Self-driving cars are becoming a hot topic, while they are already cruising the streets today. The self-driving cars are not just about a hands-free driving experience, it is an urban transformation that will change the way people navigate, access information, and interact with each other. Self-driving cars are a rapidly evolving technology, which only a few years ago was still considered fiction.
Over the past 20 years, digital tools have changed the way people meet, access knowledge and navigate. More and more intelligence is entering our cities. We can now collect real-time data on every dimension of urban life. The same trend is happening in the automotive industry: cars collect information about passengers and about the environment. Self-driving vehicles are the result, and will have a dramatic impact on our urban life.
Important benefits of this technology are that autonomous vehicles don’t get lost, creating less congestion and shorten travel times. More important, they would also make much safer roads. Nowadays, more than 1.2 million people a year die worldwide, because of car accidents (McKinsey, 2015). The incredibly complicated technology behind self-driving cars makes hundreds of calculations a second by an on board computer. These readings have virtually eliminated driving errors for test cars on the road (Dailymail, 2014). Because of this, their potential to ease congestion is high as well. In addition, self-driving cars could mitigate parking problems. If no parking is available, cars could circle the block until the passenger is ready or could look in other regions for a spot by itself.
One of the key challenges for the driverless future is to address the underlying logistics and legalities (McKinsey, 2015). ‘Who is liable’ is one of the main questions. Social acceptance is another important component developers and technicians are struggling with. It is still questionable if drivers are ready and willing to take their hands off of the wheel. Additionally, digital security is another one. Computer viruses are too familiar and they can cause major problems.
All in all, I think that self-driving cars have the potential to cause an incredible new wave in the future where the whole world benefits from. Creating less congestion and less traffic accidents are convincing enough to accept this technology. I hope this will be the new way of driving.
This is a well-written post. The concept of self-driving cars is indeed very interesting and with the Internet of Things on the rise, the future of more and more things in our environment being connected to the internet looks promising. However, a downside that is not stipulated in the post is the amount of jobs that will be lost due to cars not needing drivers anymore. There are many cab-drivers, or truck-drivers and so on, who will possibly lose their job due to this transformation. What impact will this have on the economy? What impact will this have on the social environment? These are things that must be taken into account when looking at the future of self-driving cars.