“We are in the future” is a phrase you may have heard people say recently. When we are talking about the car industry, this usually comes down to one thing: autonomous driving.
The concept is that car can drive itself, with you in it, to and from wherever you tell it to go. However, we are not there yet.
Tesla is leading the game with its autopilot systems, but that technology is still in its infancy and being constantly worked on. On top of that, it may be able to work on a motorway, but it cannot react and think as a person can. Plus, around town at slow speeds, it is downright hopeless.
Besides, most versions of this work by simply holding the car at a constant speed and bouncing off the lane lines on either side.
This begs the question; what happens when you are on a stretch of road that does not have lane lines? Will the system turn itself off and let you know it is your turn to take the wheel again, or will it just get overconfident and send you spearing into a tree?
It should let you know it has not the slightest clue what it is doing. However, analytical engineers and computer systems have a history of forgoing common sense for what may technically be the best option.
There are also ethical questions to answer. For example, if you are in the car and it is driving itself and a car coming the other way merges into your lane and you are about to have a head-on collision, what does the car do if there are cars on all sides of you or pedestrians on the sidewalk?
Is the car going to kill the occupant, the drivers of cars surrounding them, or the pedestrians?
It is a grim question, but it is one that needs answering as autonomous driving is getting more popular and car accidents do happen all the time.
Additionally, the entertainment industry is getting a bit ahead of themselves. In the movie Logan there is a scene where our hero is running across a freeway that is populated by self-driving semi-trucks. Of course, when I say semi-trucks, I mean the trailer that appears to drive itself.
While this may seem like an excellent idea, there is an extraordinary number of things to figure out before we put that into production.
First, we need to construct the device itself and just make the thing work the way it should. As with most things, if it does not complete its task with any more than a few minor hiccups, then it is not suitable for public use.
Secondly, if it is autonomous, how is it going to get recharged? Will there be a wireless charging station that it knows to go to when it runs low on juice or is there someone who will manually plug it in?
Also, what are they going to do when they are not in use? Perhaps it will be like a train station where they will sleep in their own little cubical.
Lastly, who is going to manufacture and then own them? This has the potential to be owned individually by normal people, or it could be owned in bulk by massive corporations. The technology does not exist for something like this to go into production, and it likely will not for years and years to come.
The subject of Autonomy is so complex and has so many facets to it, it raises more questions than answers.
We may be closer to the future than ever before, but we are not moving along near as quickly as we used to think we were.
Photo was taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Model_S_digital_panels.jpg