I cannot wait to see where this goes, but my gut feel is that at some point very few of us are going to be driving cars. I see a future of cities being served by hundreds of thousands of automated, self-driving taxis. Cars will be a luxury for the rich, and parking areas and garages can be reclaimed as productive space. Transportation costs will drop as car utilization improves, and as vehicles are deployed on a per need basis. Going to work in the morning? A one person vehicle can be dispatched. Heading out with the family? A five unit carrier. If you look at the cars on the road today, nine times out of ten, the vehicle is carrying only one person which seems like a massive inefficiency.
Despite the incredible demonstration in the video, apparently the technology is still 20 years away from being ready for the road, but I look forward to seeing a Minority Report type transportation future.
California has just passed a law to make driverless cars legal. I suspect we will see plenty of driverless vehicles within 10 years.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2012/09/26/with-driverless-cars-once-again-it-is-california-leading-the-way/