As we embrace the fourth revolution and welcome all the advanced technology that is being introduced in the world, one of the things we hear more about every day are self-driving cars. With many people, the first company to spring to mind when it comes to self-driving technology, is Tesla, with the Model S and its Autopilot feature. But, they are not the only ones looking for a piece of the action.
Companies that are taking the plunge into the world of autonomous technology and self-driving vehicles are coming out in the dozens, with at least 19 commercial self-driving projects being worked on in and around the Silicon Valley right now. Nissan, Ford, Tesla, Google, and Apple are just some of the names that will be appearing with new developments in this area soon.
Even though Tesla’s Model S has far from perfect hands-free technology, they are still the first ones with this type of technology available to the public. In 2010, Google initially started down the same autonomous route as Tesla, but after testing the cars in 2013, they decided that perhaps they should take a slightly different approach. Google had their engineers test out the cars on their journey to work, but they were not comfortable with the level of distraction their employees took, including falling asleep.
Although the cars are designed to be autonomous they do still require a certain level of human awareness should something go wrong. So, Google decided that rather than have the cars autonomous but still needing a certain level of human interaction and fitted with a steering wheel and pedals, they went the complete opposite direction. Now, their autonomous cars do not feature any accelerator, brake pedal or steering wheel and with a top speed of 25 miles per hour, there is a much lower risk of an accident occurring. Google are hopeful that these cars will be available to the public as early as 2019.
Another company joining in on the action is giant car manufacturer, Toyota. But, they are not following in the footsteps of Tesla, Google or Apple. What Toyota have come up with is completely different to the rest of this market and is a guardian angel system that will not drive for you, unless you are about to make a mistake or be involved in an accident. Their technology will allow the car to take over the driving in dangerous situations.
However many people jump on board this wave of new car technology development, the one thing they do all have in common is a concern for safety, and we are continually reminded of the dangers of over trusting technology. Although something may be deemed as completely autonomous, wouldn’t you still like to have a little control if you could? There are going to be some big developments coming our way soon in the world of autonomous driving, and we could soon find steering wheels a thing of the past.
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