Self Driving Cars - The Future Of Driving

Driving is one of the most dangerous things a person does every day since it kills thousands of people each year. Yes, u heard it right. Statistically speaking, chances of a person getting killed while driving is more likely to happen than any other activities an average person does every day. So how do we make it safer; by letting the computer do it for u, hence self-driving cars.

An autonomy of a self-driving car is divided into different stages. The cars which you and I drive are usually 1 or 2 stage. Here the cars can do partial braking and acceleration but still needs a driver. There are basically just driver support. Stage 3 is ‘Conditional Automation’ which means that the car is pretty much in control but requires human intervention in an emergency. The ultimate self-driving car would be operating at stage 4 or 5 where it can steer, break, accelerate and monitor the roads by itself.

Latest research indicates that by 2020, self-driving cars will start to hit the roads and by 2035, there will be 54 million self-driving cars on the road and by 2050, pretty much all vehicles will be self-driving. Currently, Nissan, Google and General Motors are leading in the self-driving innovation.

In order to achieve self-driving, the car is covered by cameras, radar and sensors which enables the car to have awareness of every little thing going on around the vehicle. It can map the roadways, detects traffic pedestrian and even avoid pot holes. (Can’t wait to see a self-driving car avoiding pot holes here in India!)

Self-driving cars have various benefits too such as drunk driving and speeding could be avoided. Human error is responsible for over 90% of the accidents so the need of self-driving cars is a priority. Some research even indicate that self-driving cars can drastically reduce traffic and also help elderly and people with disability to get around Currently, a lot of drivers maybe reluctant to trust their automated replacement completely since it’s still not a final product but the change is coming and its coming for good.