Advantages and Disadvantages of Driverless Vehicles

In the future all cars, buses and trucks will be driverless. The only people travelling inside these vehicles will be passengers. Do you think the advantages of driverless vehicles outweigh the disadvantages?

Annotated response

8 correction notes

Showing 8 correction notes.

In the future, all vehicles will be autonomous. Passengers will be the only people inside them. I believe businesses can cut costs by using driverless cars, and this advantage far outweighs any potential disadvantage.

One downside of self-driving cars is that they would lead to . Nowadays, in many countries, a great number of people by driving, be they truckers, bus drivers, or delivery couriers. Imagine all these people are made redundant by autonomous cars. That would raise the unemployment rates in these countries significantly. However, I think this can be avoided if drivers can reskill to in a new sector.

On the positive side, driverless cars can help businesses reduce operating expenses. This is because, with these cars, they would not need to hire drivers to deliver their products or services . For example, the American logistics company UPS currently has hundreds of thousands of truck drivers and pays them an average of 60,000 dollars per year, which adds up to tens of billions of dollars annually. Replacing these drivers with autonomous cars would mean that these could be eliminated. a major advantage for companies because the money saved on labor could be devoted to improving other aspects of their businesses.

In conclusion, although self-driving vehicles would result in many job losses, I believe this downside is greatly outweighed by that these vehicles could help businesses save operating costs.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The response presents a clear, consistent position and develops it logically, with the UPS example giving concrete support to the cost-saving argument. Its strongest aspect is the fluent, natural use of language, while the main limitation is that the analysis is somewhat narrow, focusing mainly on business benefits and treating job losses rather briefly.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Response

7.0

The question is fully addressed with a clear position that advantages outweigh disadvantages, and main ideas are developed with relevant explanation and a specific example, though the coverage of disadvantages and counterargument is somewhat limited in scope.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organised logically across clear paragraphs with effective cohesive devices and a consistent line of argument, with progression generally smooth throughout.

Lexical Resource

8.0

Vocabulary is wide and used naturally and precisely, including idiomatic phrasing such as 'making a living', 'be they truckers', and 'made redundant', with very few inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.5

A wide range of structures is used flexibly, including conditionals and complex relative clauses, with strong control and only occasional minor awkwardness such as 'Imagine all these people are made redundant'.