Driverless Limousines – Are They Here?

News has come in from a number of car manufacturers that they are ready to ‘go’ with a completely driverless automatic car.

In fact, Audi has announced that its model will be available for sale from 2017.

It certainly sounds impressive and there’s no doubt what the future of driving holds, but as some cynics point out, there may be a long way to go before we get there. So while the manufacturers’ claims are impressive and some of their demos are impressive, it may not be wise to hold your breath while waiting for the mass adoption of this technology.

What are the main inhibitors?

consumer resistance

It may well be that a very significant number of drivers do not accept these new technologies because, to put it bluntly, they enjoy driving too much.

Yes, that includes all those ‘boy racers’ and ‘petrolheads’, but it also includes a whole host of people for whom letting a computer do all the work would be unthinkable. For example, chauffeurs from luxury limousine rental companies may not be too happy with the idea of ​​having their six-figure luxury limousine completely under the control of an invisible microchip on the hood.

consumer confidence

This is a slightly different problem than the previous one.

It is quite possible that many of us who don’t particularly enjoy driving and happily have someone else do it for us, still resist the idea that that ‘someone’ is a small computer hidden inside the car somewhere.

Given the tendency of things like PCs and smartphones to sixteen and require a reboot, it may take a generation or two before there is massive public confidence in allowing a microchip to get us safely to 130 KPH.

If you’re willing to debate that, just look at all the polls of public attitudes toward completely pilotless aircraft, something that’s perfectly technically possible and a lot easier than building an automatic car. Would you be happy sitting in a plane at 40,000 feet knowing that there are no human beings in the cabin?

All or nothing

Even many of the advocates of self-driving systems will recognize that this is a real challenge.

The problem is that no one doubts that 5,000 sophisticated automatically controlled vehicles circulating on the highway in an orderly and 100% safe way can be perfectly conceivable. However, what that doesn’t take into account is the weird idiot driving like a lunatic in his manually controlled vehicle doing things like stopping and then emergency braking in front of you for no obvious reason.

In fact, it is very possible that the massive deployment of this technology will be impossible until the circulation of manual vehicles is prohibited and it is a legal requirement that everything be completely automatic and orderly.

Voltage

It must be debatable how many experienced drivers will be able to sit behind the wheel and do nothing without suffering from a huge spike in blood pressure due to fear and tension.

Do you think that’s unlikely? Well, you just have to listen to the experiences of drivers who are familiar with manual gearshift cars trying to adapt to automatic transmission. The automatic tendency to reach for the gear lever when an automatic transmission isn’t in the gear you think it should be is overwhelming, as is the frustration when you remember it doesn’t have one!

It’s hard to imagine how that could be when the car is doing absolutely everything for you.

Summary

It is very difficult to find anyone who believes that self-driving cars would not be a good idea in the final analysis, even some of them, like professional luxury limousine rental chauffeurs.

Still, some of the above obstacles are very tangible and real. It’s going to take a long time to overcome them, as well as spending a lot of money on the part of the motor vehicle industry.