When someone talks about cars being able to drive themselves, your first thought may be one of disbelief. Technology has come on leaps and bounds.
Many people honestly believe that this concept is impossible. A made-up idea or a science fiction authors mad dream. Driverless cars or autonomous vehicles are possible and in fact, they are most likely coming to our roads in the very near future.
If you would have told us the same 10 years ago I would have thought you were mad.
Even cars in 2020 have autonomous elements or parts in them. Adaptive braking and cruise control being two of the most popular.
It only takes one company to invent driverless technology like Tesla for the rest to follow suit and for an explosion of new car technology to inundate the motor car industry. It’s similar to the one-minute mile. They thought it could never be done but once one person did it, many others did too.
Insurance laws in the UK that protect drivers have also been updated to cater for the new breed of car. It’s a scary thought! It’s a big signal as to the reality of this concept for an industry as slow-moving and large in size to start adapting in readiness for this technology.
There are many benefits to driverless cars and lorries etc. It could really help and support the elderly and those that are less mobile. It could also lead to fewer accidents and better all-around road safety.
These cars would be able to circumnavigate and avoid congested cities and towns.
There are plans to have millions of driverless vehicles on the roads. One of the biggest obstacles will be the trust of the people. It would take a lot for people that had been driving for many years to all of a sudden give over control and let a car drive you on a busy road with other vehicles driving past at speeds.
The true nature of a driverless car is that little to no interaction will be required by the driver. These cars travel around using artificial intelligence that consists of radar, sensors and cameras to navigate around in the environment that are in.
It is worth noting that there is a difference between driverless cars and self-driving cars. Self-driving cars give you luxuries such as cruise control but you are able to override and take back control whenever you wish. Driverless cars do pretty much everything for the driver and they do not need to take any control of the vehicle’s operations.
The driverless vehicles will require a connection to the cloud in order to access map and traffic data as well as the positioning of other nearby vehicles. Most of these driverless cars use laser technology for the detection of other objects and also can monitor the blind spots in order to gauge the whereabouts of other vehicles.
A futuristic sci-fi dream?
No, there are driverless cars on sale now in 2021!