Imagine a future where driver-less cars are common place. Imagine a time when you can leisurely sit in the back seat of your car and be transported to a destination of your choice without an inkling of a thought or worrying about ongoing moving traffic. We currently live in a society where cars can now park themselves. Before you know it, the future will be here. The positive implications of cars that drive themselves are endless and huge technology conglomerates and car manufacturers are moving into this future sooner than you know it. These cars boast resourcefulness from both a social and economic standpoint. Driver-less cars or "autonomous vehicles” have many practical benefits aside from saving us time behind the wheel. Let us go on to examine these in closer detail.

The avoidance of human carelessness and the fact that humans make mistakes is a huge pro for the autonomous car industry. As stated on technologyview.com, "Data gathered from Google’s self-driving Prius and Lexus cars shows that they are safer and smoother when steering themselves than when a human takes the wheel, according to the leader of Google’s autonomous-car project." It’s simply easier to rely on machines for consistency when humans are put under external stresses distractions are easy to come into the mind. The benefits are far-reaching, not only will patrons feel safe in their vehicle but it will also save them time and money. Autonomous vehicles will garner a new ease of mind and sense of tranquility for patrons. Essentially, once these cars become widely accepted the morning rush to work and the hustle and bustle through city traffic will become close to non-existent.

History and Key Players

The driverless car is a project that is currently being led by Google engineer Sebastian Thrun. Thrun, the former director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and co-inventor of Google Street View, engineered the vehicle in 2005. Thrun originally designed the vehicle for the sole purpose of competing in the DARPA Grand Challenge. Thrun and his team would eventually win the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge with a grand prize of $2 million. Thrun is currently developing the system alongside engineers Chris Urmson, Mike Montermerlo and Anthony Levandowski who had previously worked with THrun on the DARPA Grand Challenge. Google publicly announced the project in 2010 and the self-driving car has since been legalized for public road testing in Florida, Michigan, California and Nevada (Wikipedia, "Google Driverless Car").

Social Considerations

Autonomous cars benefit all age-groups. However, the ability to operate one will remain pertinent to whether or not you have a driver’s license. The rules of operating such a car will go hand-in-hand with the laws of being in behind the wheel according to current regulatory conditions and amendments that are being put in place specifically for these cars. The legislation is still being written but according to a publication by The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University Automated Vehicles are Probably Legal in the United States. As the title of the report implies, "the short answer is that the computer direction of a motor vehicle’s steering, braking, and acceleration without real-time human input is probably legal" (Smith, 2012). Further analysis of real time usage of autonomous cars must take place before legislation is finalized but the sale of these cars shall become a very tangible realization within our lifetime. Nevertheless, in regards to speed, it is made clear that these cars will regulate speed based off of the speeds noted on maps, as well as by maintaining a specified, legal distance.

Even though, autonomous cars do not necessarily solve a plethora of problems, they do have a place in a niche market of individuals who are ready to pay for ease of travel and hassle-free voyages. Currently, autonomous cars are wavering on a line that has yet to be completely defined. Nevertheless, the main complaint about driving is the simple fact that it is time-consuming and the person behind the wheel has to be fully attentive and paying attention to all nearby traffic. With a self-driving vehicle, one could take upon whatever business in which they wish to indulge themselves, without even taking a single look outside of their car window. This can be beneficial for personal reasons, as well as for business affairs. Once this technology is mainstay in our country, we will fully be able to see its impact. This technology shall solve issues related to escalated numbers of motor vehicle accidents and fatalities, instances of drunk and impaired driving, the restraints associated with having to concentrate solely on driving when driving, and instances where people would be unable to seek emergency services due to an absence of means for transportation.

Technological Factors

Although, self-driving cars are built on the same blue-print of regulation vehicles that we use today, developers and large car manufacturers must jump into new technologies that will help control this new generation of cars. These companies already have a number of years under their belts in the development of these new cars. However, the auto-driving technologies have to be created from scratch and this artificial intelligence has to be reliable and safe for this project to successfully hit the ground running. Current robotics research have setup these cars to be accurate on the road, with their reaction times reaching perfection in terms of driving habits will present a sort-of "brain" that controls the functions of the vehicle. The University of Berlin presented its findings on the utility of these hardware assistance systems in the paper Semi-Autonomous Car Control Using Brain Computer Interfaces. The research provided by the Artificial Intelligence Group at the school tested scenarios in which their BCI or “brain computer interface” proved successful on semi-autonomous cars. Essentially, one could think about what actions they may want their car to take and a neuroheadset would sense the brain patterns to control the interface for steering and throttle/brake responses. After many benchmark experiments, the results show that "Brain-computer interfaces pose a great opportunity to interact with highly intelligent systems such as autonomous vehicles" (Gohring, etc.) These machineries must improve autonomous functions such as following paths and avoiding obstacles to become widely accepted by society, however the leaps and bounds that are being created by researchers are making these computer technologies an extremely plausible option for those who are bad drivers, too old or impaired to operate, or are just looking for a way to free up time spent driving.