Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-11

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

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?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 7.0)

The era of vehicles being universally driverless, wherein people are not required to operate the steering but instead merely travel at their comfort, is predicted to approach us. I think that this type of transportation will definitely be advantageous but not enough to completely overtake the potential disadvantages that it carries.

Firstly, in the busy lifestyles of many people, self-controlled vehicles can save their precious time which they can invest in doing something productive. For instance, businessmen have their every minute counting in which they can possibly crack an important deal or make phone calls in the time that they otherwise would waste driving. Moreover, working parents can also save their time and money with the help of these vehicles as they would not require a driver as well as themselves to drop their children to classes or school.

Also, these vehicles will help people, such as those who do not know how drive a vehicle or disabled ones, travel rather than restricting themselves on relying on other individuals to assist them. For example, a person with a broken limb can travel to places without needing drivers, making such people more independent than ever before.

Despite these various advantages, safety of people using these autonomous vehicles is the utmost priority and there should be no room for even the smallest mistakes as those can turn out to be catastrophic on public roads. After all, these are robots which though unlikely, can definitely malfunction which compromises passenger lives. Therefore, it is not viable to completely be dependent on these vehicles: a 10 minutes waste of time or a person required to drive, none of these surpass the safety of travellers.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

Your position is clear from the introduction: driverless transport has benefits, but its disadvantages are more significant. You address both sides and support the benefits with relevant examples, including business calls, parents’ journeys and greater independence for people with disabilities. The safety concern is also directly connected to the question and explains why you do not consider the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages. This meets the task well, with ideas extended and supported. To make the argument more fully developed, explain more specifically how a malfunction could create risks—for example, in complex traffic or when a vehicle must respond to an unexpected hazard—and weigh this against the time-saving benefits. The claim that parents save money is also asserted rather than clearly explained.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The response has a clear progression: an introduction states your view, two paragraphs develop advantages, and the final paragraph presents the main disadvantage and returns to your judgement. Paragraphing is appropriate, and signposts such as “Firstly,” “Moreover,” “Also” and “Despite these various advantages” help readers follow the argument. The examples are generally placed alongside the points they support. At times, however, the links between ideas are more additive than analytical: the two benefit paragraphs list separate cases without showing how they relate to the overall comparison. The final sentence also compresses several points into a somewhat awkward contrast. Use a clearer concluding sentence and more explicit comparisons between the benefits and safety risks to make the progression more consistently persuasive.

Lexical Resource: Band 7.0

You use a sufficient range of vocabulary to discuss the topic, including “autonomous vehicles,” “malfunction,” “catastrophic,” “productive” and “independent.” These choices show some awareness of formal style and allow you to express both practical benefits and serious risks. There are occasional awkward or imprecise collocations, however, such as “self-controlled vehicles,” “save their precious time” and “their every minute counting.” “Travel at their comfort” is also not a natural expression, and “broken limb” is less precise than the intended idea of a temporary injury or disability. These do not prevent understanding, but they limit the naturalness and precision of the vocabulary. Aim for more conventional topic collocations, such as “self-driving vehicles,” “make productive use of their travel time” and “a person with an injured limb.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

You use a variety of sentence forms, including a complex opening with “wherein,” conditional phrasing (“which they can invest in doing something productive”), and a contrast introduced by “Despite.” Many sentences are controlled and easy to understand. A few grammatical errors remain. In “those who do not know how drive,” the infinitive needs “to”; “a 10 minutes waste of time” has an incorrect plural form and article pattern; and “a person required to drive” is an incomplete construction in the final comparison. The opening sentence is also structurally cumbersome, making the relationship between its clauses less clear. Review infinitive patterns, noun phrases and sentence boundaries, and prefer a simpler construction when a long sentence becomes difficult to control.

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