Reading I
How Driverless Cars will Change our World
By Jenny Cusack 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: BBC (Future)
A. The following words have two different meanings. Match each word with the meaning used in the context of the text above.
a. glare i.an angry or fierce stare
ii. an intense blinding light
b. curb i. a stone edging to a pavement or raised path
ii. something that checks or restrains
c. hail i. to call to somebody in order to attract their attention
ii. to describe somebody/something as being very good or special
d. commute i. to replace a punishment with a less severe one
ii. to travel regularly between workplace and home calm and peaceful
e. serene i.calm and peaceful
ii. an expanse of clear sky or calm sea
f. liability i. a person or thing that causes you a lot of problems
ii. the state of being legally responsible for something
g. deploy i. to move soldiers or weapons into a position for an action
ii. to use something effectively
h. autonomous i. a vehicle that has the technology to drive itself
ii. able to do things and make decisions without help from anyone else
i. perception i. a belief or an image about how you see or understand something
ii. 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. Mentions any three features of the driverless car.
Ans:-
b. Describe the benefits of driverless technology.
Ans:-
c. What, according to Camilla Fowler, is the special advantages of automated vehicles?
Ans:-
d. What are the problems with driverless vehicles in David Hynd's views?
Ans:-
e. What are scientists doing to make driverless technology safer?
Ans:-
f. Do you think driverless technology is safer than human controlled driving? Why?
Ans:-
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.
A. Match the following statements with the correct reported speech and notice how the statements are changed.
a. Khushi said, “I go to school
every day by bus."
Ans:- Khusi said that she went to school every day by bus.
Ans:- Khusi said that she went to school every day by bus.
b. Karma said to me, “I am sorry for coming late.”
Ans:- Karma apologised for coming late.
c. Susan says, “I will leave for Bhanu next week.”
Ans:- Susan says that she will leave for Bhanu the following week.
d. Tshering said, “ I will surely meet you this Saturday.
Ans:- Tshering promised me to meet that Saturday.
e. “The bus leaves at six,” said the agent.
Ans:- The agent informed us that the bus left at six.
f. “ I have already finished my project work,” said She.
Ans:- She said that she had already finished her project work.
g. “I work from home these days,”, said Yanjal.
Ans:- Yanjal said that he worked from home those days.
B. Complete the following sentences with the correct
reporting verbs.
advised informed admitted agreed warned apologised offered promised thanked
a. "I broke the mirror.” He admitted that he had broken the mirror.
b. "I'd go and see a doctor if I were you," Pemba said to me. Pemba advised me to see a doctor.
c. "I will send you out if you make a noise again," said the librarian. The librarian warned me not to make a noise again.
d. "I can come and help you plant rice," said Raman. Raman offered to help me plant rice.
e. "The classes start from next week," said the assistant. The assistant informed us that the classes start from the following week.
f. Sonam said to me, "Thank you so much for your help." Sonam thanked me for my help.
g. "OK. I will return your money by Saturday," said Prakriti. Prakriti promised to return my money by Saturday.
h. "I will really work hard and score good grades," said Anupam. Anupam agreed to work hard and get good grades.
i. "I am sorry for coming late," said the speaker. The speaker apologised for coming late.
Writing I
The use of AI in the technology is not only making people's lives easier but bringing new challenges. Write a newspaper article about the challenges brought by the advancement of AI.
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Class - 10