The Impact of Autonomous Vehicles on People's Use of Vehicles and the Possible Environmental Pollution

Abstract

This paper gives the introduction and impact analysis of autonomous vehicles (AVs). The intention of inventing AVs is to facilitate people's life and to reduce the waste of recourses. It brings several impacts to public society from environmental and other perspectives. Research finds that as the application of AVs is boosting, the vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) of self-driving cars keep increasing. This phenomenon was affected by a few reasons: expanded user groups, increased public transportation, and some personal factors. Furthermore, considering the environmental impacts such as the relationship between energy consumption, life span, and frequency of use. By discovering the negative impact of AVs on humans and the whole society, some of these impacts are listed, like it reduces the labor force and causes radiation to the human body. It is undoubtful that AVs have brought many improvements to human life, it contains drawbacks due to the immature technology and short development period, but protocols and technology advancements will help to minimize these drawbacks as this technology is getting more mature.