...Autonomous Cars and Society Alex Forrest, Mustafa Konca IQP OVP 06B1 Advised by Professor Oleg Pavlov Department of Social Science and Policy Studies Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester, MA 01609 (508) 831-5234 opavlov@wpi.edu May 1, 2007 Table of Contents Abstract ..........................................................................................................................3 1 Technology of Autonomous Vehicle Systems ..........................................................4 1.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................4 1.2 Background ..........................................................................................................4 1.2.1 History ............................................................................................................8 1.2.2 Future............................................................................................................13 1.3 Technology.........................................................................................................15 1.3.1 Control Systems............................................................................................15 1.3.1.1 Lateral Control........................................................................................15 1.3.1.1.1 Lane Departure Warning System (LDWS) ......................................16 1.3.1.1.2 Lane Keeping Assist System (LKA)...
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...the first car was manufactured. Nowadays, cars are the main on-ground transportation. Although vehicles help people a lot in their full of movement and energy modern life, cars are taking away people’s time, which they spend behind the wheel. Cars are also a means of transportation that is associated with a high chance of life-threatening risks. So how can Google change that? Google’s credo is “Think Bigger,” and they are doing that by coming up with ideas, that are far ahead of our time. Larry Page once said, “We want to build technology that everybody loves using, and that affects everyone. We want to create beautiful, intuitive services and technologies that are so incredibly useful that people use them twice a day. Like they use a toothbrush. There isn’t that many things people use twice a day” (as cited in Carlson, 2011). Google has come up with a project that will change the way people consider driving. The project took its start in 2009 with some of the very best engineers from the DARPA Challenges, a series of autonomous vehicle races organized by the U.S. Government. This project will help to prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use. According to World Health Organization (2013), approximately 1.3 million people die each year on the world's roads, and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. Google aims to prevent and reduce those astonishing numbers. Their automated cars use video...
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...Could you imagine your car dropping you off at your destination and then parking itself? If not, you should because that is where technology is heading. It is predicted that by the year 2020 transportation as we know it will be flipped upside down by self-driving cars. There are several large companies working on this technology right now, such as Google. However, the question if we should trust this new technology is still up for debate. Even though it is a foreign idea, self-driving cars should replace human drivers because of the lack of human error, the convenience, and the increase of your spare time. Most car accidents are caused by a mistake from the person operating the vehicle. In his article "How Google's Self-Driving Car Will Change Everything," Dallegro quotes Professor Robert W. Peterson saying, "Over 90% of accidents today are caused by driver error." If all drivers were replaced with autonomous vehicles then accidents would happen very little, if any at all. In her article "Along for the Ride", Kristen Weir says, "In 2012, 33,561 people were killed in car crashes in the Unites States and an estimated 2.36 million were injured." Without driver error as a factor, using a car as your form of transportation is a lot safer....
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...innovation can be simply referred to as the application of technological advancement, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or status quo product in the market. Disruptive innovations are innovations that helps create a new market and value network, and eventually goes on to disrupt an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades), displacing an earlier technology. The term is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically first by designing for a different set of consumers in a new market and later by lowering prices in the existing market. Some examples of disruptive innovations include: telephones replacing telegraphs, cell phones replacing land lines, digital photography replacing films etc In today’s complex, dynamic business world, having a disruptive innovation capability is mandatory, both for growing a business and protecting existing markets. But leading disruptive innovation requires new mindsets and behaviors, for leaders themselves and for the organizations that develop them. Disruptive Innovation is not a break through innovation that makes good products a lot better; it transforms a products that is expensive and complicated as such only few people with a lot of money could afford it. Disruptive Innovation makes such products more accessible and affordable that a larger population and customer base can access...
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...Google Self-Driving Car Pranaw Kumar 500639475 MB8103 Submitted to Dr. Dale Carl 2nd October 2014 Ryerson University Toronto, Ontario, 2014 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Macro Environmental Analysis 5 PESTEL 5 Political 5 Economic 5 Social 5 Technological 6 Environmental 6 Legal 6 Summary 7 Micro Environmental Analysis 7 Porter’s Five Forces 7 Bargaining Power of supplier 7 Threat of substitutes 8 Bargaining power of customers 8 Threat of New entrants 8 Competitive rivalry 8 Summary 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 Executive Summary With continuous change in technology there is always continuous advancement in life style, and Google Self-drive car is going to be one of the biggest changes among them. This type of autonomous system always leaves long and prominent impact on the society and the environment. The whole world is moving towards more and more robotic systems where people just provide voice command or just a program and robotic system does the task automatically. This car can be a stepping stone towards such autonomous enhancement. There are many big players in auto industry who are trying to come into this futuristic field like BMW, Mercedes, Audi and many more, however Google’s self drive car stands apart in terms of completely autonomous car ‘no human interference’. This actually has some implication where human psychology interferes. Human by nature tries to keep control in their...
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...Google Cars Darrell Jackson Jr. Composition II Cars that can drive themselves are no longer a part of science fiction. Google is currently in the process of changing the world as we know it. Google is working on a project called “driverless cars”. “What is a driverless car” you ask? A driverless car is an autonomous vehicle that can drive itself from one place to another without the assistance from a human driver. The driverless car is a project by Google that enables your car to drive without really driving. Although these cars have yet to hit the roads, they are already being tested by Google and many different car companies. Google has complete over 700,000 driving miles accident free, in which they traveled congested streets and popular intersections. According to predictions driverless cars could be a reality by 2020. Google is still in the beginning stages of making this project official because there is a lot of barriers that have to get through, but confidently state driverless cars will become available in the near future. Google have at least 10 different prototypes that they use as practice cars. Some examples of these cars are the Toyota Prius and the Lexus SL600h. The basic designs of this project consist of a car with a rotating sensor on the top that spins 360 degrees, to create a 3D map of the cars location. A sensor located on the left rear wheel that tracks the car movements and locates it on the map. There is a video camera on the windshield by the rear...
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...Google, want to venture into the self-driving cars, they announced that it is building a vehicle without a steering wheel or role for a driver. The thing is that Google technology has not been able to successfully switch control back and forth from automated driving to the driver in an emergency and does not expect to be able to accomplish that soon, also technology is to expensive. Other companies building autonomous cars said that they are working on vehicles that will be able to safely make that switch. Volvo says that it expects to have its cars tested on city streets by 2020. The Google management team faced several questions. Should Google continue to invest in the technology behind self-driving cars? How could Google's core software-based and search business benefit from self-driving car technology? As large auto manufacturers began to invest in automotive technology themselves, could Google compete? Was this investment of time and resources worth it for Google? Environmental Scanning (external and internal analysis): PEST Analysis After reading the case study Google car I have used the PEST analysis model in which the following was concluded: 1. Political Factors: Government’s regulations on automobile transportation are one of the major aspects in Google's car that have legal barriers. Due to that most of the governments do not have specific laws for self-driving vehicle and there are no federal standards for autonomous cars special permission in all US states adjusted...
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...following questions: What will the automobile industry at large look like in 2025? What trends/shifts will shape mobility in the years to come? What will drive the success of future winners? We quickly realized that our project scope needed to be broader to cover all of the megatrends we indentified and address them as it pertains to specific geographic regions of the world. Cars being mass produced on the assembly line will be a thing of the past. The commercials today for Buick of not ‘driving your father’s Buick’ will even be more pronounced in 2025. In fact, my father would have thought he was living in a science fiction movie! The mantra of ‘have it your way’ will become the mission statement of the automobile industry – both from a consumer and an employee perspective…if they want to remain successful in the industry. Our results? The automobile industry will remain a capital-intensive business model and thus limited in terms of its margin growth. However, over the next fifteen years the automobile industry will remain an exciting place. The industry’s center of gravity will change, core technologies will change, new forms of organizational setup will emerge, employees will have to meet new requirements and new business models will develop. Fasten your seatbelts for an exhilarating ride as we fast forward you to the year 2025! Global vs. Local Scope This report will look at the automobile industry from a global perspective. Although in 2025 the...
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...Driverless cars – is it safe to take the human out of the loop? From the beginning of the world humans always wanted to make their life easier. They produced more and more complicated tools for hunting, then for harvesting and other branches of human activity – these tools allowed them to make their job without using their bare hands. Time was passing, humanity was evolving newer technologies, people knew more and more about the world and laws that rule it. But one thing that every human-being wanted the most was faster way of travelling. The first step was inviting wheel. Later humans built carts, coaches and many other vehicles propelled with animal’s or person’s strength. But still it was too slow and too less automatic for people. The change came in 1769, when Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot presented his steam vehicle. Then everything started to evolve faster – and we step to nowadays, where we have many different types of cars, even the ones fueled by water or electricity. In our century, where artificial intelligence isn’t a Sci-Fi subject only but also reality, people started to think about using it in car’s safety and driving system’s development. One of the results is Google’s self-driving car, which is travelling in states of Nevada, Florida and California, where autonomous vehicles are already legalized. This technology is evolving all the time and maybe there will come the day where whole world will be able to use such kind of cars. But there comes the question – is it safe...
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...Ana Gordina Application Paper - BUAD 307 April 20, 2015 Self-Driving Taxis (Uber): Secondary Market Research Proposal Description: Self-driving taxis will be provided by Uber and would create an additional type of transportation offered to consumers. These taxis will not require a human driver to be present at the wheel. The car will include the latest technology, including GPS systems and smart traffic control, which will get the customer from point A to point B upon request and with minimal delays. The concept of self-driving cars has become very popular in the recent years. About 10 years ago, people were suspect about the safety and overall feasibility of the self-driving machines, let alone self-driving taxis. Today, as more tech companies, like Google, are coming up with these cars and testing their performance, people become more willing to give up their seat at the wheel (Emarketer). Whenever new technology comes out in the market, marketers manipulate on how a specific customer segment will react to the product. Take for example, personal computers or internet and how nobody could have predicted that these products would become a commodity. Yet, today, people can’t picture living without them. Knowing what are the benefits and costs of the product make it easier to create a marketing plan for the product. Thus, this report will cover the following subtopics: 1. Benefits and costs of self-driving taxis 2. Potential pricing strategies and costs to the...
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..."Improve public transportation services and decrease auto ownership by enabling more efficient, user-friendly, and low-cost on-demand transportation services, even in low-demand areas” (AutoGuide.com) will help with reducing environmental impact. In addition "autonomous vehicles can be more fuel and space efficient by “platooning.” That’s where they can bunch together in a neat line, which reduces aerodynamic drag, similar to how racers draft each other” (autoguide.com). The “platooning” technique used by Driverless Vehicles allow to better coordinate which can also lead to less traffic and is one of the reasons they can operate at higher speeds. The communication between Driverless Vehicles " they would eliminate the need for traffic signals. By driving at a slower rate but with less stops, better coordinated traffic would lead to less congestion"(LifeHack.org) therefore speeding up travel and lessening traffic. The "Sensors in the autonomous cars allow vehicles to ride closer together, therefore allowing more cars on the road with actually less traffic"(autoinsurancecenter.com). These Driverless Vehicles can also be used in place of other public transportation Vehicles like...
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...A Report from the TechCast Project While many people simply want to get from A to B, transportation options (and especially automobiles) have to meet a variety of consumer demands: They must be clean, affordable, safe, and increasingly intelligent. Here is an overview of the choices and challenges for carmakers and consumers over the next 10 to 15 years. Imagine being able to sit back during your morning commute while your car does the driving. Would you move closer to the country? Take up the oboe? Finally read 'War and. Peace? And just imagine the freedom it would bring to those who are disabled. Take, for instance, the legally blind man who earlier in 2012 took a spin in Google's self-driving car to go to Taco Bell and then pick up his dry cleaning. Following Nevada's recent legalization of driverless cars on the road, Florida has passed a bill allowing tests of self-driving cars. And legislation has also been introduced to make self-driving cars street legal in California. Self-driving cars may take some getting used to, but we are only at the dawn of a new age in automotive automation. Ever since the 1939 World's Fair, the idea of autonomous vehicles has captured the public's imagination. Today, intelligent, green vehicles are driving the future of transportation. The looming energy and environmental MegaCrisis has carmakers scrambling to raise fuel economy and develop commercially viable vehicles that limit pollutants. Enabling technologies such as advanced...
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...Humans, throughout a diversity of civilizations, have sought to make existing as best as it could be. Through a variety of inventions, people have wanted to make their lives more efficient, useful, and generally, easier. One aspect of human invention, transportation, has consistently been worked upon for the relative good of the time. From the wheel, to stagecoach, to airplane, life has been transformed and adjusted to the transportation of that era. Because of this, the culmination of all types of transportation ideas have been picked apart throughout the entirety of civilization, leaving only the innovations that are best fit for society to be used. I believe, given that people will continue to wish that the aspect of transportation be improved...
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...user; Glass also provides the sync ability to make calls, take photos, record videos, and provide navigation. As Glass is still within it’s beta testing and development stages the applications associated and current features are limited, but the possibilities for this device seem to be the main focus of Google and it’s developers before introducing Glass to the public consumer. Currently Glass has been making headlines, as Google reaches out to promote this new technology providing testers to Police Officers in New York, and to NBA teams, the purpose to help provide a wider means for the technology in development. (Stein, 2014) When considering Glass, and the association of the Police or Emergency response teams one can consider the positive impacts Glass can provide such as development of applications compatible with the device to pull up a persons driver’s information, vehicle reports, background information providing a police officer with detailed information before engaging with an unknown driver, or persons. Positive impacts in the field of Emergency response systems include being able to pull up ones medical information and records, record vitals, and valuable information in the case of an emergency such as on the scene of an accident or a 911 response. Entertainment benefits through...
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...McKinsey Global Institute May 2013 Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy The McKinsey Global Institute The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the business and economics research arm of McKinsey & Company, was established in 1990 to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving global economy. Our goal is to provide leaders in the commercial, public, and social sectors with the facts and insights on which to base management and policy decisions. MGI research combines the disciplines of economics and management, employing the analytical tools of economics with the insights of business leaders. Our “micro-to-macro” methodology examines microeconomic industry trends to better understand the broad macroeconomic forces affecting business strategy and public policy. MGI’s in-depth reports have covered more than 20 countries and 30 industries. Current research focuses on four themes: productivity and growth, the evolution of global financial markets, the economic impact of technology and innovation, and urbanization. Recent reports have assessed job creation, resource productivity, cities of the future, and the impact of the Internet. MGI is led by McKinsey & Company directors Richard Dobbs and James Manyika. Yougang Chen, Michael Chui, Susan Lund, and Jaana Remes serve as MGI principals. Project teams are led by a group of senior fellows and include consultants from McKinsey’s offices around the world...
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