In the article, The American Way of Driving is Over, it begins:
For decades, the car has been the all-American signifier of who you are, a declaration of independence, a place where you are master. Now American innovation is leaving this tradition in the dust. Ride hailing, self driving, data mining: Technology is taking the wheel. Enjoy the ride.It then goes on to list 5 Trends in 2017, which I list below (also check out the links):
1. Self-driving cars will be everywhere
There are honest-to-goodness self-driving Ubers ferrying passengers in Pittsburgh; Baidu’s fleet of autonomous electric taxis is zipping around Wuzhen, China; and commuters in England and Sweden will start whizzing along the highways in Volvo carbots.
2. You will be tracked
Insurance companies will use smart dashcams and tracking devices to adjust your rates. And now that electric vehicles pose an existential threat to gas taxes, state governments will experiment with mileage-based taxation.
3. Power trains get a power-up
Expect 15 pure electric models to hit the US market this year, including the modestly priced and longer-ranged Chevy Bolt and Tesla Model 3.
4. Public transit will team up with startups
Last fall, the bedroom community of Summit, New Jersey, launched an Uber pilot program offering parking-pass holders free rides to a nearby train station. We’ll see more partnershipsbetween ride-sharing services and public transportation.
5. Robotrucks hit the highway
Self-driving trucks outfitted by Otto—a startup Uber acquired last year—are making deliveries. The first? But truckers won’t be totally out of work yet; Otto’s rigs can self-drive only on the highway.
And then there's this: Mercedes Promises Self-Driving Taxis in Just Three Years
The German giant is just the latest to make this kind of pledge. Ford and BMW aim to do the same thing by 2021. General Motors and Google’s Waymo are eyeing a similar timeframe without committing to a specific date. Meanwhile, Uber has been shuttling passengers around Pittsburgh in self-driving cars since September (with humans up front to monitor the system).
In this article is a video of a legally blind man driving Googele's Waymo, convincing them that are ready to join the competition.
I know there is freedom in having your own car and going when are where you please, except for the cost of the car, the insurance, traffic, texting, accidents, court fees, insurance price jumps, and finding a place to park. If you could get anywhere you wanted without all that, and faster than you could on your own, would you still want a car? Bigger cities in the U.S. for now, but not for long.
This is a very interesting topic. With all these self-driving cars and smart cars, there is going to be a huge presence of security. With the information being leaked that the CIA is going to be installing software in cars that allows them to take control of the vehicles. This has not been something that has happened but something that can. Anyone who has hacking abilities could possibly be able to hack into ones smart car and get information and even take control of the car. It is very interesting and scary to see where and how they implement proper security.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest concerns with the self-driving car phenomena, is how laws and ethics will change. If there's an accident between a human driver and a self-driving car, who's at fault? What if the car is hacked, unbeknownst to the owner of the car, and it injures someone? Should the car be programmed to save the life of the driver over the life of someone outside the car? I enjoy looking into these ethical dilemmas and look forward to seeing how they play out in future U.S. Law.
ReplyDeleteGeez. Given all the data out there that is not secure, autonomous cars are way more secure than that. You should see what they are doing in Europe!! Way ahead of us, which is why all cars are seeing the benefit. Plus who doesn't want to have cars that don't run on fuel (read coal)? Reason enough to go electric and autonomous. Right?
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