Economic benefits of Driverless Cars
Robots can cook and work in retail. Robots can learn, and we’re making them to learn faster by upgrading software systems. Some automatic systems can rewrite their programs themselves and work even more efficiently. (Vanstone par. 16) Same way, automatic cars do work and run efficiently.
If the most powerful force of car services, Uber and Lyft are joined by autonomous vehicle technology, a huge part of our economy and culture, the American way of life designed around automobile, will be changed. It’s not the job loss for drivers who could hold million other jobs in car sales, repairs and insurances. These cars soon make downtown parking garages, where usual cars need twelve feet wide lanes, but these require only seven feet lanes. The rest of the space could be converted to any affordable things like housing, bike lanes and for the use of pedestrians (Blumenauer par.8).
Driverless cars also have many potential economic benefits. In the Oregon pilot project, a volunteer plugs a device into their vehicle that records miles driven and fuel consumed, and is sent an invoice or a refund depending on the state gas tax already paid at the pump, which means a more accurate and fairer way to make sure drivers pay for the roads they enjoy.
Congestion pricing, which is the additional charge for driving during peak hours can also be charged on drivers, thus increasing the revenue for the govt., and decreasing the consumption of fuel by using the driverless cars. Standardizing all these taxes allows flexibility for pricing and tolling (Blumenauer par.12).
Citations:
Blumenauer, E. (2018). We Can Use Driverless Cars as a Reason to Fix Transportation Funding Problems. In Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale. (Reprinted from Let’s Use Self-Driving Cars To Fix America’s Busted Infrastructure, Wired, 2016, May 20) Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EQADPB732167431/OVIC?u=sunybuff_main&sid=OVIC&xid=34f4192b
Vanstone, L. (2018). Society Must Decide How to Respond to Workers Displaced by Technology. In Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection. Detroit: Gale. (Reprinted from In a driverless future, what happens to today’s drivers?, The Conversation, 2016, January 13) Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/FCWQDQ626716590/OVIC?u=sunybuff_main&sid=OVIC&xid=2cc99cbd
