Are Electric Cars and Self-driving Cars here to Help us or Destroy us?

By: Prince Mokwena

14 September 2022

Image Source: cars monitor.com

Caption: Tesla Model 3 (electric Car)

The world is changing and so is the way cars are being made. Over the years we`ve seen cars evolve from having the driver control everything manually, to now having technology fitted into cars which does almost everything for the driver. Now recently, car manufactures like BMW, VW, TOYOTA, and others, have announced their plans of making electric and self-driving cars few years from now. Now the big question is, are these cars necessary in our lives and are they going to improve or destroy our way of living.

This is a very controversial topic, some people say we need electric cars, whilst some disagree. In this article the following points will be discussed: which year should we expect these cars, advantages and disadvantages of electric and self-driving cars, and how do South Africans feel about these kinds of cars.

When Can We Expect These Types of Cars?

Toyota has already started in 2020 by making a few electric and self-driving models in China. It says that it`ll start making strictly electric cars by 2025. VW has also started making electric & self-driving cars in 2020. Therefor most VW cars will be fully electric and self-driving by 2023. BMW has been making electric cars for a number of years, since 2012 with the i8 and the i3. Now it says it will start selling its self-driving cars by 2024. But for now, it`s releasing two electric cars by March 2022 with its two models the i4 and the ix. Mercedes-Benz plans to go fully electric by 2030 and self-driving cars will be available by 2024, however, with conditions. Its conditions are that it will only sell these types of cars only in countries that are ready for these kinds of cars, and countries were people are demanding these cars.

Image Source: BMW website

Caption: BMW i4 and the ix

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Electric and Self-driving Cars

The advantages of electric cars, firstly, they are environmentally friendly, they don`t release harmful gases into the air. They use renewable energy (electricity), unlike patrol or diesel which are not renewable energy sources (meaning they can`t be used more than once). An advantage of self-driving cars is that they reduce chances of car accidents e.g., drunk driving by humans. According to Tesla, a self-driving car drives 1000 times better than humans. Another advantage of self-driving cars is that there will be less traffic on the roads, because they will automatically choose alternative routes should there be traffic.

The disadvantages of self-driving cars are that many people will lose their jobs, e.g., taxi drivers who earn income by driving people to their destinations. Driving school instructors might also be at risk because their job is to teach people how to drive. So, if cars drive themselves then there might be no need for people to learn how to drive. We all know that computers sometimes malfunction or have errors. Know with that said these self-driving cars can kill people if the car`s computer system has an error while the car is moving. This can result in either, the car runs over a pedestrian or it can just increase speed due to an error and crash very badly.

The disadvantage to electric cars is that firstly they take longer to recharge their battery. On the other hand, with petrol/ diesel powered cars you just fill up and go. They are more expensive to buy than petrol/ diesel cars. It may be very difficult to find charging stations as there`s a few currently. They are at higher risk of catching fire, because of many wires and batteries in them.

What South Africans Thinks About These Types of Cars? Is South Africa Ready?

We conducted research by interviewing 10 people in South Africa including businesses. Their responses are presented in the graphs below.

Interview questions

QUESTION 1:Do you fear going out of business, because of electric and self-driving cars?

QUESTION 2: Are you interested in the idea of electric and self-driving cars?

QUESTION 3: Do you think that South Africa is ready for these types of cars?

QUESTION 4: Do you think that these types of cars take away the excitement of driving a car.