what is an autonomous vehicle an autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that drives itself that is it could move around and guide itself without any help from a human through a combination of ai radar cameras and sensors they are able to perceive what is going on around them ai stands for artificial intelligence autonomous vehicles have sophisticated control systems that can interpret sensory data to detect objects around them and select the best way ahead there are three levels in the world of autonomous vehicles partially automated highly automated and fully automated they are also known as driverless vehicles or self-driving vehicles let's look at some of the potential benefits millions of people across the world die in traffic accidents every year if all cars were driverless the death toll would probably be significantly lower autonomous vehicles would be linked up to a sophisticated network which would aim to minimize traffic congestion that is there would be fewer traffic jams the overall costs of getting around would probably go down as well there are also many people who cannot drive some may have reached an age when their eyesight or physical condition prevents them from driving there are also some disabled people and individuals who never passed their driving test they would all be able to use driverless vehicles which would make them more mobile and independent than they are today let's now look at some potential disadvantages how would we be able to prevent hackers and cyber terrorists from causing chaos and loss of life what would happen to the world's truck drivers taxi drivers chauffeurs delivery people and bus drivers in other words would autonomous vehicles create a lot of unemployment would we become dumb and useless if artificial intelligence started doing everything for us one day when all cars are fully automated driverless vehicles they will have very different uses compared to today apart from travel people will be able to use their vehicles to entertain guests sleep work eat relax hold business meetings and make presentations perhaps some people might even choose to have driverless trucks or vans as their place of work thank you for watching this brief video on autonomous vehicles