Driverless Cars

Driverless Cars

For more than a century cars have stayed the same. Car ownership meant status and freedom. Today, driverless technology is completely changing the game, and the effects will dominate far beyond the car industry. Entire job sectors will be hit. Any position with a driver will be redefined. We will experience a radical shift in how we move, where we live and what our cities look like. There are 2 megatrends: one trend is towards automation; the other trend is towards a shared society. With Uber, and AirBnB and others, when those 2 trends converge and we have shared views of driverless taxies, that will have a huge impact. We are only a decade or so from that reality, and when it comes it will eventually put drivers under the scope. When this system is implemented, there will be less collisions and fatalities than we have now. In a driverless world, there might not be a need for as many police, firefighters, ambulances and doctors. Google is making a bet that cars are safer when computers are in charge and the consumers will like it. Google’s driverless car works with laser sensor, radar, ultrasonic sensor, video camara, or GPS. The laser sensor on top catches a 360° image, and millions of data points every seconds. The reason that laser is important is that GPS isn’t quite reliable enough. GPS can’t detect objects in front of you, it can’t draw a map around you like a laser can. Differentiation amongst all the different car companies such as Google, Audi, Ford, etc. will be done by the software they use.  

One of the impacts will be on the traditional car industry and Morgan Stanley in the US has predicted the end of the car industry as we know it. Car dealership might be gone, and car ownership unnecessary. The trend has already started, with the millennials moving away from car ownership. Today, people do not use the car as much as before. In the future, the car will simply not be as needed. Driverless taxies will always we working, eliminating the need to park free and freeing up a huge amount of land. The change will not be gradual; it’s already began in transit systems. Cities in Europe already run automated busses, designated zones, where people have already adapted. Subways are also starting to become driverless. The trains will now be able to be run more often, and closer together, since there is no need to worry about human error. Traffic congestion will not disappear though. The difference is that now you can open your laptop and have a coffee while driving occurs automatically. It is not clear when driverless cars will become popular, but it will be soon. Google wants the cars in the market by 2017, and Tesla wants them by 2019. By 2020, GM, Mercedes Benz, Audi, Nissan, BMW and Renault all expect to at least semi-autonomous vehicles available for purchase. Today, 1.2 million people die in auto-accidents in the world. The autonomous car of the future will be able to plan a direct course, and communicate with the other cars on the road, so that as many as possible can fit and keep the float…