Marc StickleyComputer says, Please Step into the Car
Fancy going for a drive? Soon you can without actually driving!
Article by Marc Stickley
Driverless cars. Autonomous driving. Drone cars? I’m not sure how to best say it, but the relentless march of not doing something we nearly all do is creeping towards driving. Now, if you wanted to, you have been able to buy a car that changes gear for you for almost as long as cars have had enclosed seating. More recently, you could tone down your car cabin workload by opting for cruise control, then adaptive cruise control. Active lane departure avoidance systems, automated parking, collision avoidance and many more little innovations have created a dichotomy where drivers are almost redundant for certain parts of driving.
But do we need cars that don’t require drivers and will (or can?) there be a time where, like Will Smith in iRobot or Harrison Ford in Bladerunner, a machine does the business? Well, like any repetitive task, automation looks appealing and let’s face it, not everybody likes or appreciates driving. For the busy individual or the disinterested commuter, the option to have iDriver do the business, whilst you get on with something more productive is appealing. You could check emails, paint your nails, read the paper or apply your make up - although I see all of these on my morning commute… For the urban commuter, traffic jam crawls don’t aid in really setting you up for the day (unless you’re a rage fuelled cage fighter). Similarly, bahn-storming on the motorway requires little driver input, so could be done by a machine. Yes, there will be software to prove, artificial intelligence to test (or just clever algorithms for traffic avoidance, distance calculation, speed maintenance, object detection and more) and then confidences to build - will the iDriver react correctly and safely when that kamikaze cyclist/pedestrian/lane-changer does the unexpected? Will the reaction, which may be beyond that capable by most drivers, actually cause more difficulties behind? How do we ensure that everyone benefits from the technology - only fitting the most expensive cars with the ability to self-drive wouldn’t be safe - but can you mandate for all to have the ability and should we?
Let’s not forget, there is that other aspect of driving that at least some of us relish. The challenge of learning your car’s traits, getting the most from it, driving for the sake of it – the joy of it, not just to get from a-to-b. There will always be a few that want to keep a car that doesn’t do it all for you - will they be outlawed, or is the automated highway so far in the future that those preservers of petrol-head virtues would be given their own play pens, receive a new virtual reality chip where you can change gear and heel-and-toe to your heart’s content? I’ll leave you with that thought, but remember, we’re not in hover cars yet, we can’t do hyperspace and warp travel, arguably there isn’t a lot of trust for things without a human interface, so let’s keep it real, grab that wheel and hope that the advances come safely, where and when appropriate. 