“Experts aren’t sure when, if ever, we’ll have truly autonomous vehicles that can drive anywhere without help” (Mims, 2021). Nonetheless, top CEOs like Elon Musk and John Zimmer have recently expressed hope that it may not be long. It is thus important for a commission that deals in such matters like the TLC commission to have a strategic plan that will help and act as a guide on this issue. This essay will provide a guide on how one would prepare a strategic plan for the future of self-driving cars for the Commission.
The first thing you should do when faced with the task of developing a strategic plan is to formulate an MGOSA. This means the Commission’s mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and action plans. For instance, the TLC Commission’s mission could be to increase safety and reduce road-related accidents by minimizing the operation of unlicensed, road-unworthy, and unqualified drivers from the operation. Quick research would reveal an issue on the level of safety or lack of it caused by the self-cars. A SWOT analysis of the issue would reveal that not many would trust the safety of self-driving cars (Green, 2021). Of those that would trust the safety of the cars, younger people would be more likely to accept the change as compared to their older counterparts (Green, 2021) says. These merits would need to be considered when formulating the plan.
While formulating the strategic plan goals of the Commission would also play a key role. For instance, what are the Commission’s short- and long-term goals? This would be analyzed together with their alignment with the impact of the self-driving car on its goals. Quick research would show clearly that also self-driving cars’ availability on our roads could be decades away if ever possible; their availability on the streets may reduce, if not eliminate, the number of road accidents. Strategies of self-driving car promoters like Waymo would also need to be considered. For instance (Waymo, 2021) can be seen already marketing the driverless car project and forming partnerships that show they are serious about the issue. In developing the strategic part, you have to see if the strategies of the promoters are in line with the TLC’s current and even future rules and regulations. The strategies of the promoters would also help you know if you should bother implementing the rules and regulations to guide self-driving cars or if the effort should be concentrated on more urgent and important issues.
The action of plans aids you in what should be done first and what can be avoided or given less weight. For this case, a quick information search would show that electric cars are decades away unless a yet-to-be-discovered software is important for the efficient, safe, and reliable use of these vehicles. Many would argue against this, but (Basu, 2020) shows that the autopilot software used to control self-driving is far from perfect. Thus, when formulating a strategic plan, it would be important to set out plans on how the software used would be managed, monitored, and audited.
After developing MGOSA (mission, goals, objectives, strategies, and action plans), you would have to develop a good vision and Mission for future self-driving cars based on your research. The Vision and Mission should be in line with the overall goal of the Commission. Then you would have to develop objectives, and the Gartner hype cycle would help in showing when the technology is likely to be adopted. An example of a SMART objective (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) would be to ensure all self-driving car makers produce safe, cheap, easy-to-use, and durable cars. These objectives would then later be used to implement laws, standards, and regulations the promoters and providers are expected to provide. For instance, the case of Zoox, an Artificial Intelligence company (Green, 2021), shows that self-driving cars will not be owned by everyone but by the company showing it will be a public means and thus subject to special laws and regulations.
These steps would help make a good strategic plan that would help the agency tackle the emerging issue of self-driving cars as it does with other issues like issuing licenses. The research would be of much help as it would reveal that self-driving cars are not that safe after all, and they may be a long way in the making. The research would help by showing you are not only good with strategic planning but are savvy with the contemporary issues affecting self-propelling car projects.
References
Basu, T., Cillekens., Strong, J., (2020) Why people might never use autonomous cars.MIT Technology review.
Green, A. (2021). Zoox CEO Aicha Evans on how autonomy will change our habits: And what we must get right.MIT Technology review.
Mims, C. (2021). Self-Driving Cars Could Be Decades Away, No Matter What Elon Musk Said.The Wall Street Journal.
Waymo. (2021). We’re Building the Worlds Most Experienced Driver.