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from the who's-gonna-drive-miss-daisy? dept.
The race to bring driverless cars to the masses is only just beginning, but already it is a fight for the ages. The competition is fierce, secretive, and elite. It pits Apple against Google against Tesla against Uber: all titans of Silicon Valley, in many ways as enigmatic as they are revered.
As these technology giants zero in on the car industry, global automakers are being forced to dramatically rethink what it means to build a vehicle for the first time in a century. Aspects of this race evoke several pivotal moments in technological history: the construction of railroads, the dawn of electric light, the birth of the automobile, the beginning of aviation. There's no precedent for what engineers are trying to build now, and no single blueprint for how to build it.
Self-driving cars promise to create a new kind of leisure, offering passengers additional time for reading books, writing email, knitting, practicing an instrument, cracking open a beer, taking a catnap, and any number of other diversions. Peope who are unable to drive themselves could experience a new kind of independence. And self-driving cars could re-contextualize land-use on massive scales. In this imagined mobility utopia, drone trucks would haul packages across the country and no human would have to circle a city block in search of a parking spot.
If self-driving vehicles deliver on their promises, they will save millions of lives over the course of a few decades, destroy and create entire industries, and fundamentally change the human relationship with space and time. All of which is why some of the planet's most valuable companies are pouring billions of dollars into the effort to build driverless cars.
After automation puts everyone out of work, will anyone need to drive anywhere anymore?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday December 16 2015, @03:21PM
What makes you say that? Uber/Apple: Yes, probably. The others: I have some doubts. Afaik, Google self driving cars are currently being tested on highways and in specific areas of Mountain View, where Google has a small high-definition map segment. Not sure if this is still true. However, as I mentioned, Mercedes had the first 100km distance of rural road and city already more than two years ago. The E-class 2016 will already have a whole bunch of drive assist-systems available [alphr.com], but for legal reasons will require the driver to touch the driving wheel in short intervals at least. Not sure they are behind.
And again, full disclosure: I might be biased. I work for HERE, which was recently purchased from Mercedes/Audi/BMW. But not in marketing, more in a technical position, and in public I state my opinion only. Sorry, might have added this to the initial post as well.
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(Score: 2) by Gravis on Wednesday December 16 2015, @11:33PM
What makes you say that?
well, google has the people on the forefront of the technology dedicated to improve their autonomous car. the guy that headed up the DARPA project is the project lead. as for 100km of rural road and city, google's car has over 200K miles. if Mercedes/Audi/BMW were anywhere near what google's car can do, they would be shouting it from the rooftops.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by q.kontinuum on Wednesday December 16 2015, @11:45PM
Accumulated, yes. But not single-route distance, like in one 200K miles route (or even ~70 miles rural roads / different cities, as far as I know). Accumulated, Mercedes also has more, with its autonomous [youtube.com] driving trucks [foxnews.com] etc.
I don't think they have to. They deliver drive assist systems leading the way incrementally towards autonomous driving. (As do other car manufacturers. Ford is also well on the way, as far as I know.) Google has to shout because they still have to make themselves a name in the automotive industry, and also advertisement is their main business.
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