Self Driving Cars Now Testing in New York
By: Ashlyn Schaefer
In September of this year, CEO of Cruise Automation announced that its owner GM will now be producing their self driving cars on a massive scale. Currently, there are about 50 of these vehicles that are based around the design of the Chevrolet Bolt. The roboticists and engineers worked to build a computer system that combines the data that is streamed from the many sensors mounted on the car in order for it to be able to “see”. These vehicles are currently only available to 10% of the employes at Cruise Automation in San Francisco and all have people in the driver’s seat as a safety precaution. According to Kyle Vogt, CEO of Cruise Automation, “And more importantly these vehicles can operate without a driver when the software’s ready”. Similar to Uber, you can call a car from your smartphone, give it a specific time and place to pick you up and then rate your experience once you’ve been dropped off. The app will notify you when the car is on the way as well as when it has arrived. Because these cars are not available to the public, the price of driving in the vehicles has not been released yet.
In order to originally test these vehicles, they were brought onto urban roads with less traffic and pedestrians; however, with the cars now moving to streets in New York by next year, the demand of this vehicle will rise exponentially.
Tesla has also released their own self steering car; despite this, Cruise Automations will still profit from their product as well as be inelastic because unlike Tesla, Cruise is similar to a taxi service and is not directly competing with Tesla. When the production of Cruise’s vehicles begins, they will be in high demand and because of this, the supply will need to increase along side it. Although Uber and taxi services are most popularly used, some people do not feel comfortable being in the car with a complete stranger. Once Cruise can create a flawless system, driving with a stranger will no longer be an issue. The technology behind the self driving car is fascinating and many people will jump at the opportunity to ride in one of these cars. On the other hand, many people do not trust advancing technology and chose to avoid it all together. If Cruise continues to convince people that their cars are safe through trials and examples, it is possible that the Uber and taxi services will not be in such high demand.
Automation, Cruise. “GM Will Test Self-Driving Cars in New York City.” CNNMoney, Cable
Etherington, Darrell. “GM and Cruise Announce First Mass-Production Self-Driving Car.”TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 11 Sept. 2017
Marshall, Aarian. “GM and Cruise's Self-Driving Car: Just Add Software.” Wired, Conde Nast, 12 Sept. 2017,
“GM & Cruise Announce World’s 1st Production Self-Driving Car Design.” CleanTechnica, 12 Sept. 2017,
The impact of self-driving cars on taxi services was a very interesting point. In time, it seems like these self-driving cars may completely displace taxi/Uber drivers. Later on, it's very possible that automated vehicles will also replace truck-drivers and chauffeurs. Hopefully, the loss of drivers will not have a significant negative effect on the economy due to the jobs created by the production and maintenance of self-driving cars.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Janie that while the self driving cars may have a positive impact on the economy, there also could be a lot of jobs lost if the demand for Uber type services decrease. Since these services would most likely be in competition with one another, it will be interesting to see how the shift in supply of Taxi services impacts the demand and price of these services.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting topic, a topic that people haven't heard a lot about. The self-driving car most likely will replace the taxi/Uber systems. Thinking about the technology in this car, it can't be sure that it will be safe. Today there is technology that malfunctions all the time. Having these cars can put people in danger in case the technology doesn't operate correctly. If these cars are put on the streets there will be many people that lose their jobs. Overall, I don't think it's a good idea to produce these cars. First, this car may put people in danger in case if the technology doesn't work they way it's suppose to and for the second reason is it will take away jobs because the Cruise will replace all taxi/Uber and other transportation services.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, that the self driving cars will take over the taxi/Uber system. I think the cars will be more safe than human drivers because then there won't be human error. The human reaction time is a lot higher than the reaction time of computer. I personally think the self driving cars will be better.
DeleteInteresting to see where technology is taking the world and how we are advancing. These self driving cars would be a substitute to so many more things than just driving. All the Uber, Lyft, rest stations would all have less business with a self driving car. A lot of jobs would be at stake and people may not be completely happy with this option. I think having these cars in our environment would be good for the advancement in technology but poor in the sense that many jobs could be potentially lost which could cause a large problem in the world. I am very excited to where this new technology will take us and how it will effect us.
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ReplyDeleteSelf driving vehicles is a crazy concept to imagine. While I think there could be many possible benefits like you mentioned, how many jobs will be lost by displacing taxi services and others like it such as Lyft and Uber? I'll be interested to see if the market for these automated vehicles skyrockets when they are officially released to the public, or if people will be fearful of the new technology. Also, how does this new sub-industry for vehicles affect traditional cars? (Kathryn Van Hulle)
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about the impact self driving cars would have on the economy. You would have to think of all the jobs that would be unnecessary as there would be less workers needed in the mechanical industry. Also all of the car industry would have to agree on the same technology as cars would need to be aware of other cars.
ReplyDeleteI dont think that it would affect the need for mechanics as the vehicles would still require regular maintenance in fact with the more high tech parts it may require an increase in specialized mechanics (workers). However I do know their would be a decrease in the number of jobs for people such as bus and cab drivers and in the long run possibly even garbage and delivery truck drivers.
DeleteIt’ll be interesting to see what impact self-driving cars will have on the economy. Because of the lower demand in travel services such as Uber and taxis, this may impact the jobs of thousands of workers. This is a great technological advancement but at the same time I’m assuming not many people will be for it. Personally, I wouldn’t feel safe in a car I wouldn’t be driving, and I’d feel much calmer in a car when I know the person driving knows what they’re doing. At the same time, I’m also intrigued to see where this technology takes us in the future.
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ReplyDeleteThe car market as a whole has a huge impact on world economics. With fuel efficient cars or completely electric cars, the market for fuel decreases, causing the United States to ban some technology that allowed cars in Europe to get upwards of 100 mpg. The self driving car market wouldn't impact the gas market, but it would have an effect on the uber and taxi market, decreasing the demand for those people. Self driving cars would probably increase unemployment rates because there is millions of people in the chauffeur industry that would lose their jobs.
ReplyDeleteI think that it really is interesting that self-driving cars may become something more normal in the future. It really just shows how one innovation leads to more competition and how soon enough multiple companies are working on the same product. This only drives more ideas in order for one single product to stand out and continue to be profitable. As time continues on, innovations become more and more advanced such as self-driving cars.
ReplyDeleteI agree as time progresses self driving cars will become the mainstream as far as taxi and ubers are concerned. It is simply too fascinating of a cost saving of strategy to not even have to pay your drivers. What does concern me on this topic as i'm sure its crossed the minds of taxi companies and uber alike, what happens when the self driving car fails and crashes resulting in a hurt or killed passenger. There is no longer any driver to reflect blame onto and the company itself, whether that's the taxi company or the company that produced the car, someone will have to claim the responsibility on malfunctions.
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