Are Self Driving Cars Good or Bad, Annotated Bibliography Example

Markoff J. (2010). Google Cars Drive Themselves, in Traffic. New York Times. Retrieved fromhttp://bngumassd.org/neatstuff/selfdrive%20cars.pdf

This article will be used as an example to demonstrate how the media views self-driving cars. It describes the history of Google’s plan to build and test the cars, in addition to its potential future in the marketplace. Although the newspaper attempts to take a neutral view on the topic, the writer appears impressed at the prospect of self-driving cars, which in turn convinces the readership that this technology is a good idea. However, the New York Times remains realistic in saying that there are many years left of research and design until a product like this could become mainstream. This article will also be used to show the relationship between the media’s opinion and the public’s opinion.

Markoff J. (2011). Google Lobbies Nevada to Allow Self-Driving Cars. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~bbaas/6/slides/News.Self-DrivingCars.NYT.pdf

This article will be used to explain the relationship between Google’s attempt to lobby the government to allow their cars onto the streets and the media’s opinion of the cars. Since Google can invest large sums of money in convincing the Nevada government to allow self-driving cars, it is likely that the media, influenced by politics, will portray self-driving cars as a favorable technology.

Petrovskaya A, Thrun S. (2009). Model based vehicle detection and tracking for autonomousurban driving. Autonomous Robots, 26(2): 123.

This article describes in part how traffic situations will be improved if self-driving cars are implemented. It will be used to explore the environmental advantages of this technology. Since self-driving cars are automated and programmed to reduce levels of traffic beyond at a greater capacity than human drivers, individuals who use self-driving cars will not need to buy as much gas due to a reduction in the amount of time spent standing without travelling.

Sumer N, Ozkan T, Lajunen T. (2006). Asymmetric relationship between driving and safetyskills. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 38(4): 703-711.

This article reports that people who believe they are good drivers do not necessarily use adequate safety skills when driving. It will be used to draw the connection between reduced accidents and a positive impact on the environment due to a decreased need to manufacture car replacement parts for car maintenance after serious accidents. Self-driving cars will be safe independent of human decisions, thereby leading to less accidents, and less factory pollutants will be produced in the manufacturing of replacement parts.

Voelcker J. (2006). Top 10 tech cars [fuel efficient cars]. IEEE Xplore, 43(4): 34-35.

This article explains that although self-driving cars that are completely automated will not be released in the near future, current cars such as the 2007 Lexus sedan is able to park itself with minimal help from the driver. Therefore, it is expected that this technology will continue to be improved and built upon in the future. It also explains cars that are more technologically advanced attempt to conserve fuel or used alternative forms of energy for power. This article will be used to demonstrate the likelihood that self-driving cars will be made to use clean energy. Clean energy reduces carbon dioxide emissions, which would therefore indicate that self-driving cars are environmentally friendly. This article examines several examples of technologically advanced cars that use clean energy and discusses additional technological events in the automotive industry that are relevant to the development of self-driving cars.