Unit 1 Current Affairs and Issues (Grade 10) Reading I

 Unit 1. Current Affairs and Issues

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Reading I (page 1)

REAING I

How driverless cars will change our world

By Jenny Cusack 30^th November 2021

 

It's a late night in the Metro area of Phoenix, Arizona. Under the artificial glare of street lamps, a car can be seen slowly approaching. Active sensors on the vehicle radiate a low hum. A green and blue 'W' glows from the windscreen, giving off just enough light to see inside – to a completely empty driver seat.

The wheel navigates the curb steadily, parking as an arrival notification pings on the phone of the person waiting for it. When they open the door to climb inside, a voice greets them over the vehicle's sound system. "Good evening, this car is all yours – with no one upfront," it says.

This is a Waymo One robotaxi, hailed just 10 minutes ago using an app. The open use of this service to the public, slowly expanding across the US, is one of the many developments signalling that driverless technology is truly becoming a part of our lives.

The promise of driverless technology has long been enticing. It has the potential to transform our experience of commuting and long journeys, take people out of high-risk working environments and streamline our industries. It's key to helping us build the cities of the future, where our reliance and relationship with cars are redefined – lowering carbon emissions and paving the way for more sustainable ways of living. And it could make our travel safer. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. "We want safer roads and less fatalities. Automation ultimately could provide that," says Camilla Fowler, head of automated transport for the UK's Transport Research Laboratory (TRL).

But in order for driverless technology to become mainstream, much still needs to change. "Driverless vehicles should be a very calm and serene way of getting from A to B. But not every human driver around it will be behaving in that way," says David Hynd, chief scientist for safety and investigations at TRL.

"It's got to be able to cope with human drivers speeding, for instance, or breaking the rules of the road." And that's not the only challenge. There's regulation, rethinking the highway code, public perception, improving the infrastructure of our streets, towns, cities, and the big question of ultimate liability for road accidents. "The whole insurance industry is looking into how they're going to deal with that change from a person being responsible and in charge to the vehicle doing that," says Richard Jinks, vice president of commercial at Oxfordshire-based driverless vehicle software company Oxbotica, which has been testing its technology in cars and delivery vehicles at several locations across the UK and Europe.

The ultimate vision experts are working towards is of completely driverless vehicles, both within industry, wider transport networks, and personal-use cars, that can be deployed and used anywhere and everywhere around the world.

But with all these hurdles in place, what exactly does the next 10 years have in store for autonomous vehicles?

 

Two years from now

The biggest hurdle for those in the driverless technology industry is how to get the cars to operate safely and effectively in complex and unpredictable human environments. Cracking this part of the puzzle will be the major focus of the next two years.

At the Mcity Test Facility at the University of Michigan, experts are addressing this. The world's first purpose-built testing ground for autonomous vehicles, it's a mini-town of sorts, made up of 16 acres of road and traffic infrastructure. It includes traffic signals and signs, underpasses, building facades, tree cover, home and garage exterior for testing delivery and ride-hailing, and different terrains such as road, pedestrian walkways, railway tracks, and road-markings which the vehicles must navigate. It's here that experts test scenarios that even the most experienced of drivers may be pressed to handle, from children playing in the street to two cars trying to merge on a junction at the same time.

Source: BBCFuture

 

https://www.cavsafetyhub.com/howdriverlesscarswillchangeourworld

 

A. The following words have two different meanings. Match each word with the meaning used in the context of the text above.

a. glare- an intense building light

b. curb- something that checks or restrains

c. hail- to describe somebody/something as being very good or special

d. commute- to travel regularly between workplace and home

e. serene- calm and peaceful

f. liability- the state of being legally responsible for something

g. deploy- to use something effectively

h. autonomous- a vehicle that has the technology to drive itself

i. perception- the ability to understand the true nature of something

 

B. Choose the correct alternatives to complete the sentences below.

a. One of the features of automated cars is that ……….

i. they wait for the passengers

ii. they approach slowly

iii. They have their own voice to welcome people into them.

b. Driverless technology is being widely used particularly in …………..

i. the USA      ii. the UK       iii. the UAE

c. The positive impact of such technology on the environment is …………..

i. it prevents road accidents.

ii. it paves the way to sustainable life.

iii. it reduces carbon production.

d. One of the problems with driverless technology is that.......

i. it cannot deal with traffic system.

ii. it cannot deal with human drivers.

iii. it cannot cope with other cars.

e. One of the biggest challenges of the automated cars is ………..

i. its safety from the human environment

ii. human safety from it

iii. its durability in the human environment

f. The automated technology developed so far is ……………

i. English 10 completely trustworthy

ii. partly trustworthy

iii. not trustworthy at all

 

C. Answer the following questions.

a. Mention any three features of the driverless car.

b. Describe the benefits of driverless technology.

c. What, according to Camilla Fowler, is the special advantage of automated vehicles?

d. What are the problems with driverless vehicles in David Hynd's views?

e. What are scientists doing to make driverless technology safer?

f. Do you think driverless technology is safer than human- controlled driving? Why? –

 

D. Think of any three other areas where artificial intelligence (AI) has been used. What are the benefits of using AI in these areas? Share your ideas with the class.

 

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