Every decade to so, a product promises to revolutionize our society. Some of these may be more important and influential than others, in terms of how much they change our way of life. It is clear that the development of autonomous vehicles will be one of these huge advancements. While the technology is mostly developed for personal cars, it may also be used for anything from transport trucks to taxis.
However, as we become more and more dependent on these new self-driving cars, we may notice that the technology also has downsides. One example is the way in which the development of electronic vehicles may affect both public transportation systems, as well as the general traffic in urban areas.
Most of the possible downsides lie in the long-term. As autonomous vehicles become cheaper and more popular, we may find that their use will cause cities to become more congested in terms of traffic. In order to understand the scale of this change, we must take into account several factors.
The first one is a decrease in the number of people who use the public transportation system, as ride-sharing services start using self-driving vehicles. This will, in turn, cause cities to have more traffic problems as the number of cars increases. There is also the fact that Uber and Lyft are currently developing self-driving taxis. The two companies are looking to eliminate the need to sign contracts with drivers and increase the efficiency of their services.
The second factor is that companies will also start using AVs in order to set up automated delivery systems. Soon you may find that self-driving vehicles are delivering everything, from pizza to items bought online, and even furniture.
Lastly, it is important to remember the fact that an increased number of vehicles will also mean that roads will deteriorate faster, which in turn means that more funds will be required in order to maintain them.
However, it may not all be bad. The presence of autonomous vehicles in cities may also mean that there will be fewer accidents.
In the end, predicting what impact a certain technology will have on our society is extremely difficult. When smartphones were first introduced on the market, they were considered to be amazing devices that could be used to increase our productivity. Unfortunately, they have also shortened our attention span and shifted our attention from the importance of direct human contact, towards social media.
