Well it seems that not only i think that automobiles have a way too primitive technology and usability. You should read my 2008 article and see what i was requiring for a modern car. Now Google just announced that they are working on a technology for cars that will allow them to automatically drive from one place to another without a driver. These cars are equipped with video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to detect other cars in traffic. Also detailed maps allow them to navigate to the destination required. These cars that Google created already navigated 140.000 miles without a driver (actually there was someone in the car to take over if something went wrong).
Although these cars are in an experimental phase i think that this is a great progress and a required evolutionary path for the transportation systems of mankind. According to the World Health Organization annually 1.2 million people die in traffic accidents. Also in the US the average time spent commuting is 52 minutes. Imagine that all these lives and all this time could be spared and could be used for progress.
Also when cars will be able to automatically drive themselves probably the number of cars will decrease and we will have less traffic and less pollution. The urge to have your own car will be less smaller and car sharing (as Google says it) will increase. They also speak about “highway trains of tomorrow”, these “trains” could significantly increase the number of people transported giving access to transportation to more and more people.
This is great, but let’s see how soon this can be implemented in our daily life. If it were up to me i would switch tomorrow!
Laszlo Bodor
