Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-22

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 6.5)

The issue of the evolution of automobiles in coming years has been of great global interest. It has been anticipated that in future, there would be vehicles which are self-powered. This essay will explore the good sides of this automation and later the downsides. However, I am of the opinion that the pros of having self-driven vehicles instead of the conventional ones surpass the cons.

Safety of passengers is the most outstanding benefit of using automated vehicles. Most road traffic accidents have been reportedly caused by human errors. For example, cases of accidents caused by the drunkenness, sleepiness or overspeeding of human drivers. The advent of self-driven cars primarily solves this problem of accidents posed by human errors as these automations can't perform like humans, therefore essentially ensuring the safety of passengers by deleting human error factors.

Another good side of vehicle automation is the time it will afford drivers to become productive in other areas. The world is moving at a rather fast pace and having vehicles running long distance trips for several hours without human drivers will enable these drivers engage in other productive activities with their time.

A major drawback on the use of self-driven vehicles is loss of job for the drivers. Automation essentially takes the place of human drivers thereby increasing unemployment rate. Another disadvantage of this advancement is that it reduces confidence of road users during trips becuase people are naturally drawn and more confident in human drivers than self-powered vehicles. This inadvertently reduces road users as they seek out other means of transportation which are man-driven.

In conclusion, replacement of human-driven cars in the near future by self- driven ones seems inevitable. While automation guarantees safety of passengers and provision of more productive time for drivers, the reduction in employment and confidence of road users in self-powered vehicles cannot be deleted. In my opinion the benefits are way beyond the flaws of automation as safety of lives and properties are ultimately guaranteed by driverless vehicles..

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion7.0
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.5
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you believe the benefits of driverless vehicles outweigh the drawbacks, and you address both sides with relevant points. The discussion of safety is supported by examples of drunkenness, tiredness and speeding, while job losses and reduced passenger confidence provide two disadvantages. This meets the task well. However, some ideas are less fully developed than others: the claim that automation will give “drivers” time for productive activities is not clearly explained, since those people would no longer be driving, and the point about lower confidence leading to fewer road users needs a more specific explanation or example. To strengthen the response further, clarify this benefit and develop the comparison of the advantages and disadvantages more explicitly before concluding that safety outweighs the costs.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction states your view, separate paragraphs present benefits and drawbacks, and the conclusion returns to your position. The progression from safety to productivity and then to employment and confidence is easy to follow. Linking phrases such as “For example,” “Another good side,” and “In conclusion” help guide the reader, and paragraphing is appropriate. At times, however, the connections between ideas are a little mechanical, and some references could be clearer. For instance, “these drivers” in the productivity paragraph is confusing because the vehicles are described as driverless. The final paragraph also repeats several points rather than drawing them together into a direct comparison. Use more precise referencing and show explicitly how the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the topic, including “automated vehicles,” “human errors,” “unemployment,” and “transportation.” There are also attempts at less common or formal expressions, such as “the advent of” and “inevitable,” though some choices are unnatural or imprecise. For example, “self-powered” does not clearly mean driverless, and “deleting human error factors” is an awkward collocation. “Good sides” and “downsides” are understandable but less suitable for a formal essay, while “becuase” is a spelling error. Aim for more consistent, precise terminology and natural academic collocations; this will make your argument sound more controlled without requiring unnecessarily complex vocabulary.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including the contrast in “While automation guarantees safety … the reduction in employment … cannot be deleted” and the cause-and-effect explanation of accidents. Most sentences communicate the intended meaning, but some grammatical errors and awkward constructions remain. For example, “will enable these drivers engage” needs an infinitive marker (“to engage”), and “caused by the drunkenness, sleepiness or overspeeding” has an unnecessary article and an awkward grammatical pattern. The sentence beginning “For example, cases of accidents…” is a fragment rather than a complete sentence. There are also punctuation and spacing slips, including the final double full stop. Review sentence completeness, verb patterns and article use, while continuing to vary sentence structures.

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