The document discusses autonomous vehicles (AVs) and the major hurdles facing their widespread adoption. It describes AVs as vehicles that can sense their environment and navigate without human input. Several automakers are developing semi-autonomous vehicles that can assist with braking and distance keeping but require human oversight. Fully autonomous vehicles that allow passengers to relax are the end goal. Major challenges include improving the technology, ensuring all vehicles on the road support autonomy, developing a gradual transition versus an abrupt change, and addressing issues like mapping every road and ethical decision making. Autonomous vehicles have potential to significantly change transportation if these hurdles can be overcome.

1. Daniel Zappio
104258404
The automotive industry is one of the biggest in the world for
obvious reasons, people need to go places and need someway to get
there. It is one of the worlds most important economic industry with
around 1 billion cars on the road around the world consuming almost
1 trillion gallons of fuel yearly. With an industry this big everything
most be taken into consideration with technological advancements in
order to keep up with the developing world. The major flaw in the
automotive industry is safety, with all these cars on the road
everyday the danger and risk of injury or even death is always
escalating and always proves a major problem. The main problem is
human error, people are not perfect and will make mistakes. When
these mistakes are made driving a 4,000 pound car at 60 mph people
will get hurt and effect many lives. On average 1.3 million people
die every year from car accidents, that is3287 deaths per day. In
addition to this outstanding number 20-50 million people are also let
injured every tear from these accidents. These accidents are
increased from cell phones use, bad weather, alcohol, fatigue and
other factors impairing drivers. Now what if we could take all the
human error out of driving as well as these external factors and let
the cars to the driving, its a solution that seems far fetched but could
be right around the corner.
The major immersing innovation that I'm going to be talking
about for the automotive industry is autonomous driving cars or self
driving cars. The thought of a self driving and self aware car seems
futuristic and out there, but could be much closer than you think. So
what is an autonomous driving vehicle, an autonomous car is a
vehicle that has the capability of sensing its environment and are
able to navigate through the streets without the input of any driver of
external factors. These cars can accelerate break and steer themselves. This has been a long awaited
luxury that as been only stopped by the available technology but now could be the time for these cars to
take off and become reality. This theory of self aware cars is
being modeled and released in stages as the technology
becomes available. The first step was simply having the car
be aware of its surroundings and alert the driver of any
immediate threats and possible collisions. At this step the
vehicle is still fully controlled by a person and is used mostly
as a secondary safety feature. Volvo has now created semi-
autonomous cars, these cars still leave the driver in full
control but the vehicle will accelerate and brake for them as
well as stay at a safe distance away from all cars around
them, this is a large step in self driving cars but is not the end
goal. In this vehicle the driver still has to be present and
concentrate on the road and his surroundings to insure safe

2. travel. The end goal is for the customer to be able to relax enjoy the drive and be involved in activities
inside the car
while the car is operating itself and taking you safely to your destination of choice. There are multiple
hurdles that these automotive companies are going to have to go through with these self driving cars to
make them available to the public and are used world wide successfully. Te first major hurdle is the
technology. Even though it is close the technology for self driving cars is no where near being able to
be used by consumers, it needs to be extensively tested over and over again before thinking about
putting them publicly in the streets. The next major hurdle is for this to be fully effective and lower the
danger of collisions and driving then every vehicle on the street would have to be a self driving car.
This would have to happen because collisions could still occur if a car operated by a person hit an
autonomous driving car. The next bid hurdle is that up until this point automotive companies have
gradually added small changes to increasing the technology working towards the end goal of fully self
driving. Right now the technology currently in these vehicles is only working for a couple seconds to
either park the car or let the driver be aware someone is around them. This becomes a problem because
there is no gradual step going forward. Just the big jump to fully self driving for long periods of time.
This hurdle makes it extremely hard to execute and is why it is going to take a very long time to reach
the end goal. Another hurdle is for these vehicles to be released to the consumer they would ave o work
all throughout the entire world. This seems east at first with all the current GPS technology but it would
not be an easy ob to map every road in the entire world. Normal GPS maps would not work because
they are not detailed enough to use this type of technology on it. This means new technology is going
to be needed in order for this to fully come together which will just delay it even further. Another
problem that could be faced is these cars are no programmed for specific situations. They arnt
programmed for if this happens do this so, instead they are programmed through pattern recognition
and experience. More problems will lie in the fact that the car will not have any ethical judgment and

3. will rely solely on what the
computer determines s the right
path, this could cause problems.
For example if there is a child in
the street and a garbage can the
obvious move for a human driver
is to hit the garbage can if you are
unable to stop in time but an
autonomous driving car is unable
to make that distinction. These are
the major hurdles that the
automotive industry is going to
have to deal with if they want to
make self driving cars a reality in
every day life.
This innovation has a huge
chance to completely change and
reinvent an industry that is already
massive. The competitive
advantage that a company like
Volvo will achieve by using the
technology will be outstanding.
People want this product and they
are willing to wait for the
consumer version eve though it
may take an indefinite amount of
time. This makes it easy for a
company like Volvo to make
prototypes and show off the current technology without having to make any real promises to the
consumer because they are aware that we are very far away from making this a reality. As long as this
company continues to take progress and make updates to the consumers about the product it will have
no short or long term negative effect. This advantage is only for the development and marketing phase.
Once this technology is complete and ready for the consumer and real world application the first and
earliest adopters will have the biggest advantage. This one put the in a situation comparable to what
Tesla is today. Tesla has the electric car industry completely cornered and this allows them to have full
control over the market. They are able to charge high prices because there is very little competition.
This would be the same for the first company to successfully complete the self driving car. The whole
automotive industry itself would make leaps and bounds, as technology gross and advances people are
looking into new ways of travel. They are tired of traveling by vehicle because it is slower than plain
and other options. Having autonomous driving cars will allow for more comfort and people will choose
this as an option over other alternative. With the rising technology in self driving cars as well as the
rising technology in eco-friendly cars we could end up with super cars that are capable of only things
we ca imagine right now and will completely change the way we travel and the way we look at cars

4. Work cited
http://www.volvocars.com/intl/about/our-innovation-brands/intellisafe/intellisafe-autopilot/this-is-
autopilot/autonomous-drive-in-detail
http://www.extremetech.com/tag/autonomous-driving
http://www.driverless-future.com/?page_id=774
http://www.mckinsey.com/industries/automotive-and-assembly/our-insights/ten-ways-autonomous-
driving-could-redefine-the-automotive-world
https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/innovation/autonomous-driving/