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Joshua Fournier
Assignment: Annotated Bibliography
ENGL 231 229999
March 17, 2016

Research Paper Topic: The future of autonomous (self-driving) vehicles and the
potential gains and safety hazards that come along with them.

Annotated Bibliography
Abrams, Rachel. "Self-Driving Cars May Get Here Before We're Ready." 21 January
2016. The New York Times. Online. 16 March 2016.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/business/dealbook/davos-self-drivingcars-may-get-here-before-were-ready.html?_r=0>.
This article primarily describes what a morning routine would look like in the future
with the aid of autonomous vehicles instead of traditional cars. The article states
that even though the eyes of massive automotive corporations are very focused on
making and legalizing a completely autonomous vehicle for public use, our
roadways and society are not necessarily ready for them. Since the idea was first
put into the limelight, the technology to actually build these vehicles has evolved
much more rapidly than anyone had anticipated but road systems, however, have
not. This article also moves behind the legal aspect of autonomous vehicles and
shows just how much work that automobile manufacturers really have before they
can put these cars on the roads for good. This article is both very accurate and good
quality as it aims toward the general public and gives all sides to the topic. The
author herself is also a reliable source of information as she tends to write in a nonbiased manner and has written numerous other articles for the New York Times.

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Bertoncello, Michele and Dominik Wee. "Ten Ways Autonomous Driving Could
Redefine The Automotive World." McKinsey & Company Quarterly 1 June
2015: 18-21. Document. 15 March 2016.
While this article doesn't focus on autonomous cars quite as much as others does, it
does an excellent job at showing the effects resulting from these vehicles becoming
legalized and put onto the roads. As a direct result of them being put onto the
roads, the article states that the entire car-service landscape would change, that
insurance companies may switch their entire business model, that companies could
reshape their entire supply chain, and that accident rates as we know them, would
drop dramatically. The article also states that autonomous vehicles would reshape
the automotive industry in a three step process, when autonomous vehicles (AVs)
become a realistic possibility, when they are in their early adoption phase, and
when they eventually go mainstream. Though the names of the authors are not
quite as big as those who have written other articles, they still do a great at
providing a well-planned meaning of the article as a whole and provide good logical
reasoning behind all the statements that were made.
Kiss, Jemima. Your Next Car Will Be Hacked. Will Autonomous Vehicles Be Worth It?
13 March 2016. The Guardian. Online. 15 March 2016.
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/13/autonomous-carsself-driving-hack-mikko-hypponen-sxsw>.
Though most articles in the list preach about how safe autonomous vehicles (AVs)
would be, this article does an excellent job describing the hidden dangers not
always associated with AVs. Though accident rates would drop because human error
would be taken out of the equation, AVs require numerous advanced computer

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systems to operate, computer systems that could be turned against its occupant if
they were hacked. Right now, due to weak defense systems in computers, and even
weaker defense systems in cars, criminals are already able to remotely access a
vehicles gas, brakes, and even door locks in traditional vehicles. When attacks
happen however, the occupants are still able to steer the car to safety, which would
not be a possibility in an AV since they have no steering wheel. Before AVs get sold
to consumers, new defenses will have to be put into place to make this new breed
of cars safe. The facts presented in this article very reliable and have been backed
up by conducted studies and the author, Jemima Kiss, a graduate of Dartington
College of Arts, provides valid details.
Lin, Patrick. "The Ethics of Autonomous Cars." 8 October 2013. The Atlantic. The
Atlantic . Online. 16 March 2016.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/the-ethics-ofautonomous-cars/280360/>.
This article does a great job at explaining how autonomous vehicles think and why
government is so hesitant to give large scale automobile manufacturers the power
to sell them to the public. To put things into perspective, if an autonomous vehicle
was moving along a road and it sensed a small stick blocking the path, the
computer would tell the car to come to a complete stop, and could cause an
accident between vehicles behind it. If a human was driving however, though not
always legal, common sense would tell them to make sure nobody is coming and
shift over the line for a brief moment. Though a computer could be programed to
possibly break the law, it has no common sense and doesn't know when to make
exceptions, which laws to break, which laws not to, or when to do it. Though this

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article puts a different perspective on AVs, it is reliable and written by a well-known
professor at California Polytechnic State University.
Ng, Andrew and Yuanqing Lin. "Self Driving Cars Won't Work Until We Change Our
Roads - And Attitudes." 15 March 2016. WIRED. Online. 16 March 2016.
<http://www.wired.com/2016/03/self-driving-cars-wont-work-change-roadsattitudes/>.
This article does a great job at explaining how a truly autonomous vehicle needs
more than just a few signatures by government in order to be put onto the road.
One of the biggest problems with autonomous vehicles is their current inability to
move around curves at high speed and their inability to recognize construction
zones or roads that have been flooded or destroyed. In order to have a society
where all vehicles drive themselves safely, our road systems as we know them
would need to be drastically modified and changed. Along with these changes, the
article describes why people are hesitant about safety of cars they have very little
control over. The article also says that for AVs to truly be as safe as we expect them
to be, they would need to be distinct so that human drivers would know to drive
differently around them and that people to use caution when dealing with them. As
far as the credibility of this article goes, not only has WIRED gotten a good
reputation but the authors have both written numerous articles about similar topics
and have provided readers with great knowledge about AVs themselves.
Whitsitt, Sean and Jonathan Sprinkle. "Modeling Autonomous Systems." Journal of
Aerospace Information Systems (2013): 396 - 413. Document. 16 March
2016.

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Though its much more detailed than necessary, this paper does a tremendous job
at explaining autonomous systems in general and showing exactly how they work
and how they think. The paper goes into depth on individual components that help
autonomous systems run efficiently and how the computer uses them as well.
Typically, the biggest portion of any autonomous system is the actual coding the
computer uses which is usually based off of C++ programming language. Inside the
code, there is often numerous smaller programs to test that all the components of
the system are working and that results produced are accurate. The points that this
paper makes are both relevant to studies and reliable, giving great step-by-step
detail as to how each component of the system works with another similar to pieces
of a puzzle.
Wolff-Mann, Ethan. Google to Ask Congress to Help Put Self-Driving Cars on the
Road. 14 March 2016. TIME. Online. 15 March 2016.
<http://time.com/money/4258122/google-asks-congress-self-driving-cars/>.
This article does an excellent job at providing the legalities behind autonomous
vehicles and it shows that even if we had all the technology ready, its just one
piece in a very long checklist before all vehicles can become autonomous. When
autonomous vehicles get put into the mainstream, the one-thousand-page monster
of an automotive handbook stating road laws will have to be rewritten entirely.
Combine this with the fact that the whole road system will have to be changed as
well and the government has a long list of things to do, something that isn't always
their priority with other national issues at hand. This article is very credible and
provides valid details that are relevant to studies. The author is also well and has
written numerous articles on modern day technological advancements.

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Yun, Joseph Jinhyo. "The Relationship Between Technology, Buisiness Model, and
Marketing in Autonomous Car and Intelligent Robot Industries." Technological
Forecasting and Social Change (2016): 142-155. Document. 16 March 2016.
Aside from the legal and technological aspects of autonomous vehicles, this paper
does a good job at explaining what automobile manufacturers would have to do
before a fully autonomous society could be a possibility. It goes into great depth on
how business models of companies would have to change and what it would do to
our economy as a result. Though an autonomous vehicle would be better in almost
every way compared to traditional vehicles, it predicts a huge spike in industry
growth followed by an almost immediate and permanent economic plateau which
isn't always good for business. This article is both credible, relevant, and gives a full
perspective when looking at AVs in society.