Check Out What Singapore’s Doing in Autonomous Vehicles
My first reaction to the concept of autonomous cars was not a good one. You want to replace the driver? We like driving. How about replacing some of the things that we don’t like, e.g., the fuel that’s ruining our planet with its pollution and constant wars?
I found it hard to believe that this would ever happen, and I certainly didn’t think it would come so fast. Now, just a few years later, Singapore is piloting the use of autonomous taxis. Granted the test area is only 2.5 square miles in size and doesn’t include any freeways, but there doesn’t seem to be too much doubt that the driver is on its way out.
Yes, an autonomous car has a somewhat better environmental footprint than a conventional one, but this whole phenomenon makes us think: It would be so much better if our efforts at innovation were aimed at getting rid of the things that are ruining our planet and the lives of the people living on it.
As I drive the streets of a crowded city there are two reasons I would welcome autonomous cars. The first is as a counter to the ever increasing number of horrible drivers on the road. Yesterday I was behind someone who put on their right blinker and then turned left. 25% of drivers and 50% of those at stop lights seem to be on their phone either talking or texting.
On the other end of the spectrum are the increasing number of municipal violations that are passed out related to driving. It has been revealed that some towns get up to 90% of their budget from such violations. In such an environment driving feels increasingly like being a sheep in a wolf-pack. I have already been stopped once by police getting out of their vehicle with fingers on the triggers of upholstered guns, (who were “just looking”) The risk of being killed while driving seems to be increasing exponentially. Driving as a pleasurable experience seems increasingly to be a thing of the past.
I can see a number of advantages.
Some people, for various reasons, cannot drive. Being able to summon a driverless car to go someplace would be very helpful.
It would reduce the need for car ownership. Car ownership keeps thousands of dollars tied up when the car is not in use. Moreover, it requires space to park the car at home and where one is going. With a fleet of driverless cars, one would save the cost of investing in a car and far less space in cities would have to be devoted to storing cars while their owners are shopping, at work, or whatever.
It driverless cars go over well, they could be considered to be another form of public transportation.
Perhaps the next step will be riderless motorcycles.