The use of motor vehicles for transportation is commonplace in American Western culture. As autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles emerge on the market, society will inevitably be faced with a variety of significant changes. A specific question that arises when discussing these changes is the following: Are autonomous vehicles’ (AVs) impact on the economy beneficial or detrimental? Although most research presents the idea that self-driving cars will have a positive impact on society, public opinion remains skeptical. For example, Season 1, Episode 6 of popular TV. show, Silicon Valley, satirizes self-driving cars. One character, Jared, accepts a ride home from work in a driverless car. In what appears to be a glitch in the system, the car unexpectedly makes a U-turn and takes him over 4,000 miles away to a private island. The car drives itself into a shipping unit aboard a large ship on route to the island, trapping Jared inside.

A vehicle can be defined as fully autonomous when its safety control functions, such as steering, throttle, and braking, take place without any driver contribution. These cars function by use of LIDAR, or a Light Detection and Ranging System. Through these pulsing lasers that record distance, the car gains access to a 360-degree view of what is happening all around its surroundings. LIDAR works together with specialized cameras to detect and differentiate the colors (red, yellow, green) of traffic lights. Similar to many manual cars in use today, the self-driving cars also come outfitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS) and navigational unit (Jian et al. 2015). This highly advanced technology enables self-operating cars to steer clear of both pedestrians and other vehicles that may cross its path on the road at any given moment. Some of the many companies that have begun work in making these cars include Google, Tesla, and General Motors, Mercedes Benz, Renault, and Toyota. The company, Google, stands at the forefront of this global innovative market due to their new car prototype, which was released in December of 2014. It simply requires that its passengers only enter a destination into the car’s navigation system and the car navigates on its own to that location (Penn Bio Ethics Journal).

One claim is that self-driving cars can benefit the economy by increasing fuel and energy efficiency, as well as reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere. Driving so that the engine can spend as much time as possible at its most efficient operating points, which typically means high load and moderate speed, minimizes energy consumption. Another way is to minimize repeated braking-acceleration cycles, since braking represents energy that has been wasted. This method is an example of eco-driving, or a set of practices designed to decrease fuel consumption without altering the design of the vehicle itself (Garcia-Castro et al. 2014). Another way energy is reduced is by decreasing congestion on major roadways through improved traffic control and accident reduction. Self-driving capability would also save energy by changing car-ownership as more and more people could participate in vehicle-sharing and/or carpooling. Most of the manual vehicles used today are known for high-energy consumption and high fossil fuel emission. This energy expenditure is costly. There are partly fuel-efficient manual cars that are available on the market right now, such as battery electric cars and hybrid cars, yet, these tend to be more expensive in comparison to normal, manual cars that require human attention.

Another way autonomous vehicles are claimed to be economically beneficial is by driving down the cost of travel.  As a result, commuters could travel longer distances or, if they please, save money to spend on other things, invest, or put into savings.  It is also said that downtown centers of urban cities would experience an increase in economic activity and productivity. The total amount of urban land dedicated to parking would decrease, leaving room for other forms of infrastructure to take its place. Although infrastructure is a high-cost investment, it creates jobs as well as has a large multiplier effect. This means that a dollar spent on infrastructure leads to an outcome of greater than two dollars. Although it is often difficult to directly measure gains as a result of infrastructure improvements, it is said that it could boost gross domestic product (GDP), or the monetary value of all the finished goods and services produced within a country's borders in a period, which is a quarter or year. This is used as a method to gauge the health of a countries economy. In recent years, 5% of United States’ GDP has been spent on fuels (Aucott et al. 2014).  

Since autonomous vehicles provide a greater level of personal safety when driving on the road, the number of car accidents that occur each year can be reduced. “Because an estimated ninety-four percent of automobile accidents are attributable to human error, the development of law-abiding, ultra-safe self-driving cars promises to significantly reduce the number of annual car accidents” (Penn Bioethics Journal). Oliver Cameron, a lead researcher from Udacity, in a recent personal interview said, “1.3 million people per year die in cars, and it’s totally avoidable loss in many cases. Humans get tired, drunk and distracted. Machines don’t. […] I hope it’s one day illegal to buy a human-driven car, because the amount of destruction that can be caused is catastrophic” (Cameron). The purpose of self-driving cars is to fix these sources of inevitable human error. If there is less risk of injury, there is a decrease in demand to been insured. As the roads become safer, large insurance companies may be pressured to lower the cost of their premiums. Cost of insurance would decrease, not disappear, as the majority consumers find it essential to feel insured that in the event of an accident, they will be compensated for their losses.

The other side of the argument presents that autonomous vehicles are financially detrimental because they replace human labor, taking away jobs of many American citizens, and thus, raising the rate of unemployment.  Research says that car manufacturers will be ready to fully release these fully self-operating vehicles to the market in the year 2020, although some are already out there on the market for purchase (Schroll 2015).  If the technology surrounding these vehicles continues to improve, it can put individuals who work as long-haul truckers, bus drivers, cab drivers, or those who work for Uber/Lyft, etc…out of work. It should be noted that jobs such as these, especially trucking, are one of the few that offers middle-class pay to those without a college degree. These workers would have to find other sources of income in order to remain financially independent. In this argument, it can be seen how machines take a direct hit to an entire class of blue-collar workers. Some people fear that this artificial intelligence will eliminate jobs that require basic intellectual skills and replace it with jobs that call for specialized skills or years of schooling. “The bad news is that technology-driven labor market transitions can take considerable time, causing serious hardships for displaced workers. And if article intelligence accelerates the pace of automation, as many predict, this rapid transition may cause significant social disruption” (Kaplan, 2017).  

Another counterclaim of self-driving cars is that due to liability concerns, car manufacturer operating costs will increase. The trend that could be expected holds that as personal liability decreases, manufacturer liability increases. “Earlier polls found that fifty percent of people said that a driverless car’s manufacturer should bear responsibility in case of an accident, and only twenty-five percent say that they would be willing to pay more for a driverless car to cover the manufacturer’s liability in case of an accident” (Insurance Information Institute). One thing to take into account is that although the number of accidents should decrease, the cost of replacing damaged parts would still remain high. This is attributed to the fact that the complex technologies that make up the self-driving cars are more expensive than an average manual car. When asked if self-driving cars were costly to manufacture, Cameron responded, “For a one-off vehicle today, yes, very! About $250k per car. A lot of that cost goes into the sensors” (Cameron). Researchers argue whether or not a reduction in the frequency of car crashes correlate to a reduction in the overall expense of car crashes. Since system failures of autonomous vehicles could be fatal to all those involved, all main components will need to meet testing and maintenance standards, similar to advanced aircraft components. This would raise the costs of operating even more.

Although some research proves that self-driving cars are energy efficient, some people think that they might actually increase energy consumption and leave a larger carbon footprint. Carbon dioxide emissions negatively affect the environment and contribute to issues such as global warming, deforestation, and ocean acidification. It can also lead to pollution that is dangerous to human health (Steinacher 2013). Correcting damage to the environment is a very difficult task, sometimes irreversible. At no surprise, this correction requires funding. Energy consumption could increase as the rate of travel by certain demographic groups not currently driving increases. Members of this group include elderly, handicapped, and children. Greater variety of people on the road would increase demand significantly (Hevelke et al. 2015). Since these cars reduce human labor and make driving a more relaxed and stress-free experience, consumers would be more likely to travel longer distances at a time. This, yet again, increases energy consumption and fossil fuel emissions. Another way this automation indirectly affects its environment is by creating a “haze” of light emission in the atmosphere. These vehicles use LEDs to operate. LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, emit a large amount of blue light when used. This color of light emission is scattered by Earth’s atmosphere (Landau et al. 2007). This creates a “haze” which obscures the view of optical telescopes. As the amount of self-driving cars increase using these LEDs, optical astronomers receive even fainter signals from the cosmos.

Everyday there are researchers actively working to transform a dream of innovation into reality. A world in which fully autonomous vehicles are commonplace in society. Public opinion, however, still remains skeptical due to concerns for personal safety. When asked during an interview about how he thinks the public views self-driving cars, Cameron said, “I believe they believe it’s a pipe dream, and they have a right to be skeptical. I think there’s a lot of public relations work that has to go into promoting the safety and efficiency benefits of self-driving cars” (Cameron). “The Toulouse School of Economics in France conducted a study that aimed to gauge public opinion about self-sacrificing cars by asking individuals about various scenarios. Public response was  relatively unanimous in that individuals were comfortable with the idea of self-driving cars being programmed to reduce death tolls, so long as they did not have to own one themselves” (Penn Bioethics Journal). Since this form of technology affects so many different aspects of life, importantly, the economy, it must be questioned if these machines are truly a benefit to society as a whole. One side of the argument presents that autonomous vehicles are beneficial for the economy because they drive down the cost of travel, increase fuel and energy efficiency, and reduce the number of car accidents. Those in opposition to autonomous vehicles find that they are detrimental to the economy because they replace human labor, increase manufacturer operating costs, and ultimately cause harm to the environment and scientific research.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s to early 1800s, humans have implemented technology to achieve economic success (Gomis, 2015). The steps taken have led to increased production at lower cost through mass-production, however, has also generated some cultural anxiety. Technology, of course, can do wonderful things, however, where should the line be drawn between human and machine? Are autonomous vehicles beneficial or detrimental to American, Western economy? The topic of autonomous vehicles has become a huge part of mainstream discussion in current society with some in favor and some opposed. As these questions arise, individuals attempt to determine if this technology can be trusted to improve our lives.