Cars without drivers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cars without drivers - Essay Example The development of autonomous cars began in the 1920’s with the first autonomous car being launched in 1984 BY Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other companies have developed prototypes of the vehicle. The technological rush for computerised objects has led to the rapid evolution of the automobile industry. In 2013, autonomous cars were driven in a traffic jam with normal cars and the states of Nevada, California, Michigan and Florida have made legislations allowing the autonomous cars. Other countries such as Germany, France and UK are also taking steps to embrace this technological advancement The main catalyst for the development of autonomous cars is the exponential rise in road accidents that are mainly caused by human carelessness and errors. As a result, the UK government has invested over 8 million pounds to enhance research and development of these driverless cars to cause a revolution in transportation. According to Mitchell (2015), electric shuttles with no steering wheels will be launched in the summer in Greenwich, UK. Also, The Google Company is the world leader in autonomous cars research since 2010 and already tested its autonomous cars and revealed its findings to the public. However, the developers of these cars have been unable to prepare the cars for unforeseeable circumstances such as flooded roads and other rare incidences, making the cars not as safe. The Google developing team stated that they will need to record these situations as they arise and make precautions for them. Google is hopeful that in the next five years, the driverless cars will be much safer than human drivers and will be the new mode transportation for people. Various modifications such as WI-FI connections are expected to be added. The V2V (Vehicle-to-vehicle) WI-FI radios would enable cars to warn each other of any situations that could be dangerous. The chief executive of Peleton Technology, Mr Josh Switkes states