Ethics in Autonomous Vehicles: Environment, Health, and Cyber-Security

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Ethics
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Introduction
Advancement in technology has made it possible for the development of driverless cars
which have been majorly motivated by forces of opportunity and survival in the motor industry.
The global economy is forecasted to grow significantly as driverless cars become the chief mode
of transportation on our roads. Moreover, hundreds of lives would be saved in the next few
decades as careless human errors will be eliminated. Leaders in motor manufacturing have taken
the challenge of this new innovation and many companies have been contracted to purchase
these vehicles mostly for commercial services. Globally, the introduction of driverless cars will
have increased by 25 percent as many developed countries have given guidelines and policies on
driverless cars.
Sometimes accident are unavoidable and some of the ethical dilemma of self-driving cars
is on whom to save or whom to harm. Recently, an autonomous car killed a pedestrian hence
raising concerns whether the car chose the right decision hence raising questions on the ability of
the cars causing fewer fatalities. Every day, driverless cars might not be faced with life-death
cases but they will be involved in situations of redistributing risk from one person to the other. In
addition, there will be a confusing journey in trusting the driverless on the basis of predictability
and reliability. The way autonomous cars are made, no one can describe them as humans since
they are unpredictable hence making it a challenge to trust them. With technological
advancement posed to change on a daily basis, there is a dilemma whether today’s technology
will be utilized in years to come. Moreover, some tasks are easy for a human to perform
compared to machines such as recognizing faces or evading accidents if need be.

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The issue of environment and health associated with autonomous cars
It clear that the introduction of autonomous vehicles takes people out of the driver’s seat
but that does not mean that people are not responsible for the utilization of the technology.
Moreover, the environmental impact as a result of autonomous cars will be dependent on what
we choose to do with these vehicles. Recent research has shown that transportation contribute to
the highest percentage of gas emission and pollution[1]. In addition, if transportation is not
utilized effectively, energy consumption would rise by 200 percent. The escalation is heavily
dependent on the choice of introducing more vehicles on our roads. However, the introduction of
autonomous vehicles could potentially reduce the energy consumption hence making our
environment healthier.
Due to the reduction in collisions and accidents, there is a projection of huge energy cut if
autonomous vehicles are fully adopted into our systems of transportation. The adoption of
autonomous vehicles would significantly reduce energy consumption and wastage by 90
percent[1]. In addition, the number of car crashes will certainly fall with the introduction of
autonomous vehicles, the production of safety equipment will also fall hence reducing gas
emission from these equipments. Moreover, gas emission from industries that manufactures
these equipment will reduce hence making our environments more friendly. Furthermore,
autonomous vehicles are designed to use green energy hence making them efficient in boosting
fuel economy. Extensive research has indicated that self-driving vehicles utilize fuel effectively
compared to human drivers who tend to ride the gas and brakes more than necessary[2]. Due to
the efficient consumption of necessary fuel, there is minimal emission of pollutants.
A potential downside of autonomous vehicles for the environment is that these cars could
drastically increase the total number of distance traveled by vehicles. Since autonomous cars