifies commuting but increases energy consumption and eliminates millions of jobs.
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