They might not be the flying cars we expected from “Back to the Future II,” but autonomous vehicles are the cars of our future after U.S. regulators and the Obama administration granted permission for manufacturers to continue work on self-driving vehicles.
The push for driverless cars has been long in coming, yet many human drivers are wary of the innovative technology that seems to have fallen out of the pages of a sci-fi novel. Yet, in recent months, manufacturers such as Google, Uber and Tesla revealed vehicles that drive themselves.
Vehicle manufacturing companies also joined the race to produce safe, efficient, and driverless cars. Ford expected to have fully autonomous vehicles on the roads in 2021, and G.M. purchased software firm Cruise Automation to speed their development of self-driving cars.
Otto, a trucking company founded by former Google engineers, develops autonomous semi-trucks to transport goods across the country. Otto tests its six driverless trucks on the roads in California. An engineer rides in the truck to troubleshoot issues that arise, take control of the vehicle if need be and refill the gas tank. Otto states that driving control will switch between the computer and the driver on freeways and all other roads, respectively.
Autonomous trucks would have drastic impacts on the lives of truckers. The use of these autonomous trucks “will save time, money and lives,” assures Jeffrey Zients, director of the National Economic Council.
These trucks could make long-distance hauls in shorter time and would be able to drive through the night. Otto’s autonomous trucks are “always productive,” states Lior Ron, a co-founder of Otto.
Regardless of the expectation of a boosted salary from more hauls and the increased time with family by finishing hauls quicker, many truck drivers hesitate to hand over their keys to a computer. “It would make the job not worth doing,” Wade Dowden, who has been driving a semi-truck for 10 years, told NY Times.
Tesla continues its work on self-driving vehicles, moving forward with safer, smarter vehicles. In the wake of a tragic accident on May 7, 2016, Tesla hopes to advance their line-up of electric vehicles modified to drive themselves.
Before any of these vehicles hit the road and the market, each model must pass 15 safety standards that cover the vehicle’s design and development, validation of technology and subsequent updates, compliance to new state regulations concerning self-driving vehicles and consumer education on proper operation. In the end, proponents for self-driving vehicles expect these vehicles to be safer than human drivers.
Last week, the car-hailing company Uber introduced their driverless vehicles to Pittsburg, Penn. With tight corners, steep grades, bridges, tunnels and frequent speed limit changes, Pittsburg provided the perfect place to test autonomous vehicles, explained Raffi Krikorian, Uber’s engineering director of Advanced Technologies Center. “Pittsburg is the double-black diamond of driving,” Krikorian stated.
New York Times writer Mike Isaac enjoyed a test-run in one of Uber’s self-driving cars, riding with a safety engineer ready to take control should either passenger feel unsafe. Isaac pointed out that the self-driving vehicle kept its distance from other vehicles at intersections, and maintained the speed limit on both busy and empty streets.
“In self-driving mode, turns and stops were near seamless, and I often had to check in with my driver to see whether he or the computer was steering the car,” marveled Isaac.
