The Future of Self Driving Cars 

For decades, sci-fi films have made accurate technological predictions regarding gadgets like flip phones, electronic tablets, smart home devices and autonomous cars. In 1966, season two of the series Batman featured the infamous superhero summoning his self-driving Batmobile with a remote control activator to pick him up. In 1990, Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen being chauffeured in the back of a robotaxi in the movie Total Recall, set in 2084. Little did audiences know that self-driving cars would become a reality in just a few decades. It is without a doubt that the automotive industry is rapidly evolving with the expansion of ridesharing services, electric vehicles, and cars with self-driving features currently on the market. It is only a matter of time before self-driving cars become the norm form of transportation and car companies are promising it will be much sooner than 2084.

Where We Are Now

As of now, there are no mass-produced cars on the market that can fully drive themselves. The only autonomous cars that exist seem to be a fleet of prototypes created by companies like Tesla and Uber. However, many companies, like Volvo, are releasing cars with semi-autonomous features. In fact, there are many cars currently on the market that contain self-driving features that can monitor and adjust your speed according to traffic conditions, keep you within your lane, brake as needed and center your car without your hands on the wheel.

While these drivers assists programs to serve as safety features with the purpose of preventing collisions, they still requiring drivers to stay alert and intervene as necessary. Additionally, there are cars currently on the market that can autonomously steer themselves into and out of parking spots. The Mercedes-Benz E-Class contains a parking pilot system that can complete the entire task, parallel or perpendicular, without the help of its driver.

Where the Future of Self-Driving Cars Is Headed

Major companies, like Tesla, Google, Uber, Lyft, Amazon, Toyota, and Blackberry are racing to release the first ever driverless car on the road in the next couple of years. They are investing millions of dollars and utilizing all of their resources to beat their competitors. As mentioned above, many manufacturers are slowly giving consumers a taste of self-driving features. On the contrary, companies, like Google, are strictly focused on releasing a fully autonomous car by a 2020 deadline.

While some companies are going to release fully autonomous cars for personal use, other companies, like Ford and Uber, are focused on releasing self-driving vehicles to provide ride-sharing or ride-hailing services. Furthermore, many companies plan to release their driverless cars in other countries like Japan and China, before introducing them to the United States. BMW plans to release driverless vehicles in China in 2021 and an all-electric, self-driving car in 2025.

Although many companies are projecting to release self-driving cars in the near future, many people are apprehensive as to when these vehicles will actually be on the road. In the U.S., there are prototype cars currently being tested on the streets of states, like California and Arizona, with the supervision of human pilots. However, when willfully autonomous cars share the roads with conventional vehicles? While the answer merely lies upon prediction, many companies are confident their driverless vehicles will hit the streets sooner than we think. While the question as to whether these vehicles are allowed to operate legally on roads have been left to the states in the past, the House of Representatives recently passed the Self Drive Act which helps make sure that the future of driverless vehicles will be accepted nationwide. The Act serves as a federal safety framework to support the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles.

Challenges Ahead

While experts would agree that self-driving vehicles are only a few years from being perfected, the end of the road is expected to be the most challenging. There are still technological problems that need to be solved and legal and ethical questions that need to be answered. Companies are working on improving sensor technology so that autonomous vehicles can see the road better and detect potential obstacles. They are also working to develop better mapping systems that can detect trees, buildings, fire hydrants, road signs and crosswalks in the harshest weather conditions.

Furthermore, there are legal questions regarding liability. Will car companies accept liability when their software becomes the driver? How will a driverless vehicle handle real-life situations where two lives are at stake? Does the vehicle swerve as it rapidly approaches a pedestrian, putting its occupant in life-threatening danger? Further concerns include protection against cyber-attacks or hacks and whether self-driving cars will cost thousands of Americans their jobs. These are all just a few of the concerns regarding the future of self-driving cars and how they will transition into our conventional world.