Autonomous vehicles for disaster management
Whether autonomous vehicles could simplify evacuations during crises is hard to ignore. For example, there have been strong hurricanes in the U.S. in the past few years. 7 million people struggled to escape Hurricane Irma in Florida in 2017. This led to traffic jams and other related issues. Hurricane Florence in 2018 created unprecedented floods in the Carolinas. And over more than a decade ago, several people were killed due to lack of access to transportation during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. When Hurricane Katrina created landfall, poorly maintained houses were easily destroyed. This is where the role of autonomous vehicles (AVs) arises. Deploying swarms of AVs and drones in the affected region would give extra hands for the emergency management team. At the same time, humans can focus on other aspects of recovery operations, thereby saving lives and community.
How are AVs crucial elements for disaster management?
Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the need for an evacuation plan concerning those who need help while leaving before a storm. AVs could come under this scope. On the post-disaster view, AVs can assist in evaluating damage, emergency vehicle routing, and delivery of medicines.
Some key points to observe while deploying AVs for disaster management are whether AVs can be connected to satellites for communication during cellular network failures. They should transmit the gathered real-time information regarding road and traffic conditions. AVs should comprehend evacuation routes and areas of evacuation centers. Moreover, AVs should seamlessly travel on any area, whether unruly roads or mountains or hilltops or low-visibility areas due to smoke.
How can AVs serve during an emergency?
Let’s take the example of a disaster. What about the socially vulnerable people who could not afford to possess a private vehicle? What happens when there is no public plan to deploy some form of mass transportation to evacuate those who are prepared to do by themselves? What if the evacuation plan does not consider the carless population?
AVs are a significant improvement to the present evacuation systems. The key is in looking into needs of vulnerable population, including those who don’t have cars, the elderly, and those with special needs. Imagine this scenario here. There would be fleets of specialized vehicles that journey seamlessly through dangerous areas, providing supplies to the people and picking up evacuees with no harm to life. The future may belong to AVs, not just using the presently deployed technologies, including Uber and Lyft or school buses to transport evacuees. These AVs would be used more in evacuation efforts compared to normal conditions.
With the AV technology, members needn’t have to take steps to protect themselves; AVs do it well. These vehicles could send information about affected roads, traffic issues, and alternative routes. This will not be detrimental for motorists. Platoons of connected AVs have the potential to shuttle groups of people to a safe place. Communication with other cars will help them to travel quickly. Advanced AVs can identify less congested routes and guide people to shelters. Moreover, they will substantially improve traffic flow. As against the present evacuation procedures where crowding and slower reaction times develop slow-moving conditions, AVs would journey closer together at a constant rate of speed, leaving several passengers in their destination.
There are frequent natural disasters in the U.S. in the past few years that result in wide-ranging and continuing consequences. This leads to several lives at stake. There is a significant need for enhancing the evacuation of vulnerable populations besides delivering relief supplies to regions where human drivers find difficulty in addressing.
Human drivers need to consider different aspects including what step should be taken during a disaster relief. But by leveraging AVs’ communication mechanism, the control team can assess situation on the ground. Besides, the human driver may be tired thereby resulting in accidents, but AVs as machines can work round the clock when sufficient fuel or power is provided. How AVs evaluate risks related to disasters and respond to changes in their surroundings will help in addressing evacuation concerns related to disasters. And it also relies on their potential to implement defensive, cautious actions while encountering disasters. The bottom line is AVs can be of immense help to regions that are most vulnerable during emergencies including floods, hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, pandemics, medical emergencies etc.
