| Date | May 2019 | Marks available | 8 | Reference code | 19M.3.HL.TZ0.3 |
| Level | HL | Paper | 3 (model questions) | Time zone | no time zone |
| Command term | Discuss | Question number | 3 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Students should be provided with the pre-release document ahead of the May 2019 HL paper 3 examination, this can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > May 2019 HL paper 3 pre-release document: AV.
Mobility challenges for the elderly, young, disadvantaged, and handicapped.
Source 1: Miketon
Miketon is a small town with a population of 5000. It has one taxi company with two drivers who are about to retire. There are no plans for the taxi company to continue. The town council is aware that this will create problems for the elderly citizens who live in the community. The council predicts that this problem will grow, as there are increasing numbers of elderly people retiring to the area.
Miketon is 20 km from the regional centre, Towbro, which has a population of 300 000. As a result of this closeness, it is also popular with young families, as it is within commuting* distance (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Map showing the locations of Miketon and Towbro
The loss of the taxi service and an infrequent bus service to Towbro will create problems for both the elderly, who need access to the hospital, and for teenagers who wish to attend cultural and sporting events in Towbro.
* Commuting: to travel some distance between one's home and place of work on a regular basis.
Source 2: Miketon Town Council
Miketon Town Council wants to solve this problem and has two suggestions they will put forward at the next council meeting.
- A fleet of autonomous vehicles is purchased by the council that could be used by anyone in the town at a subsidized rate. All bookings would be made through the council website or the council transport app. The autonomous vehicles would easily cover the distances between the regional centre and other locations.
- A ride-share company is invited to start operations in Miketon. To entice companies and local drivers to participate, the council would subsidize the trips by paying a surcharge (an amount added to the fare), which would be credited to the ride-share drivers and company.
Both suggestions have advantages as well as limitations.
Source 3: Readiness for autonomous vehicles
Each country can be graded using criteria that determine how ready it is for autonomous vehicles. The grade can be either very ready, ready, or not ready. Four of the criteria used to determine the readiness of the country in which Miketon is located are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Criteria and scores for the country in which Miketon is located
Source 4: A pilot study of a ride-sharing scheme called Rideshare
The findings of the Rideshare pilot scheme (see Figure 3), show that by carefully designing the integration of ride sharing with public transport services, the ride-sharing scheme can be successful to a significant extent.
Figure 3 Rideshare board
Three features of the Rideshare pilot scheme were:
- It was developed and implemented with the support of the local council and citizens.
- Ride-sharing notice boards with information about the services were placed at local bus stops and in railway stations to promote the use of these services in an integrated way.
- The pricing strategy ensured that ride sharing was so expensive that it deterred people from using it and not too cheap that it stopped people using public transport.
It was recently reported that an autonomous vehicle had collided with an elderly person in a wheelchair that had rolled into the road. The autonomous vehicle chose to run over the wheelchair rather than avoid it, as swerving would have put two children at risk. This incident led to a discussion in the council about the ethical decision-making process used by the autonomous vehicle.
Discuss who should be accountable for an accident in the town involving an autonomous vehicle.
Markscheme
Answers may include:
Possible stakeholders include: car manufacturers, the council that purchased the vehicles and controls its use, the elderly person, and the two children and their parents.
For the car manufacturer to be accountable:
- They designed the decision-making process (values).
- The car should be able to operate safely under all conditions (systems).
- The manufacturer should have provided information to the council and the optimum operating circumstances for the autonomous vehicles (policies).
For the council to be accountable:
- The council should have checked the limitations of the autonomous vehicles and made regulations for their use to suit them, e.g., the speed of autonomous vehicles if such an incident occurs (systems, policies).
- The council should have set up the road condition such that the autonomous vehicles would not encounter such a situation, by restricting the movements and speed of autonomous vehicles (systems, policies).
For the elderly person to be accountable:
- They should have more control over their wheelchair / can be proved they were negligent.
For the children and their parents to be accountable:
- The children should not have been close to a dangerous road.
- The parents should have supervised their children better.
Note to examiners: When discussing who is accountable, a range of stakeholders need to be considered with a balance of reasons why they might be accountable as opposed to a different stakeholder. A minimum of three stakeholders would be expected for the higher markbands.
Keywords: change, power, systems, ethics, values, autonomous, policies, laws, regulations, reliability.
Please refer to the HL paper 3 question 3 markbands when awarding marks. These can be found under the "Your tests" tab > supplemental materials > Digital society markbands and guidance document.
Examiners report
Syllabus sections
-
19M.3.HL.TZ0.4:
With reference to the stimulus material above and to your own inquiries, recommend the digital intervention(s) that the council should choose to address the challenge of ensuring mobility associated with living in towns such as Miketon.
-
18N.1.HL.TZ0.5:
App or intuition?
Apps have been developed that allow a customer to submit a trip request to a taxi company on their smartphone. These apps allow the customer to select the starting point and final destination of the journey as well as add other information, such as the time of journey and number of passengers.
The developers of the taxi journey app claim it can capture the real-time details of a journey, including the starting point, route, distance travelled, the speed of the car and the final destination. The app integrates this information with real-time traffic information, such as closed roads or accidents. Fares can be estimated before the journey, and the customer can pay digitally with their credit card or by PayPal.
Some traditional taxi drivers in cities such as Paris and Rio de Janeiro have campaigned against the introduction of these apps in taxi companies. Based on previous journeys recorded by the app, the taxi company recommends that their taxi drivers rely on the taxi journey app rather than their own knowledge of the city when determining the best route.
Discuss whether the taxi driver should rely on the taxi journey app, rather than their own knowledge of the city, when determining the best route.
-
18N.1.HL.TZ0.6:
Selecting candidates for political parties
Political parties often have large numbers of applicants who wish to act as representatives in their various governing bodies. A senior party official must make the final decision about which applicants should be offered which roles. Many roles receive as many as 15 applications, and it is not possible to interview each applicant.
In an attempt to streamline the application process, a prospective representative will need to complete two tasks:
- Completing an online questionnaire.
- Submitting a video where they explain the reasons behind their application.
Neither task will involve the team in the political party.
The applicants will be directed to a link provided by the software developer where they can complete both tasks. The responses to the questionnaires and the videos will be analysed using artificial intelligence (AI).
The software will score the questionnaire and video for each applicant and send it to the senior party official’s team. The applicants with the highest scores will then be invited by the political party for an interview.
The software developers claim this will reduce the number of applications the senior party official needs to process and lead to the most appropriate applicants being selected for an interview.
Discuss whether the political party should introduce the digital system to assist the senior party official when deciding which applicants should be offered roles as representatives.
-
18M.1.HL.TZ0.5:
Can digital technologies be used sustainably?
Many organizations claim that the most efficient use of information technology (IT) equipment, such as laptops and printers, is to replace them on a regular basis. For example, an organization’s strategy may be to do this every three years.
Other organizations purchase IT equipment that can easily be upgraded by increasing the storage and memory or upgrading the processing capabilities only when required. They claim they do not need to replace their IT equipment on such a regular basis and believe this is a more sustainable practice.
Evaluate the sustainability of these two strategies.
-
20N.1.HL.TZ0.5:
Clouds under the sea
Microsoft has located one of its data centres on the seabed. Project Natick is now operating 100 feet below the surface of the North Sea (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: An artist’s representation of a data centre on the sea bed
[Adapted under sea photo by NOAA on Unsplash]
Microsoft has chosen to develop data centres on the seabed because they claim there are concerns about the environmental impact of data centres built on land. These seabed data centres can be constructed and placed on the sea bed in 90 days. This is compared to the two years that are required for land-based data centres.
Google patented their design for an underwater data centre in 2009. Even though functioning prototypes have been trialled, none have been used commercially.
The demand for data storage is doubling every two years, so it is likely that an increasing number of data centres will need to be constructed. These data centres can be constructed either under the sea or on land.
Discuss whether companies like Microsoft should build data centres on the seabed.
-
19N.1.HL.TZ0.5:
Sharing dashcam* footage with police
Many police departments have started campaigns to encourage members of the public to upload footage of possible offences committed by drivers to police websites. The police are looking for footage of activities such as dangerous driving and driving whilst talking on a cellphone/mobile phone.
Members of the public can create an account on the police website to upload footage from their dashcam (see Figure 3). They can also upload their dashcam footage anonymously.
The police claim that using dashcam footage uploaded by the public will help reduce the number of accidents caused by dangerous driving.
Figure 3: An example of a dashcam
* dashcam: a video camera mounted in a vehicle to record activity on roads
Discuss whether this dashcam footage should be used by the police as part of their strategy to reduce the number of accidents caused by dangerous driving.
