Following on from Part One which presented the latest development of Vehicle to Vehicle communication, here is the next big invention in the car industry.
Self Driving Cars
As some of you may know, Google are already testing self-driving cars. A video on YouTube made by Google called ‘Self-Driving Car Test: Steve Mahan’ shows Steve, a blind American, being the first self-driving car user to go about his daily routines as if his disability had no effect. It really was inspiring to see Steve do the things that he wants to, when he wants to.
We have already seen advanced parking guidance systems currently being created by Lexus, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes and Ford which park your car with minimal driver effort, but not needing any input from the driver and sitting back from your whole journey is a huge step forward. In fact there is already one for sale if you have £170,000 to spare. The ‘Navia’ is made in France by a company called Induct Technology who have beaten all the large car manufacturers to it, even if it does look like an oversized golf cart for eating Al Fresco on.
BMW has released a promotional video featuring a ‘self-drifting’ M235i and Volvo have plans to carry out the first test of driverless cars on a large scale in 2017. Mercedes Benz and Lexus have also been reported to use test vehicles on public roads under heavy supervision.
After the government legislations have been passed and the intricate maps have been created you may see self-driving cars in the future.
Advantages:
- More free time to yourself while travelling
- The self-driving car is being designed to make the road a safer place and hopes to reduce road accidents by up to 90 percent.
- The possibility that you will be able to drive to the pub and still get home in your own car.
Disadvantages
- Accidents could still happen out of the drivers control.
- Hackers create security risks for vehicles communicating with each other.
With many people sitting in traffic for hours every week or even every day, the autonomous vehicle will free up some of your valuable time and increase road safety levels. While fingers may be pointed at the manufacturers if something does go wrong, at the same time their main focus is preventing the majority of accidents from occurring in the first place. The main issue with this technology is whether unwanted people can hack the technology and control the car illegally and how manufacturers can develop software to prevent this.
