I generally enjoy driving and even more so, a manual car but I’m really excited by the idea of the driverless car for long haul and repetitive trips. One of the lesser discussed leaps with the concept is the idea that car ownership will change, I suspect people will sign up to subscription services and the 90% of cars that lay dormant at any one time will be massively reduced. Road trips will just fly by when you can do other stuff, I’m confident and very happy with the thought that this will happen in our lifetime.
I keep hearing rumours that some cars already operate without driver intervention however as with most things its up to the legislators to catch up. I know Mercedes have driver assist in collision prevention and Elon Musk’s Telsa cars have autopilot for freeway trips, distance / cruise control as well as steering / laneway control. Tesla have gone about this in the right way, they say their cars will be at it’s dumbest the day you purchase them however with regular online software updates, the cars will be improving their functionality and safety day by day. The above image is the Mercedes F015 concept.
