Research Proposal [PDF]

Citation preview

Haehn 1 Nicholas Haehn Professor Rachel Porter ENG 1201-511: English Composition II 19 January 2019 The Relationship between Technology and Safety in Modern Automobiles I have always been interested in cars, technology, and the interaction between the two. When I was younger, I had multiple toy cars and remote control cars, and I dreamed of being a racecar driver. As I grew, I began to take less interest in fast and loud cars and more interest in futuristic cars with integrated technology. Recently, I read articles and watched videos about the advancement of self-driving technology and how it has the possibility of drastically reducing the number of collisions due to human error. I read articles on the self-driving technologies of Tesla, Uber, and DriveOhio, but I learned that most self-driving technologies were fairly new and still in research. Even though most self-driving technologies were and are still primitive, I was awestruck by self-driving cars moving without anyone inside of the car and without crashing. In reading about self-driving cars, though, I started to look into other advancements in technology that have helped to improve safety in the car world, such as airbags, collision warning systems, and more. I found it interesting to analyze how these advancements in technology have helped to improve the overall safety of vehicles by changing the ways in which cars are manufactured. Like many people, I drive almost everywhere. I have found that driving is the most convenient method to get place to place, at least in the suburban part of Ohio. In my experience driving, though, I have seen multiple near collisions, whether an animal runs into the road or a driver disobeys a traffic law. I believe that technology could help to prevent these occurrences by reducing the impact of human error. For example, over the summer, while driving to Columbus,



Haehn 2 Ohio, my brother was driving at night in rain and with low visibility and accidentally merged into the side of a semi-truck, slightly shredding the side of the car he was driving. Collision warning systems could have helped to stop his small crash from happening. I have been encouraged by my brother’s crash and the near-collisions that I have seen to take a closer look into how improvements in technology affect automotive safety. I feel excited that there is a possibility of greatly reducing collisions and their impact with modern car technology. Before starting my research, I think that most of the technology improvements with cars, at least in recent years, have helped to improve safety and reduce driver error. I also think car companies should continue to invest in research into these technologies. Furthermore, I think that car companies should focus on safety first and make all of their research on safety public information. I believe it is important to research how improvements in technology affect automotive safety as a whole. Research into car technology can be very expensive, and it is vital, in my opinion, to analyze which technologies are effective at improving passenger safety in vehicles and to continue to improve the technologies that are effective. Although most of the advancements in automotive technology in recent years have been successful in many aspects, I know many of these systems still have downsides, such as an overreliance on technology to help drive cars. I also know that research is underway to further the safety of vehicles or possibly remove humans from driving as in the case of self-driving cars. I hope to answer the questions “how has the improvement of technology affected automobile safety?” and “how could emerging technologies affect automobile safety?” in my research. I still need to learn a large amount about improvements in car technology and its relationship with safety. There are many of these improvements that are not well known, and therefore I will need to do research to learn more about the less-well-known technologies. Also, I



Haehn 3 will need to learn how each technology improves safety and the possible downsides to each piece of technology. I will likely start my research by looking into government organizations that research vehicle safety and the companies who are doing research on car technology. I also plan to research using databases such as Gale. By the end of my research, I hope to have gained a greater understanding of the relationship between cars and technology.