Major Limitations and Concerns Regarding the Integration of Autonomous Vehicles in Urban Transportation Systems

Autonomous (or Driverless) vehicles are expected to be the future of urban transportation. As autonomous is defined a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating using a variety of sensors and methods without human input. It is estimated that driverless cars will be technically sufficient for common usage by the end of 2025. In this paper, advantages of the autonomous vehicles are pointed out while limitations and other significant concerns are examined thoroughly. The most important advantages of the integration of autonomous vehicles in the circulation are related with the enhancement of safety, sustainability and accessibility of urban transportation. On the contrary, privacy and data protection issues are arising. Another critical issue is the cyber security of autonomous car's system and its vulnerability to hacker attacks. Furthermore, there are some legislation gaps concerning the usage and ownership of driverless cars, as well as responsibility in case of accidents. In addition, many complex ethical issues are arising, as autonomous cars will be programmed to act in a predefined way towards unexpected situations. Finally, human adoption to autonomous vehicles will prove a very serious matter; it may take long until people feel fully comfortably inside a driverless car.