Self driving cars have been a hot topic for some time now. However if we take one step back and wonder what are the real problems in automotive that really needs a fix, you can’t help but notice the elephant in the room. People who drive cars kill people! The responsible organisations keep pushing statistics year on year, the manufacturers keep making safety features to protect more and more.
The most important advancement that we could possibly work towards is to connect all automobiles to the internet. It’s not as simple as it sounds, if all key manufacturers start rolling out connected vehicles off their assembly line starting today, it will still only reach about 70% of the vehicles on road by 2020. Also in the underdeveloped/developing countries vehicles tend to have a longer life due to taxation and the lack of an ecosystem of vehicle disposal. It is my view that governments and policy makers concentrate on policy which encourages the purchase of new automobiles and reducing the life span on road vehicles post 2020. Ofcause the policy will have to take in to consideration the effect on trade deficit, stress on traffic conditions etc.
Why do I endorse this world wide adaptation of the connected on-road vehicles? well imagine if all vehicles on the grid were connected, couldn’t we almost eliminate all road accidents?
