Who Needs Autonomous Driving?
Sometimes people ask "Who needs that?" when talking about new ideas or controversial things.
There are many things in the world that people can talk about. Some of them are not needed like diseases, poverty, environmental pollution, and wars. This is about innovations.
My License, My Car, My Way
People can't agree about autonomous driving. A lot of old sci-fi stuff has cars that drive by themselves. You see this in books and movies too. Some authors think cars in the future will drive autonomously too.
The point of personal transportation is getting to where you need to go. You might do other things while in transit. Like use your smartphone, read, play games, or watch videos. Being in a car is usually wasted time. Unless you're in a movie with self-driving cars in a chase. But that's not likely to happen in real life.
This idea is crazy now. Drivers really like their cars. They show off their cars as symbols of wealth and independence. It's great to drive fast on curvy roads and impress others with your car's power. People call this sporty driving.
A robot that drives the car and is safer than people is unnecessary. This is why many say "Who needs that?"
Optimizing Safety And Traffic
In 10-15 years, the way we drive will be different. Human-controlled cars will be gone. Cars will be friendly to the environment and will drive themselves. They will pick up passengers and drop them off at their destination. If the cars are privately owned in cities, they will find a parking space with a charging point on their own. At home, the car will help balance the power grid by being controlled by AI.
You can call the car with your smartphone. This means people won't drink and drive anymore. But the passenger will still need to use their vomit bag alone.
Many traffic research centers predict fewer cars on the roads in the future, despite traffic staying the same. This is because publicly available cars will be used more frequently and won't sit idle for long.
New World, New Rules?
Some people think autonomous driving is a paradise, but for others, it's a disaster. When you use it, you give control to the car and trust it. Then, we have more ethical and philosophical concerns. Who's responsible when there's a crash? What happens if there's a wreck between two types of cars? What choice will the AI make if it has to pick between many human lives?
The future is guaranteed to be awesome. Yet, we're not sure if European OEMs will still lead the way. Europe delays progress with too many questions and worries. In contrast, global competition is moving ahead rapidly. So, we ask ourselves, do we even need European regulations?
Every week, one of eight writers - Eveline van Zeeland, Derek Jan Fikkers, Eugène Franken, JP Kroeger, Katleen Gabriels, Bernd Maier-Leppla, Willemijn Brouwer, or Colinda de Beer - write about what they think the future will be like in a column for Innovation Origins. These columnists, along with occasional guest bloggers, strive to solve current issues. Check out all of the previous articles on the website.
