Autonomous vehicles, need of the hour?

Autonomous, self-driven, driverless cars, and Robot cars, these words have suddenly come out of the fantasy world and started to make sense in these times. With extensive research being done all across the globe, and this being touted as the next big thing in the automotive world, the day is not far when you will see this become reality.

In-fact in some countries driver-less vehicles have already clocked in millions of miles, as we write.

In some countries like:- Western Australia, driver-less trucks, are already helping workers in mines, removing the people in hazardous environments and improving the predictability and productivity at the same time.

Imagine a situation where all the vehicles running on roads are driver-less.

You will be surprised to know how many problems it will solve.

Let us have a look at them.

Pollution:-

Pollution is something affecting everyone around the globe and most of the policies, in the major economies, are focused towards reducing carbon footprint.

Now considering that most of the autonomous cars will also be all electric, this means they are zero emissions vehicles.

Well that is good for the start.

Some studies reveal that SAVs or shared autonomous vehicles can replace 10 personal owned vehicles and clock in 10 times more distance than a personal owned vehicle, so if the SAV is electric the benefits are doubled.

Traffic Chaos:-

One of the main advantages of autonomous is that they are self-driven, that means human intervention is next to null.

When we try to visualize this in very crowded cities with lot of chaos, this looks like a boon to us.

Because people will not be driving these vehicles, computer programs will run them. This will help to move traffic in an organized way and will ensure 100% compliance to traffic rules.

Accidents:

When traffic moves in an organized way and there is 100% compliance to traffic rules, there will be no accidents.

You know that in some countries, number of deaths caused by accidents is second only to the death caused by life threatening diseases, then this becomes a very big factor to consider.

Cost saving and convenience:-

This technology is going to help us in many ways and one of that is to save on a number of costs, which we incur these days.

Some of these are - insurance costs, repair costs, hospital bills, licensing costs, legal costs, parking costs, etc.

Insurance premiums will go down if there are no accidents. So will the repair costs and hospital bills. So it is a win win for the consumer.

Licensing costs will be no more. If people do not drive, then you do not need any licensing authority.

No accidents means no cases, so legal costs will go down. Since you are not driving, so atleast you will not be involved in any legal issues. May be the transportation provider will still have to comply as per the policy.

As you will only be using shared mobility, so you do not have to worry about parking and parking costs will no longer be there for you.

All the above add up to your convenience of using this new form of transport.

Most companies are working in this direction and they are making good progress.

But to ensure that the driver-less cars are safe, governments, manufacturers, technology companies, need to work together to build robust vehicles and robust ecosystem.

And there are some barriers too in the adoption of this technology.

1.     Driving experience

People buy cars for the “driving experience” and automakers use the taglines like “ best driver’s car” or “performance machine”, so how will driverless cars provides such experience?

2.     Cost

Cost will also be a barrier, as this is a new technology. So making such vehicles will be costly. And if they are electric then it is costly as of now but may be with economies of scale and with no ownership with individuals. This might not impact people directly.

3.     Fear of the unknown

Like any other change, people as of now are hesitant to accept this technology. Then cannot imagine as to how a car can drive itself and keep them safe.

But all said and done, the day is not far when you will be sitting in one such car and see it zipping past other such cars on the road. It may take out the driver inside of you but might bring in more comfort, safety and piece mind for you and your loved ones.