It’s coming soon to a driveway near you, or perhaps even to YOUR driveway. I can see the future and self-driving autonomous cars will be here soon.
I’m still pissed that we don’t have real hoverboards and flying jetpacks yet, but I’m still holding strong hopes for driverless cars. At least, with driverless cars, there are several automakers and other corporations actively designing and testing them already.
Google stands out amongst the pack as a technology firm with extensive knowledge in interactive maps, crowd-sourced traffic awareness, and since 2009, millions of miles of on-road experience with self-driving automobiles already under their belt.
Other companies actively at work on autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles include Tesla, Mercedes-Benz (since 2013), Audi (2004), Delphi/Audi (2015), Nissan (2013), Bosch/BMW (2012) and many more probably worth listing but this article isn’t specifically about who’s working on them but how they’ll change the future.
The future that I've alluded to in mentioning our driveways has to do with something that will probably be MISSING from those driveways -- a personally owned vehicle. Why own a vehicle when a car is as close as a few taps on your smartphone away?
Automobiles are expensive to purchase, and can be expensive to maintain, but with all that money you save by not purchasing and maintaining an auto you'll be able to easily afford to order up an autonomous car and have it shortly arrive in your empty driveway ready to take you to your desired destination. You'll be able to select the type of vehicle you need for the occasion. Grocery shopping? Request a vehicle with a large enough cargo space for that trip to Costco. More than two of you going somewhere? Pick one with room for four or more passengers. Need to move your sister's antique dining-room table that she's had since she was seventeen? Order a pickup truck with a cargo bed.
The future of automobiles should be fewer vehicles on the road, automated trucking of goods on our highways, faster and safer travel speeds for autonomous vehicles including special traffic lanes and an overall safer road environment for everyone using our highways.
Autonomous vehicles should be able to "convoy" on highways, allowing vehicles to safely travel closer together at posted highway speeds by communicating amongst themselves and coordinating entry and departure from the highways.
With more coordinated traffic we should see fewer accidents and less roadway congestion. With this type of highway automation, we should see less need for Law Enforcement too. When the self-driving vehicle is programmed to go the speed limit, there shouldn't be a need for Law Enforcement to look for speeding vehicles. Heck, the autonomous driving network should be able to point out speeding vehicles TO the highway patrol but nobody likes a tattle tail.
With fewer highway accidents we should be able to free up already overloaded resources such as Emergency Response and Highway Patrol. These efficiencies shouldn't be limited to just highway traffic either. At slower non-highway speeds automated vehicles should have the ability to respond to unexpected situations more quickly and safely than humans can, making our city and neighborhood streets safer for pedestrians.
Currently, states are looking to require a human being, at least present in the drivers seat but I see this necessity going away very quickly as more and more on-road statistics accumulate showing how much safer the vehicle is WITHOUT a human second guessing the vehicle network's software.
We’d all still have to have car insurance, but these policies would be updated to cover our liability for using a vehicle in the shared network. I’m sure our insurance rates would go down too as the safety record of the autonomous vehicles prove their ability to travel with fewer accidents.
Oh, and I haven’t forgotten that there may still be some need for a personally owned vehicle, at least until we successfully automate vehicles that can tow your boat or trailer, or automate your Luxury RV. Yes, I can see the future, and I don’t think it will include an automobile loan payment in it.
The future does indeed look bright, now where are my shades…
-Woofhound.