Imagine going to the grocery store in 25 years in your sleek new auto-drive car: You hop in, voice the destination and off you go. The quiet, electric-powered vehicle drops you off at the supermarket entrance, then auto-parks itself while you shop. As you exit the store, your car drives to the entrance, picks you up and returns home. You marvel at this incredible car that can also run errands without you on board.
Despite world car population approaching a billion, the economy has devastated the auto industry. To revive their failing businesses and address growing concerns over environmental damages and rising auto accidents, car makers are going electric and adding more safety features.
Experts predict that by 2020, 4 million electric vehicles will be on the road, and by 2050, nearly all cars will run on electricity, ending world dependency on gasoline.
And high-tech amenities are in demand. Today, many new vehicles sold in the U.S. boast Electronic Stability Control; a system that enables drivers to control vehicles in extreme dangerous conditions.
Other features include wireless Bluetooth Internet connections that offer drivers and passengers hands-free voice communications; models that automatically brake when a collision is eminent; and some with abilities to parallel park themselves, remotely unlock doors, disable stolen cars, and dial 911 in a crises.
In addition, tomorrow’s electric vehicles will be far different from today’s versions that require frequent battery recharge stops. Future sensors imbedded in highways and streets will enable coils inside electric cars to charge batteries continuously, eliminating recharging breaks.
At the forefront of this revolution, Google recently modified a Toyota with cameras, radar and lasers that allow it to drive without human assistance. This futuristic concept includes a scanning sensor mounted atop the car and a GPS system that identifies the vehicle’s location. Google received a license for this concept car, as Nevada became the first state in the nation to register auto-drive cars. see video here.
As computers and sensors become highly sophisticated, cars will handle more and more of the boring work of driving. By 2020, they will control all of it. When cars know where they are, where they need to go, and can automatically steer, brake and accelerate, some ask, what’s left for humans to do? The answer: relax, browse the net, watch TV, or enjoy the scenery.
Two new ideas for our self-driving wonders include 1) replacing the motor with four electric motors positioned in each wheel, which improves traction and provides more storage space by eliminating the driveshaft; and 2) dent-proof nanomaterials that pop back into original shape after a fender-bender.
Some positive thinkers envision cars that can even change texture and color with voice command (think KITT on NBC’s Knight Rider.
Vehicles of tomorrow will be a little smaller, but with futuristic designs, as you can see in the following links: General Motors EN-V; MIT Hiriko Folding Car; Scion iQ EV; Car2Go.
However, some ask; how about legality, what kind of financial issues might driverless cars cause? Most laws assume a human is behind the wheel; if there’s a mishap, whom do you sue?
Clearly, this presents serious challenges, but advocates say there’s plenty of time to resolve these issues, as most experts do not predict driverless vehicles will be accepted by the average consumer until late-2020s or 2030s. By then, enhanced human intelligence might easily find solutions to this problem.
Most barriers to driverless cars are social rather than technical. Many people feel uneasy relinquishing control to a computer, and there are some, who truly enjoy ‘putting the pedal to the metal’.
In the beginning, most cars will be dual-purpose; manually drivable and computer controlled; but as society becomes more aware of the safety and convenience of owning cars that drive themselves, these auto-drive wonders will capture the public’s heart. Welcome to the future of driverless cars.
IEET Blog
“Imagine going to the grocery store in 25 years in YOUR sleek new auto-drive car”
Why own a car at all? With a fleet of independent cars I can imagine it is cheaper to rent a car by the minute then owning a vehicle that is idle most of the time.
Those ‘sharecars’ can pick you up anywhere in a five minute notice, and after dropping you off at your destination (reminding you not to forget your bag or groceries you left in the trunk) it goes its own merry way.
In densely populated aereas this can replace human driven cabs and most forms of public transport.