12. Driverless Cars

What will be the impact?
Imagine it..... drivers licences, car accidents, lateness to work will be no longer be causes for concern as driverless cars become more available to society. Imagine, not having to pick your kids up from school any more ... the car would pick them up.  How about a house bus that drives you to work on time, and picks you up when you are finished.... a new way of bringing home to work, or vice versa.  You wouldn't need after school care.... you'd just have the car pick your child up, bring them to you, while they safely watch a movie, and eat treats while waiting in the car for you to finish work.... your driverless car could also serve to be a robot who takes on a custodian role that responds to your command.............. how amazing would that be?  The convergence of technology with this wonderful invention would be limitless.  

Who are the main business drivers, and who are the main competitors?

Google is currently dominating the driverless car market, but other major car moguls such as  General Motors, Volks Wagon, Audi, BMW, Volvo and Mercedes are its fierce competitors with intentions to mass produce the vehicles by 2018 (retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/02/19/driverless-cars-infographic/).  While laws have recently been passed in Nevada, in June 2011, for driverless cars, Hawaii, and Florida have only just passed the bill in their states too.  Conversely, before the vehicle becomes availble to the public, the 47 other states in America must also join Nevada, Florida and Hawaii in proposing legilslation allwoing driverless cars to operate freely (retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/02/19/driverless-cars-infographic/).  As a New Zealand citizen, I'm predicting that it will be a while before it reaches our little country yet. 

What are the risks/benefits this technology will bring?

These benefits could include:

• Age, physical or emotional restrictions would be irrelevant where any occupant regardless of age,  physical or mental disability would be able to operate such a vehicle.
• Improved or increased safety, meaning a significant decrease in number of traffic accidents, meaning less property damage.
• Improved maintenance costs for vehicle fleets. 
• Reduced rush hour traffic, and alternate routes predicted for. 
• Better fuel and time expenses due to taking preventative journey paths - not just due to congestion but road conditions and other warnings received or emitted to other vehicles too.  
• People can use travel time more efficiently e.g. eating meals, preparing for events, or checking the emails, or sharing their favourite bottle of wine with friends as they drive up to the next night club, rather than getting stressed sitting in traffic.
• Parking will no longer be required, as passengers can be dropped off, while the vehicle finds the nearest available space to park in, and then return to pick up at request. 

Identified limitations/risks, as noted above, are the availability and accessibility of the product to consumers.  In addition to this, legislation must also comply with operation of the vehicle especially with the state that it is used in.  A total of 47 states are needed to support the legislation to allow driverless cars to operate in the United States of America before the vehicle can even be mass produced. Other countries would also need to comply.  In its early stages, I'd hate to think what the costs are for one of these vehicles.  More to follow on this. 

Here are some links to get you as excited as I am.......................

• http://wot.motortrend.com/google-autonomous-car-testing-fleet-adds-lexus-rx-450h-logs-300000-miles-245621.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car
• http://green.autoblog.com/2012/08/13/google-lexus-rx450h-driverless-fleet/
• http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/tech-report-blog/google-driverless-car-tops-300k-miles