Summary Reader Response Draft #2

 The article “Drone Truck startup Einride unveils new driverless vehicles for autonomous freight hauling” written by Hawkins(2020) highlights the features and applications of Autonomous Electric Transport (AET) to transport commodities across the land at cheap cost and with less pollution

 

 Hawkins states that Einride has been launching intriguing and eye-catching prototype vehicles since 2016, including a cab-less pod in 2017 in collaboration with a German logistics business and an electric truck transporting freight for a Swedish food manufacturer.

 

 The AET is designed to be “sleek, white, cab-less pods with smooth lines and an otherworldly feel”. It also includes several hardware and software configurations such as an “electric drivetrain”, “proprietary telematics hardware” and “autonomous drive” sensors and camera. Depending on their demands and sector of operation, all-electric components are configurable and may be operated remotely by human operators.

 

The vehicle is available in four different levels and configurations. AET 1 is designed to work within a geofence, while AET 2 is designed to operate outside of a geofence via teleoperation, AET 3 is meant for rural use, and AET 4 is built for highway use. Although all four AETs have identical weights and cargo capacities, AET 3 and 4 have much higher maximum speeds than AET 1 and 2.

 

Thesis statement:

Autonomous electrical truck(AET) is the future of cargo transportation with lower cost, lower air pollution as well as ability to protect the safety of drivers.


Supporting 1 (what is so good about driverless truck pod)

The use of AET will help to reduce traffic congestion during peak hours where the road is busy. They also don’t need breaks to rest like human drivers do which avoid an issue like drowsy driving accidents. Moreover, AET could bring big benefits to safety. Every year, many trucks were involved in crashes resulting in deaths and injuries and with the driverless pod, whenever there is crashes human will not be involved and this protects them from life-threatening incidents. This is supported with Accordance to the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2020), “94% of the severe traffic accidents happen because of human errors”.


supporting 2 (AET reduces cost)

Petrol and Electricity are charged at a different rates, to determine if diesel or electricity is more efficient in powering the vehicle, a group of researchers tested the amount of electrical energy needed to run at the same capacity as a diesel-powered truck and the cost per charging unit. According to Amol Phadke et al (2019), “For reference, at diesel prices of $3.16/gal and charging costs of $0.06/kWh (inclusive of amortized charging station infrastructure costs), an electric truck's fuel cost savings are $251 000 (NPV), providing net savings of $61 000 (18% of lifetime diesel fuel cost) over the truck's lifetime at battery price of $170/kWh, or up to $148 000 (44% of lifetime diesel fuel cost) at a battery price of $100/kWh”. Although the data was noted from 2019, the current electricity cost in Singapore is 27.22 and diesel is 8.362/gal which is calculated that electricity is a cheaper alternative than diesel.





 supporting 3(AET save and reduce pollution)

It is known that climate change is caused by mankind and vehicle is a huge percentage of the emission of greenhouse gases. According to Van Bree et al, (2010), “28% of Greenhouse gases and 71% of fossil fuel contributed to the transport industry” hence, to reduce the Greenhouse gas emission, it is best to start by moving energy use from petrol to electricity. Using electric cars and trucks eliminates pollution that they produced when running on gas or petrol such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrogen which can ultimately trigger health diseases and sickness to people breathing in them.


counter argument ( no situational thinking and reduces job)

Having an autonomous vehicle is very smart and time-saving however, self-driving cars have a higher rate of accidents than human-driven cars. Computers have nowhere near-human intelligence, although they can identify objects in a picture or surroundings and outperform humans, they do not have the skill to handle unforeseen occurrences happening. According to roboticist and AI researcher Rodney Brooks (2017), he argued against the short-term viability of self-driving cars based on the sheer number of “edge cases,” i.e., unusual circumstances, they’d have to handle. In addition, having autonomous vehicle driving causes an increase in unemployment due to having trouble finding driving-related jobs due to AI taking over their role as a driver. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, (2019), “more than 2.0 million people were employed as tractor-trailer truck drivers. Taxi and delivery drivers account for 370,400 jobs, and more than 680,000 Americans are employed as bus drivers.” Adding them together will potentially cause more than 2.9 million drivers to lose their job.


conclusion

In conclusion, having AET for freight hauling is a positive way to reduce the cost of transportation and also help to protect mother earth by reducing greenhouse gas emissions tremendously. However, having AI take over the driver may be dangerous due to the inability to deal with unexpected events. Furthermore, resulting in a massive increase in the number of unemployed people. 

 REFERENCE:


  • Caner Filiz (2020, April 14). Can Autonomous vehicles prevent traffic accidents. Intechopen. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/72643 



https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/7-arguments-against-the-autonomous-vehicle-utopia/578638/

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