Yesterday I explained to my 7 year-old boy that in the near future there would be cars on the road that drove you to your destination.
According to the report NHSTA administrator David Sctrickland says the technology could possibly save "thousands of lives." It was also reported that NHTSA has been in talks with a number of companies, including Google, regarding the implementation and development of this technology. Google has been testing its own fleet of driverless cars, logging over 300,000 miles on American roads. The tech company says autonomous vehicles could be made available to the public in the next ten years.
I wish I had videotaped his reaction.
You should.
It was pretty cool. I could see his head spinning, wrapping itself around the idea.
He had questions and I told him you'd probably program in where you want to go and it would drive you, then you could eat, look at your iPad, iPhone, etc.
When would it be available he asked? I said, they are predicting in about 5 years.
Today he, nearly 24 hours later he said, so I'll be 12 when the autonomous cars come out? Yes, hopefully.
Awesome he responded.
As a mom I am excited that my kids could and should have this at their fingertips by the time they get to driving age. Car crashes are the #1 cause of death to kids we need change today.
Actually, upon reading it might take a lot longer then 5 years for these to roll on out. But when they do, my family will be willing to buy them. Here are some benefits of autonomous cars.
Writing for Technology Review, Will Knight outlines the possibilities of our driverless car future, while also addressing the fact that it might be many decades before fully autonomous cars are possible or accepted. Those benefits could include:
- 90% of automobile accidents are due to human error, leading to 30,000 deaths and $300 billion in damages in the US alone. Fully autonomous vehicles could slash those losses by huge margins.
- Autonomous vehicles traveling in high-speed “platoons” that reduce aerodynamic drag could reduce fuel consumption by 20%.
- Up to four times as many vehicles could travel on existing highways if all vehicles were automated. The Texas Transportation Institute says traffic congestion wastes 5.5 billion hours and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel each year.
- Self-driving cars incorporated into car-sharing services like Zipcar could affordably transform cars from a thing people own to a service they call up on demand.
More then a millions of lives, globally, will be lost until then. If the Feds, the auto-makers and the techies could just agree faster we could save some.
Here, maybe this will help. I'll pay you money for that car. Lots of money. And I'll tell my mom friends and they'll pay lots of money to keep their kids safer too.
The cost to the US Economy in mayhem, lost productivity and loss of lives totals 3,000,000,000 BILLION a year according to AAA. Come on auto industry, I know you talk in dollars.
Better yet, let us moms iron out the details, safer kids, you got it we'd iron out the details over lunch.