The Ethics of Driverless Cars

A Google Driverless Car

A large number of advancements in the Mechanical Engineering field revolve around automating current systems that are already in place.  I’m sure that many of you have heard of the new Google driverless car on the internet or in the news.  If you haven’t heard of the proposed vehicle, it is Google’s attempt at making a fully autonomous car that requires no user input.  They are still in the developmental process, but it truly is a great feat of engineering.  In my previous post I discussed the new Automated Guided Vehicles that are released, and it seems like automated vehicles are becoming the future.  But as with all new technologies in society, there are always ethical questions that arise.

The acceptance of driverless cars into everyday life certainly has its fair share of ethical dilemmas.  If a driverless car malfunctions and crashes, who would wind up being liable?  Would it be the owner, the manufacturer, or the programmer?  Will driverless cars cause people that drive for a living to lose their job?  What if driverless cars act unpredictably and cause other human drivers to crash?  How does someone program whether or not an automated car should swerve to avoid a child in the middle of the street but potentially harm its own passengers?  A great ethical dilemma which has been dubbed the Trolley Problem is humorously explained in the video below.  This dilemma also applies to driverless vehicles.  Who does the car (the programmer) choose to save in all of the possible accident situations?

All of these questions and more are things that would arise if driverless cars were accepted into society.  These questions don’t have definite answers, and they cannot be easily solved.  I could spend hours talking about all of these individual questions, but instead I am going to focus on just one primary question- 

Is the use of driverless cars in everyday life an ethical decision?

Some of the reasons against having driverless cars are presented in the questions above.  People that oppose driverless cars point out that are current laws don’t adequately cover autonomous vehicles.  If a person were to hack into a driverless car they could cause accidents or even carjack the vehicles.  There will also be significant problems with having driverless cars and human drivers together on the road.  There are a tremendous amount of potential problems and difficulties that driverless cars may cause, but there are still substantial positive points.

To answer the primary question that I proposed, I would say “Yes”.   I believe that the conversion to driverless cars is the right decision.  I have only been talking about the negatives so far, but there are a few positives that I believe drastically outweigh the negatives.  In the United States in 2012 there were 33,561 people killed in automobile accidents, and 2,362,000 people injured.  (Source)  Accidents are also the fifth greatest cause of death in the United States, and a large part of these accidents are from automobiles.  (Source)  I’m not trying to say that driverless cars will immediately solve all of these deaths and injuries, but I believe that when we get to the point where autonomous vehicles are perfected and implemented properly, the amount of casualties and fatalities will just be a minute fraction of what it currently is.  And that is the future that I want to live in.

Once this point is reached, traffic will also be much more efficient than it currently ends up being.  A large number of traffic jams are caused by human error, and this can be fixed.  The cost savings for everyone will be enormous once we reach this point.  There will be less vehicle repairs and maintenance due to better driving, and there will be less road construction from accidents and bad driving wearing down on the road.  I agree that there are a huge number of problems to overcome before we reach the point of having driverless cars implemented perfectly, but I believe that attempting to reach that point is significantly worth it.  I would much rather have society worrying about how to overcome the ethical dilemmas behind a handful of crashes rather than avoiding these challenges and living with millions of crashes every year.

Additional discussions on this topic-

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/the-ethics-of-autonomous-cars/280360/

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25861214

The Advancement of Automated Guided Vehicles

The field of Mechanical Engineering is all about making tasks easier for human beings to accomplish.  This can range from small devices like phones, to heavy equipment used for construction or moving large items.  Continuing off the latter example, heavy equipment has made many tasks, such as transporting huge pallets or digging large holes, much easier for humans to accomplish.  Things which would normally take a person hundreds of hours to do by hand can be accomplished in only a few hours when heavy equipment is utilized.  And now with future advancements human input may not even be required.

Automated Pallet Truck

As posted in an article on ASME.org, the development of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) is on the rise.  As the article points out, human beings are not perfect, and we result in a large amount of accidents or mistakes that happen in businesses.   Automated Guided Vehicles are the new attempt to solve this problem by taking humans out of the equation all together.  These vehicles can operate much more accurately and with fewer errors than a human operator.   This is an incredible advancement for large industries due to a number of reasons. 

The first and only AGV to be created so far is an automated pallet truck used to transport large pallets around factories and warehouses.  This robotic truck is initially priced at $85,000 which may seem like a large amount of money for just what this machine does, but its one time cost surely outweighs the cost of having a driver.  A driver has to be paid wages and benefits, they have to take breaks, and they can cause accidents and injuries.  Now these machines are certainly not perfect either, but they can operate at a much lower cost than humans. 

Just how beneficial can this new development really be?  The new pallet truck alone can save companies large amounts of money by operating 24/7 for up to 10 years.  They are also completely electric which results in zero emissions, but they can still tow up to 10,000 pounds.  But this is also just one type of heavy machine.  This first pallet truck is just an example of how automation is becoming the future.  As our technology continues to advance we may see more and more AGV devices in the future.  Construction sites could soon be filled with a great assortment of heavy machines that all run perfectly in sync to complete projects much faster and more efficiently than humans ever could. 

Another Automated Vehicle

Devices like AGVs show how our society is advancing to replace our remedial careers with automated systems.  This now allows for people to focus their efforts on more beneficial careers that can advance our society further.  The AGV technology is at the forefront of this advancement, and it can be used as an example for how to automate other processes.  With automated vehicles like these, there are still a number of new problems that will arise.  One of these new problems is the ethical complications that will arise with automated vehicles, but this topic will be addressed in the next post.  AGVs are a great advancement for not only the field of Mechanical Engineering, but also the world in general.  

2015 Corvette Z06 Review

One of the greatest feats of Mechanical Engineering is the automobile.  Automobiles have only been around for a little more than 100 years, but they have been improved upon and redesigned more than any other product.  They exemplify exactly how Mechanical Engineers continually strive to improve and expand upon already developed ideas.  In this day and age, cars are consistently getting faster and more powerful as Mechanical Engineers think of new designs and better layouts.  The engineers at Chevrolet have shown their dedication to improvement with the new 2015 Corvette Z06.  Executives from Chevy are saying that the Z06 will be the highest performing version of Corvette ever made, but how does it actually stand?   This evaluation can be conducted by looking at the technical specs of the car, comparing it to other cars in the industry, and comparing it to previous Corvette models.  

The new supercharged 6.2 liter V8 engine was developed from their racing program.  This new engine will output 650 horsepower, and it will produce 650 foot-pounds of torque.  These specs may sound like just a bunch of numbers, but they truly are impressive.   In comparing these specs to the new 2015 Ford Mustang it is easy to see just how impressive they really are.  The new Ford Mustang has 310 horsepower and 320 foot-pounds of torque.  This is less than half of what the new Corvette Z06 has, and it shows how the Z06 truly is a super-car. 

The highest performing version of the previous model of Corvette was the ZR1.  This model was able to accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.8 seconds, but the engineers at Corvette say that the preproduction Z06 is already faster than the ZR1 on the test track.  As the below video demonstrates, the Corvette Z06 is surely the fastest production Corvette.

The new model will have a seven-speed manual transmission that comes standard, but it will also offer an eight-speed automatic option.  The new model will also offer a variety of different aerodynamic frames for improved airflow.  There are new carbon-fiber components to reduce the weight while still allowing for the strength and rigidity to stay the same.  Along with all of these changes, they are also adding a wider wheel base to improve traction.  

There are very few downsides to this super-car besides the price.  It truly is built for those who want the best of the best, and it assumes that the buyers will have a large amount of cash to spare.  The actual price isn’t fully released yet, but executives have suggested that its cost will be comparable to the outgoing Z06, which started at $76,595.  The price will most likely be higher than this, and added improvements to the stock model will increase the cost even more. 

The 2015 Corvette Z06 is set to release early in 2015, and it is heavily anticipated by both fans of Corvette and fans of super-cars in general.  When it will be released, it will certainly set a new standard for high-performance cars that other manufacturers are sure to follow.  It is not a car for the common man, but that does not mean that it can’t be appreciated by vehicle lovers.  It demonstrates exactly how Mechanical Engineering as a field continues to improve and grow over time as technology advances.  Mechanical Engineers are always striving to produce better and better products, and the new Corvette Z06 shows this perfectly.  

http://www.chevrolet.com/corvette-z06-supercar.html

An Explanation of Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering, or really Engineering as a whole, is a field that designs new products and structures to improve people’s quality of life.  Engineering has shaped our lives, and its overall importance can be seen in every aspect of a human’s life.  Even within just the first few hours of your day, you have encountered an uncountable amount of devices created by engineers.  The alarm clock that woke you up in the morning, the coffee maker that brewed your morning coffee, and the car that drove you to work are all things that engineers have designed and created.  Without Engineering our world would have none of the luxuries or necessities that we have today. 

Mechanical Engineering (ME) in particular focuses on the design and development of mechanical components within devices.  It uses the knowledge of physics, mathematics, thermodynamics, and materials science to solve problems.  This solution is accomplished by analyzing the problem, designing a mechanical device to solve the problem, drafting prototypes, testing, and redesigning.  Now this is still a very diverse field because almost all devices, such as the alarm clock, coffee maker, and car mentioned earlier, have mechanical components.  This leads to their being a large amount of sub-fields or focuses within Mechanical Engineering. 

I personally became very interested in Mechanical Engineering at a young age.  As a kid, all of my toys allowed me to build and create, and I loved being able to think of new and creative ways to construct things.  Toys like LEGOs and K’NEX are amazing for children, and I truly believed that they helped push me towards the career choices that I am making today.  I remember building a K’NEX rollercoaster, and that was one of my favorite memories as a child.  Now I didn’t always want to be a Mechanical Engineer.  The first job that I really wanted to be was a construction worker.  It wasn’t until I matured a little bit that I came to the realization that it wasn’t the physical creating that I enjoyed, but instead it was the designing that I enjoyed. 

My yearning to become a Mechanical Engineer grew even stronger when I took part in FIRST Robotics in high school.  FIRST is a national organization that lets high school students build robots through the use of engineering.  Every year FIRST creates a game with a unique set of rules, and each high school team then creates a robot to compete in these games.  This really embodies the heart and soul of Mechanical Engineering in a very fun and exciting way.  Mechanical Engineering is about finding problems in the world (The Game).  They then scope out what needs to be done to solve the problem, and they establish the requirements and limitations they will face (The Rules).  Finally they try to create the best mechanical device that meets the requirements and limitations (The Robot).  Mechanical Engineering is a very competitive field, and everyone is always trying to improve upon each other’s ideas to create the best product or device.

Overall Mechanical Engineering is a field that takes a large amount of hard work and dedication, but the results can be very rewarding.  Even earning the degree to get into the field can be a huge challenge, and the classes are very demanding.  Within the field there are numerous perks though.  Creating devices that can help the world and hopefully doing something that you love are two of the biggest rewards.  The median salary for Mechanical Engineers is around $80,000, and this is certainly a reward in itself.  

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/mechanical-engineer/salary