Foundation of Information System (pdf)

FOUNDATIONS OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................................3
About driverless cars...................................................................................................................3
Importance of driverless cars......................................................................................................3
Strength and weakness of driverless cars....................................................................................4
Driverless cars in business..........................................................................................................5
ETHICAL ISSUES..........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
Recommendation.........................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This report will lay emphasis on emerging trends in Information Technology such as
driverless cars. Driver less cars are also known as self-driven cars or robot cars. These are a kind
of vehicles has the capability of sense the movement around it as well as its environment without
any human input.
DESCRIPTION
About driverless cars
Today many companies are working in development of driverless cars for example
Google has developed a self-driven car called Waymo. These cars are set to be driven on the
roads. Technology used to make driver less cars is really advance which has helped in reduction
of number of accidents, improved emission compliance etc. it is designed in such a way that it
follows all the road or traffic rules, in order to be driven safely. There are several systems that
work simultaneity together with each other in order to control self-driven cars. It consists of first
a radar sensor which sense the position of vehicles nearby. Second it consists of video cameras
that are used to read and interpret road signs, detect and understand traffic lights, keeping a track
of other vehicles and also looks out for all the peoples walking nearby as well as all the other
obstacles. It also has a lidar sensor installed which detects road edges or identifies lane markings
by emitting a sensor light around the cars surroundings. It also has pre-installed ultra sonic
sensors installed in all of their wheels which helps in detection of others cars or vehicles and
kerbs positions nearby while parking (Cox, 2016). At last it consists of a central computer
system which is used to analyse all the data received from all the sensors and use to control and
manipulate breaking, speed and steering of the car. It also has an emergency system installed in it
which is used in case of an accident in order to confirm safety of all the passengers.
Importance of driverless cars
Driverless cars are important for various reasons such as: These cars will increase the
safety around the roads and decreases the chances of accidents as most of the accidents happens
due to human errors. Today more than 50% of accidents occurs due to human errors i.e. mistakes
made by the driver. It will also make roads safer to walk as many accidents occurs with the
pedestrians because of careless, distracted drivers. As a result these cars will also help in slowing
down the traffic. With the help of Pre-installed GPS system these driverless cars will help its
passengers to reach a destination on time. As these cars will reduce collisions, accidents, reduce

traffic congestion, reduce waste, lower fuel cost etc., this will help in reduction of the
governmental cost. Most of the driverless cars are electric which have a direct effect on emission
of harmful gases as these cars operate on electricity which reduces emission of Gasses like
carbon dioxide and also helps in reduction of fuel consumption (Lipson & Kurman, 2016). These
cars also have capability to adjust their speed according to the traffic, number of cars around it
and based on these factors driverless cars anticipate speed change and breaking in the traffic.
Most importantly these cars are designed in such a way that if any accident occurs these self-
driven cars activates their emergency services for the safety their passengers and sends a
message to the nearby helpline. These cars al really important for the safety of environment,
reduction of traffic etc.
Strength and weakness of driverless cars
Strength: It is one of the easier mode of transportation with more safety. As these cars are
completely automated without any human input so it reduces the chances of accidents as well as
flow of traffic is controlled increasingly. This also reduces drivers stress of driving safely. As
there is no need of anyone to focus on the road, passengers can focus on other activities and
relax. It also reduces fatigue for drivers and control navigations or directions in a better way
without getting lost and also helps the passengers to relax and experience smoother riding
(Geldmacher & Plesea, 2016). These cars are designed in such a way that they can automatically
control their speed automatically according to the speed limits on main road as well as according
to the traffic and cars nearby. Efficient source of transportation which reduces cost, saves fuel
etc. these driverless cars are designed with pre-installed sensors and GPS systems which will
reduce car theft and can be easily located.
Weakness: These driverless cars are very expensive which is out of the budget of a normal
individual. These cars will reduce jobs for bus or taxi drivers as their jobs will be taken by these
cars. A small malfunction or even a smaller minute problem can cause a major accident worse
than any human accident (Kirkpatrick, 2015). This kind of vehicles software can be easily
hacked and controlled by the hackers which can eventually cause major security issues. Heavy
rainfall or snowfall can easily hamper with its performance like cameras can be easily blocked,
sensors can stop working etc. these cars are incapable of understanding human behaviour such as
signals given by hands. In case any accident occurs then it will become quite difficult for the
police to interact and reach to a conclusion because of these driverless cars.

Driverless cars in business
Driverless cars are one of the most important invention done and used by many
companies for various reasons. Many automobile industries are now introducing these driverless
car features in their existing cars and trying to make the major market driverless. This has
become major factor for automotive industries to boost their business. Many companies with
transportation business are using these cars to improve their business. Many transportation
companies are buying and releasing these driverless cars into the market. Many companies are
using these self-driven cars internally to reduce drivers cost, fuel cost etc. in-fact many logistics
companies are also using these cars for transportation. Today the biggest cost of ride sharing
services like Uber is their drivers, with the help of these driverless cars cost of such rides is
becoming vastly cheaper, making the comparative cost of owing a car for transportation
companies much cheaper. Infrastructure and road systems will be needing major up-gradation for
the driverless cars to be operated on them such as traffic signals would more likely will be
needing more alteration.
ETHICAL ISSUES
These driverless cars have increased some ethical issues such as: Driving is all about
calculates risk, these driverless cars judges the scenario and their environment and according to
that it maintains its speed, breaking etc. which can some times increase chances of accidents as
there are some unsaid or unwritten rules of driving a car on a highway (McBride, 2016). This is
one of the major ethical issue. These cars are not designed for sudden incidents for example if a
child jumps in front of a car's path then till the time it will judge and take a decision till that time
accident can occur, this creates an ethical issue i.e. who would be responsible in such cases as a
driverless car cannot be punished. Another ethical challenge occurs in case of a cross-walk as
drivers driving a car can make an assumption whether pedestrians want to cross the road or not
but a driverless car cannot make such assumptions, these cars with speed-up as the signal turns
green which can increase a chance of accidents. Another main ethical issue occurs when power
and politics comes into picture. Many countries' government are taking interest in these
driverless cars as this will increase the chances of tracking and controlling their citizens as well
as to gain potential economic benefits. These cars can increase the ethical issue of invading in
individual's privacy as it can become a new form of surveillance. Due to the GPS installed in the
car both the insurance and the car companies will get every single minute details of the car which

is a major ethical issue occurring (Stilgoe, 2018). All these factors are becoming a major reasons
due to which ethical issues can occur and in future it can become a major reason to worry.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarized that, driverless cars are becoming a reality
and is used in different sectors for different purposes. Many companies like Google are working
on making these self-driven cars more safer to be driven on the roads. Many organizations are
already using these self-driven cars for various purposes such as transportation etc. However
these cars also has some disadvantages of these cars which are creating some ethical issues
which in future will become a major cause of concern.
Recommendation
Here are some recommendation in order to overcome all the disadvantages and ethical
issues related to the driverless cars. Manufacturing companies should focus on improving their
central computer system's security which controls the driverless car so that it becomes difficult
for the hackers to hack these cars. They should also focus on improving their central system so
that these cars can be controlled in case of emergency situations as it can cost someone their life.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cox, W. (2016). Driverless Cars and the City: Sharing Cars, Not Rides. Cityscape, 18(3),
pp.197-204.
Geldmacher, W. & Plesea, D.A. (2016), September. SWOT Analysis and Evaluation of a
Driverless Carsharing Model. In European Conference on Innovation and
Entrepreneurship (p. 921). Academic Conferences International Limited.
Kirkpatrick, K. (2015). The moral challenges of driverless cars. Communications of the
ACM. 58(8). pp.19-20.
Lipson, H. & Kurman, M. (2016). Driverless: intelligent cars and the road ahead. Mit Press.
McBride, N. (2016). The ethics of driverless cars. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society. 45(3).
pp.179-184.
Stilgoe, J. (2018). Machine learning, social learning and the governance of self-driving
cars. Social studies of science. 48(1). pp.25-56.