Three Major Challenges in the Diffusion of Autonomous Vehicle and Innovative ideas to overcome it

 

 The three major challenges in the diffusion of autonomous vehicle are:

a. Ethical dilemma of self-driving cars.

It is the decision-making process between two possible moral imperatives, which are neither acceptable nor preferable. In case of emergency, while driving car, human respond suddenly without any deliberation. The reaction time to take decision is so small that people must take prompt decision. The ethical decision making is generally considered to represent a classic clash between two schools of moral thought which are utilitarianism and deontological ethics. Utilitarianism focuses on increasing utility/happiness of decision, whereas deontological ethics focuses on following the pre-determined set up rules and regulation rather than consequences. Let us consider a situation involving imminent unavoidable harm, A car is moving straight in a road, several blind pedestrians are standing ahead of the car and in a sideway there is one pedestrian standing. The car has three options:

1.  Killing several pedestrians or one passerby

2. Killing one passerby or its own passenger

3. Killing several pedestrians or its own passenger

The challenge is that, how should the autonomous vehicle should take ethical decision.

b. Social acceptance

Even though autonomous vehicle has numerous social & benefit like less environment impact, reduced travel cost, opportunity cost, travel for non-licensed holder, it is difficult to be easily accepted by society. Cognitive risk map in factor 1 (dread risk) and factor 2 (unknown risk) shows that autonomous vehicle falls in region of unfamiliar (near to value 1) and dread risk (near to 1). In this scenario, autonomous vehicle having both dread risk and unfamiliar risk makes difficult for social acceptance. In addition to this, society won’t accept it unless the AVs are developed with full security. If someone hack the program of car or computer of car, the control can be misused by other people. It is important to make AVs trustable. Environment benefits/costs are calculated and analyzed by many researchers all over the world. However, social benefits/costs are more complex and unknown at this moment.

a. Mixed traffic

At a single glance, it is not possible to replace all existing vehicles with autonomous vehicle, and AVs need to deal with mixed traffic like bicycle, rikshaw, pedestrians and other manual vehicles in road. Although autonomous cars are predictable, operates based on codes & programs, but human driving is based on the mood, fatigue and situation. We can control autonomous vehicle, but it is not possible to control human driven vehicle, and it is necessary to understand, how does AVs react with manual vehicles. Due to lack of coordination between programmed vehicle and manual vehicle, serious accidents may happen. In addition to this, AVs should understand non-verbal communication like honking, hank gesture and human sound based on the situation. This is also one of the important challenges for diffusion of autonomous vehicle.

The ideas to overcome above mentioned challenges are as follows:

a. Ethical dilemma

The government should enact laws, regulation and policies for the operation of autonomous vehicles. Germany, US have already enacted acts & laws for operation of self-driving vehicles. However, use & testing of automated vehicles is allowed within certain limits. In other countries like Japan, UK, certain guidelines have been made on testing of these vehicles. Instead of making country wise guidelines & policy, it is important to make umbrella policy in international forum and conference to make manufacturing, testing & operation of AVs uniform worldwide. International agencies and forums should discuss about the modality of ethical decision to be followed by AVs. The ethical problems can be solved by incorporating utilitarianism and deontological ethics approach.

b. Social acceptance

Scientists & Researchers should not focus only on technical, financial & environmental aspects. Along with this, they should analyze social benefits, social adaptability, risk and cost.  In order to increase familiarity of AVs in a society, vehicle should be diffused in a market from semiautonomous to fully autonomous (level 0,1,2,3,4,5) gradually over time, so that people can easily adjust with new technology. Moreover, in order to increase social acceptance, it is necessary to manage the diffusion of information, which includes public information campaigns, test-ride events and transparency about safety options.

c. Mixed traffic

It is impossible to replace all manual vehicles with autonomous vehicle at once. To minimize the dilemma between these vehicles, it is necessary to segregate manually operated vehicles and programmed vehicles. In a road, we can provide dedicated lanes for autonomous vehicle and other lanes for other vehicles. Similarly, freeways, highways and other roads can be dedicated for autonomous vehicle. Except the dedicated road, autonomous vehicles should be operated as manual vehicle. The segregation of AVs & non-AVs can overcome this challenge.