Smart Cars: Challenges on the Way to Smart Commute
A new market is emerging before us — self-driving cars. Yet, before the present day car industry becomes a thing of the past, there will be a chain reaction of well-anticipated, along with unplanned, disruptions. What will they be and how is the industry getting through the first transformative stages? See the topic discussed in detail in our article below.
Undoubtedly, the advent of the era of driverless cars implies modifying or eradicating a multitude of today’s phenomena, such as public roads and transport, service centers, driving licensing, and overall transport regulations. Apart from technical and legal aspects, ethical and psychological elements of transition also deserve close review. Given the complexity of the problem, what do industry players undertake to finally bring smart commute to our streets? Where does a balanced decision lie? Sooner than not, it’s on the surface and consumers may be better adopters of the new technology than many producers think.
Many men, many minds. Industry players cannot find a unanimous decision for many simplest questions. Say, who’ll be the boss during a trip: a human or a car? The total majority of car manufactures stick to a staged shift from half-automated car to a fully self-driving vehicle. On the contrary, Google imagines only a 100 percent autonomous car hitting the market and its resolution is backed by a series of studies. They point to the human’s inability to stay focused on the ride once AI takes control.
On the bright side, reluctant as you may be to entrust your life to an artificial mind, things may be not as dark as many perceive them. A shift in consumer behavior indicates that we are willing to unload a tedious task of driving for good. Millennials, Z, and X-gens are growing more detached from possessing a car. European car sharing market is expected to reach USD 4 billion growing at a CAGR of over 33.7 percent from 2018 to 2024 (Graphical Research). Berylls Strategy Advisors predict a 15-percent decline in car sales by 2030 in the US, which for the first time in history that it cannot be traced down to an economic decline. The number of young Germans applying for their driving licenses has also shrank by 28 percent in the past decade. Similar trend seizes almost all major economies, with UK alone showing 40 percent drop in license holders. Seems like we’re more eager than before to become a part of the world where a driver’s license is no longer needed. Isn’t this a sign that we are paving the way for driverless commute? It all comes down to this: cars of the future will spare your energy for more important and/or pleasant things, not driving.
All the same, a forthcoming transformation makes car manufacturers feel uneasy, as this change will undermine the present day industry. However, the automotive industry isn’t alone in its wish to slam the brakes on the road to a smart future. Smart cars will require a new infrastructure and city planners will have much headache rebuilding a good deal of today’s cities.
Lack of proper infrastructure is a frustrating thing already today, at the dawn of driverless cars industry. Say that you need your Waymo taxi to pick you up at the shopping mall. Bags and packages in your hands, you now have to go and find the corner where the driverless car waits for you. A smart car cannot drive itself to whatever point that may be convenient for you. The story repeats itself when you have to leave the car and bring the stuff home from the exact stop point the car deemed acceptable to park, not you. In other words, existing roads are troublesome for driverless cars to navigate with only a few spots to park.
However, the most distressing part can actually be driving. Densely populated areas can be a shock to the car because of reckless human driving, accidents, or emergencies.
