AI in Transportation by Nathaniel Siniski

Personalized Overview

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 17:28:19 UTC

Artificial Intelligence has had a growing role of importance in transportation over the last decade. I chose this topic for a multitude of reasons, one of them being the ethical controversies which have come up in discussion when passing legislation to implement artificial intelligence into self-driving cars. I found this issue fascinating and I feel that there is a lot that artificial intelligence can do for the transportation industry from maintenance to safety. Throughout high school I took several auto service classes and we had to use computers to run diagnostics to figure out what the problem was with the cars we were working on a few times when it wasn't just a simple oil change or brake job. Aspects of the auto industry such are where artificial intelligence can really make its presence felt. In this outline I will cover the ways in which artificial intelligence will improve the safety concerns and maintenance of the transportation industry as well as how it will help to make it run more efficiently overall. I will also highlight some of the controversies that the government and general public have with increasing the role of artificial intelligence in transportation.

Predictive Maintenance

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 17:49:43 UTC

One of the many issues in the world of public transportation is delays due to maintenance. Aviation has been integrating artificial intelligence into the industry for years to help detect faults, no matter how small, to help their airlines run more efficiently. The platforms of artificial intelligence are able to detect faults in the aircraft much earlier than the human engineers and technicians. The platforms are also able to predict the trends of these faults so maintenance on the aircrafts can be scheduled and the airlines will have other aircrafts ready to replace the ones being worked one. This helps to avoid delays due to aircraft shortage, or emergency landings due to technical problems, and improves safety by avoiding in air problems as well. While the technology has worked very well for airlines and other forms of transportation as well, it is still fairly new and subject to malfunctions every now and then. Throughout my life I have always had an intense fear of flying, so knowing that new technologies are constantly being added to the industry to improve aircraft and passenger safety always helps to put my mind at ease. It is also fascinating to read about the predictability of aircraft maintenance and its relation to artificial intelligence.

Safety

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 18:47:42 UTC

When people think of artificial intelligence and transportation in a positive light, their minds will automatically go to "How can it protect me?". There a multitude of ways that artificial intelligence is making the transportation industry safer for both workers and consumers. Artificial intelligence is being implemented into the safety features of cars such as automatic braking and lane departure. Similar to the way it predicted maintenance habits for the airlines, it can also monitor driver behavior and detect distracted, drowsy or even drunk driving. This technology is extremely important to safety on the road as majority of accidents are caused by distracted or drunk driving. Another way in which artificial intelligence is making the roads safer is by helping to reduce traffic. By analyzing real-time information from traffic cameras, GPS systems, and sensors, artificial intelligence helps to maximize traffic flow and reduce congestion and bottle necking. By reducing congestion this can also help to reduce accidents by allowing the cars to be able to get into a flow rather than constant stop and go with merging in and out of lanes, that can lead to fender benders only worsening traffic. The most controversial way that artificial intelligence is getting involved on the road is by way of autonomous vehicle. This has become a controversial topic because the general public and government are weary about who is designing the software which will be driving these vehicles and how it may react when confronted with certain situations. When researching this part of AI I found it very interesting how it is also being used to help control traffic, and using the gps on our phones and cars will allow companies to collect data from different trips to see when specific roads and highways are most congested and at what times. While many people may not like their data being collected by companies, it may end up making their lives easier as long as it is used for good.

Efficiency

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 19:13:03 UTC

When it comes to travel and shipping goods around the globe, companies have been using the same routes for a long time. Artificial intelligence is able to collect and analyze information from different routes traveled and figure out the most optimal routes for companies to travel that both gets their ships, planes and trains to their destinations fastest and in the most fuel efficient way possible. Saving companies money on shipping, travel and fuel allows them to allocate their resources elsewhere and grow as a business. Becoming a more efficient company can also reduced its carbon footprint and help with climate change. Many companies are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprints and shipping their products makes it difficult to do that because aviation can have very bad effects on the climate. By integrating AI into shipping their products, and airlines using AI as well, it well help to reduce climate change as a whole and help the companies travel and ship their products more efficiently. When researching it seemed that efficiency tends to be overlooked in comparison to safety and maintenance in the world of transportation as it relates to artificial intelligence, but it is still tremendously important because it allows companies to save money, save the planet and become more green.

Future Trends and Ethical Considerations

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 21:17:31 UTC

When looking forward to the future of transportation with artificial intelligence, there's a lot of things that technology developers need to be careful when they begin to further integrate their artificial intelligence platforms into actual forms of transportation to pilot them and not just as a way to look for deficiencies. A majority of the ethical concerns for artificial intelligence are about autonomous vehicles and their driving on the road. There's a very interesting question which I saw in a TED Talk for another class about this very same topic. It was, "Should an autonomous vehicle kill you if it means saving 5 innocent bystanders?". These are the types of questions that people are going to have when getting in autonomous driving vehicles and when driving alongside them as well. You don't want them to be swerving into buildings or trees just to avoid other cars, but at the same time you don't want them to hit any pedestrians. Developers of this technology will need to find some sort of middle ground so that it enhances the drivers ability to drive safely and obey the rules of the road. Another issue is the threat of hacking, whenever you're dealing with technology hacking will always be a threat no matter how sophisticated it may be. This raises another question, "What happens if someone hacks into an autonomously controlled vehicle and takes control?" This could lead to a whole new form of crime and terrorism and countries and security agencies will have to worry about. The companies who produce this technology will have to make it known to the public that they're protecting against any possible threats and designed to be safe and smart on the road. I chose to look at this controversy because although it sounds so futuristic, it is very much happening in the present. This past September, New York City started rolling out the first autonomous taxi's. As someone who walks around the city fairly often, because my girlfriend goes to college in Riverdale. I feel rather uneasy about walking down the street knowing there are cars driving around without a human behind the wheel.

Societal Impact

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-05 22:49:11 UTC

As artificial intelligence becomes further developed each year in the transportation industry, many workers feel as though their jobs may be in jeopardy. A majority of those who have jobs requiring cognitive skills could be replaced by artificial intelligence due to the significantly faster thinking ability of artificial intelligence. Many of these jobs are under the cargo umbrella of the transportation industry. If people continue to lose their jobs in the industry because of artificial intelligence, yes certain aspects may be running more smoothly, but in the grand scheme of things it is not very economical and could lead to issues in the economy if an industry this large and meaningful to a nation's economy is struggling to provide jobs for people, it will put more pressure on the government to regulate artificial intelligence from gaining too much power. Artificial intelligence will also be in our cars soon if it isn't already with our phones whether we like it or not. A lot of people do not like their personal data being tracked. Using our phones for GPS in the car or apps such as Life360 allows a lot of our personal information to get out on the internet without our knowledge. All cars now have touch screen displays and the technology included in these displays also collects data from our driving habits and share's it with third parties. A lot of this data is used to improve its safety systems, such as Tesla's self-driving, but it's still invading our privacy and this can have a large impact on society if grow increasingly weary about being spied on by the car the further developed artificial intelligence becomes. It's very upsetting to see people losing their jobs to artificial intelligence. Even though it has made many companies operate more safely and more efficiently, there needs to be a point where technology needs to be regulated so that it does not completely control the world. That goes for more than just artificial intelligence, all forms of technology. As for the privacy, consumers need to be made aware and give permission to what will be done of their private information. It should not be collected and given to other companies without their permission.

Overview Video

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-06 02:58:28 UTC

Reflection

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-06 03:05:52 UTC

Researching artificial intelligence in the transportation industry was very interesting as there was a lot of different ways in which it will be impacted by the artificial intelligence movement and helping to further develop how both people and freight are moved around the globe. A few challenges I faced while doing this assignment was really just getting to know Padlet as I had never used it before, but other than that the transportation industry has been effected quite a bit by artificial intelligence both positively and negatively and I am both excited and a little anxious to see where it will take us in the future as the technology becomes more sophisticated. The research helped me see that it's okay to be a little fearful of artificial intelligence as it is still a very new technology, but there are also many reasons to get excited about it because it can benefit our society in so many ways, including making traveling safer which is always important.

Citations

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-06 03:16:25 UTC

Lu, Jichen. “Ai in Aviation Maintenance: How It’s Changing the Industry.” QOCO, QOCO Systems Ltd, 19 May 2025, www.qoco.aero/blog/ai-in-aviation-maintenance-how-its-changing-the-industry.

I chose this source because it provided a deep incite about artificial intelligence in the airline industry.

Rudge, Sarah. “6 Ways AI Is Making Transportation Safer and More Efficient.” Transportation and Logistics International, 20 Feb. 2025, tlimagazine.com/news/6-ways-ai-is-making-transportation-safer-and-more-efficient/.

I chose this source because it provided me with some different ways in which AI is helping to make transportation safer.

Walch, Kathleen. “How AI Is Driving the Future of Transportation.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Nov. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenwalch/2024/11/23/how-ai-is-driving-the-future-of-transportation/.

I chose this source because it provided a good in depth analysis about how AI is making transportation and shipping more efficient.

Amos, Zac. “The Ethical Considerations of Self-Driving Cars.” Montreal AI Ethics Institute, 15 June 2024, montrealethics.ai/the-ethical-considerations-of-self-driving-cars/.

I chose this source because it helped to explain some interesting arguments for why autonomous cars may be considered unethical by some.

Vereckey, Betsy. “Which Transportation Workers Will Be Most Impacted by Ai?” MIT Sloan, 23 Sept. 2025, mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/which-transportation-workers-will-be-most-impacted-ai.

I chose this source because it provided some strong examples of jobs in the transportation industry which will be impacted by AI.

Daniel, Lars. “Your Car Is Spying on You and Sharing Data with Third Parties.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 16 Oct. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/larsdaniel/2024/10/11/is-your-car-spying-on-you-the-alarming-truth-about-car-data-collection/.

I chose this source because it provided details about how your privacy may be taken advantage of by AI in your vehicles.

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-06 03:17:11 UTC

nathanielsiniski — 2025-10-06 03:17:33 UTC