For the petrol heads
out there, who relish the smell of gasoline and the sound of a roaring engine,
and thrive on the adrenaline rush of racing up and down mountain roads, I have
to tell you that the days of you behind the wheels of cars are numbered. Sooner
than you think. Most road-legal cars will be “self-driving” soon. Yes, really.
اضافة اعلان
Imagine riding in your
car, talking to it, telling it where to go, and then sitting back and relaxing,
without any intervention in operating the vehicle. You can text, watch videos
online, hold online meetings, or even take a nap. That fantasy is closer to
reality than we all think.
Car makers and tech
giants like
Apple and Google are racing towards the realization of a driverless
vehicle. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, radars,
mapping, and car-installed computing capabilities, the possibility seeing a
self-driving car legally on the streets of big cities is imminent.
Whenever this topic of
autonomous driving is brought up, the name of the Silicon Valley car maker
Tesla comes to mind, being a leader is this field. Current Tesla models offer
level 2 autonomous driving today, which means that the car can practically make
its some driving decisions like changing lanes or turning or stopping based on
what the car’s computer decides is safe and legal. Current road safety laws
mandate the presence of a human driver to allow the usage of this technology on
public roads.
Tesla is currently
working relentlessly to deploy level 3 autonomous, which is the next level of
self-driving, as soon as the end of this year 2021.
Other electric vehicle
makers from the US, China, and elsewhere, and more established brands like
Audi, Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac, Hyundai, Toyota, and Lexus, to name a few, are
hot on Tesla’s heels. They’ve managed to catch up and are currently offering
level 2 autonomous driving features, and are not far behind in offering more
advanced levels. Tech companies on the other hand, have covered a lot of ground
in the advancement of the technologies leading to the autonomous dream.
LIDAR
technology, which stands for “‘light detection and ranging”, is used in an
ever-increasing number of autonomous vehicles to navigate environments in real
time.
The main challenges
that hold back the mass deployment of autonomous driving tech in your average
car are mainly related to costs and laws. The faster the drop in the cost of
developing the needed components of self-driving systems, the sooner the
integration of this technology will be realized. Additionally, car makers and
tech companies need to accelerate their government lobbying efforts in order to
change traffic and road safety laws and regulations in order to make autonomous
driving legal.
Autonomous driving
could have a positive impact on road safety and decrease road accidents and the
human cost in injuries and fatalities it causes, and also improve traffic flow
and ease congestions in big cities.
However, the lack of
the man-machine connections will be missed, and I imagine in the not-so-distant
future driving will become a cult practice of a few who will, far from the
public eye, practice their passion behind the wheel on some deserted road in
the middle of nowhere.
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