Driverless cars will be on the road by 2020
Moving from science-fiction to
reality, driverless (autonomous)
cars took over the recent
Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) in Las Vegas.
Traditionally a showplace
for the Silicon Valley brigade,
CES has in recent years become
a key venue for automakers
and auto-industry suppliers to
announce their latest high-tech
innovations and future plans.
And the headlines from
CES 2016 were all loudly
proclaiming how traditional
car companies as well as
technology start-ups were
making practical advances to
make this driverless future a
reality.
Fully driverless cars will
be on the road by 2020, said
Ford CEO Mark Fields, who
has shifted Ford’s self-driving
efforts into high gear. So much
so that he is confident that Ford
will have a fully driverless car
on the road by the end of the
decade – and, he added, it will
be a mass-market product.
That 2020 date has also
been made public by Google,
which has been working on
autonomous driving systems
since 2009. Indeed, its selfdriving
cars have become a
regular sight on California
roads. Along with Google,
Apple is also reported to
be ready to take on the
behemoths of the car industry
like Ford, General Motors and
Mercedes-Benz.
And, at CES, Toyota
announced it had committed
over R15 billion to an artificial
intelligence company, and
was building a 200-person
company designed to advance
automated driving and other
artificial intelligence.
Also, the normally secretive
Faraday Future – backed by
Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting
– unveiled its concept car,
displaying the electric and
autonomous car the company is
working on for consumers.
Not to be left out, Tesla
Motors CE Elon Musk recently
announced that his company
was also well ahead with its
research on autonomous cars –
having launched its “Autopilot”
system last year.
Mercedes-Benz – the first
to bring (very limited) selfdriving
capabilities to market
in 2014 – also unveiled its latest
autonomous vehicle plans in
Las Vegas, while Kia and Audi
similarly made announcements
about their respective driverless
car plans. And Kia was another
that named a date, saying that
its fully autonomous vehicles
would be on the road by 2030.
General Motors’ Cadillac
brand and Volvo are expected
to launch limited systems of
their own within a year or so.
But putting the
technology together is not
the only challenge the car
manufacturers face when
talking about introducing
driverless vehicles on public
roads.
The problem of getting
autonomous cars onto the road
is going to be about changing
people’s cultural perception
about cars, the way they operate
and who owns them, as well
as convincing regulators that
handing control of vehicles
travelling at 120kph to a
computer is a smart decision.
A report last year showed
that less than 50% of
people in the US wanted
to ride in a driverless car.
For car manufacturers to
fully commit to producing
autonomous cars, they will
clearly have to work on
winning the trust of the other
half of the population.
As well as convincing
consumers, there are also
significant regulatory hurdles
to overcome. And you can add
to that the tricky question of
insurance liability – just who
is responsible if a driverless
car crashes?
While Google, Volvo and
Mercedes have all said they
will take responsibility if one
of their autonomous cars
crashes, it is unclear how, or
even if, insurance companies
will handle the situation.
But time, they say, will cure
all ills. And, with the massive
muscle of the international
motor manufacturers behind
the concept, it’s only a matter
of time before the autonomous
car takes to the street.
CAPTION: Faraday Future's concept car
