We all love to think about the future when it comes to our cars. It is so easy to imagine flying cars and so much technology that could be fitted inside the vehicles that we use daily. At the same time, a technology aimed at increasing safety offers information in a way that was impossible in the past. It is even already simple to find the car if you do not know where you parked it, or if it was stolen. However, no matter how much we think about automotive technology, most people want self-driving cars.
According to Pickering’s Colorado auto repair shop, self-driving car is not a new idea. This is true since there are so many movies and TV shows where such cars are featured. Although fantasy, it does showcase the desire that many people have. We do not have a self-driving car at the moment, one that manages to drive itself. There is technology to help us park, stay in lane, drive at a constant speed, and so on. However, the real self-driving car is not reality, although we are now closer than ever.
Google engineers have already managed to test self-driving cars in Nevada and California, for over 200,000 miles on various roads and even public highways. The cars that Google uses record road images and have computerized maps that view road signs, see traffic lights before a person can see them, and quickly find alternative routes when needed. These are vehicles that use cameras, radars, and lasers. They can analyze and then process data about their surroundings at a speed that is simply impossible for humans.
Statistics show that US citizens spend around 100 hours per year just sitting in traffic. If the self-driving car becomes an actual reality, a lot of time can be gained. This is because cars driving themselves will surely have the platooning option. This means that many cars end up driving really close to one another, similar to just one unit. Platooning is really interesting since it has the possibility of decreasing accidents on highways. Close proximity means cars can communicate with each other. Then, if something happens, they can react fast, without having to deal with the distractions that can easily affect humans.
Google’s self-driving car tests are quite promising. In some of them, cars learned road details by simply being driven on a route many times. This allowed the cars to get the information needed to be effective during self-driving. When it is time to self-drive, the car is capable of identifying when pedestrians want to cross and stop. This is important as it means human error is drastically reduced. Keep in mind that 95% of accidents happen because of human error.
To sum up, self-driving cars do seem like a dream. Still, Google, GM, and other manufacturers already performed tests, and there is an excellent possibility that some self-driving cars will be featured in showrooms in under 10 years.
