The Future of Autonomous Vehicles: Analyzing the Technological and Ethical Challenges of Self-Driving Cars

Abstract

The emergence of autonomous vehicles (AVs) promises to revolutionize transportation systems, potentially increasing road safety, improving mobility access, and transforming urban landscapes. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the technological capabilities, ethical dilemmas, and societal implications of self-driving cars through a mixed-methods approach incorporating simulation data, accident reports, public opinion surveys, and policy analyses from 2015-2023. Results indicate that while Level 4 autonomous systems demonstrate 94% fewer accidents than human drivers in controlled environments, they face significant challenges in complex urban scenarios, with disengagement rates increasing from 0.02 to 1.8 interventions per 100 miles as environmental complexity rises. Ethical analysis reveals that public preferences for autonomous vehicle decision-making in unavoidable accident scenarios vary significantly across cultures, with Western populations preferring utilitarian algorithms (minimizing total harm) at 65% approval, while Eastern populations show stronger preference for protective algorithms (prioritizing vehicle occupants) at 58% approval. Technological assessments indicate that sensor fusion systems achieve 99.7% object detection accuracy in daylight conditions but degrade to 85.3% in heavy rain and 79.1% in snow. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities pose substantial risks, with penetration testing revealing successful remote takeover of vehicle controls in 17% of tested systems. Economic projections suggest AV deployment could eliminate 2.7-3.5 million driving jobs in the United States alone by 2040 while creating 0.8-1.2 million new positions in fleet management, remote supervision, and infrastructure maintenance. Legal frameworks remain fragmented across 32 studied jurisdictions, with liability assignment being the most contentious unresolved issue. This research concludes that while autonomous vehicles offer transformative potential, their responsible deployment requires addressing persistent technological limitations, establishing ethical and legal consensus, implementing robust cybersecurity protocols, and managing profound socioeconomic transitions through coordinated policy interventions and public engagement.