Driverless Cars: Technology, Challenges, and Market Adoption Analysis

This report provides an overview of driverless car technology, exploring its advantages such as potential reductions in road accidents and enhanced mobility for disabled individuals. It also addresses the disadvantages, including vulnerability to hacking, high costs, and potential technical failures. The report examines the current state of the market, noting the challenges in market adoption and the impact of accidents involving autonomous vehicles. It highlights the involvement of major companies like Uber and Toyota in the development and testing of driverless cars, emphasizing the importance of partnerships and technological advancements. The report concludes that driverless cars represent the future of the automotive industry, with potential for significant changes in how people perceive and purchase vehicles.

Running head: DRIVERLESS CARS
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Technology is making its presence felt in almost every arena and one such arena is the
automotive sector. Driverless cars are the innovations of this sector that make use of
numerous sensors for understanding the nearby environment. The informations that are
obtained through the sensors help these cars to navigate in proper direction. There are
advantages as well as various disadvantages of this technology (Kaur and Rampersad 2018).
Reductions in the road accidents can be considered as one of the major reasons for
development of driverless cars but it is necessary to understand the reasons why these are
unable to capture the market.
Advantages of driverless cars include its potential to bring in reductions in the road
accidents and another is best medium for transportation for disabled people. Disabled people
face a lot of problems commuting in public vehicles thus they can opt for driverless cars for
enjoying the various benefits of enhanced mobility. Disadvantages related to the technology
include vulnerability to hacking and high cost. Hackers can get into the programming of
driverless cars thus disrupting the system (Roe 2019). Technical failures can certainly happen
such as defect in sensors which can cause severe accidents. The technology behind driverless
cars requires lots of sensors and good programming which adds to the cost. The cost is
recouped by the setting the sales price to a high value.
Semi-autonomous cars are already on roads but it can be said that these have not been
able to capture the market yet. The reason can be that drivers have a misconception that semi-
autonomous cars can cope up with any or every situation that they encounter. Experts are of
the opinion that drivers do not understand what should be done or what they cannot do (Tech
Tent - driven to distraction? 2020). Many big companies have tried testing driverless cars but
due to some or other thing they have stopped proceeding with this venture. For instance, Uber
suspended its self-driving car across North American cities after a fatal accident in which a
woman aged 49 years was run down by a driverless car while was crossing a street in Arizona

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(Uber halts self-driving tests after death 2020). This was the first time that a self driving car
indulged in such a fatal collision. The accident happened when the car was on autonomous
mode. Experts are of the opinion that the technology is being deployed before it has been
fully tested. In order to make driverless cars successful many big companies are building
partnerships such as Toyota is to make an investment of $500m in Uber to support its venture
of driverless cars (Toyota to invest $500m in Uber 2020). The company confirmed that it will
join with Uber to develop autonomous cars. Toyota’s Sienna Minivan model will be used for
this purpose and the testing is to be started in the beginning of 2021.
Thus, it can be said that driverless cars can be considered as the future of car industry
and may be some years down the line people will no longer go for brands of cars but the
brands that make driverless cars.

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References
BBC News. 2020. Tech Tent - Driven To Distraction?. [online] Available at:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44496859> [Accessed 23 March 2020].
BBC News. 2020. Toyota To Invest $500M In Uber. [online] Available at:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45324753> [Accessed 23 March 2020].
BBC News. 2020. Uber Halts Self-Driving Tests After Death. [online] Available at:
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-43459156> [Accessed 23 March 2020].
Kaur, K. and Rampersad, G., 2018. Trust in driverless cars: Investigating key factors
influencing the adoption of driverless cars. Journal of Engineering and Technology
Management, 48, pp.87-96.
Roe, M., 2019. Who's Driving That Car: An Analysis of Regulatory and Potential Liability
Frameworks for Driverless Cars. BCL Rev., 60, p.317.