Autonomous vehicles are the newest trend within the IoT industry. It is not a surprise that now we will have vehicles that can operate and deliver without the need of human interaction. It has been ever more apparent that the IOE (Internet of Everything) is the future way that all devices will be somewhat managed.
The deployment of these vehicles is far from easy but it can now be available for everyone in the world, an example of this technology is the self-driving cars. From Tesla to Google to Uber and to all major automakers, we can see the technology being integrated into our daily lives seemingly.
Whether you have autonomous vehicles in your city of residence really depends on the national legislators and the constitutional law in practice in your constituency. Therefore, the integration of driverless cars can be more apparent in some places than others. However, with legislators now ready to accept a technology that has undergone many trials and millions of kilometres of testing with a negligible accident rate- it is now important to note that the challenge is rather economical than technological: the technology has lived up to the expectations of the experts, and although testing under a wider range of environments than Arizona, where bad weather or road quality comes into play, it’s safe to say that self-driving vehicles are already here.
The doomsters have been proved wrong, bringing to mind to mind the famous phrase, sometimes attributed to Thomas Alva Edison: “Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
Autonomous vehicle technology has many advantages compared to human-driven cars. One such potential is that they can provide an increased safety on the road, this means that it actually decreases crashed caused by human error every year (it can be a substantial advantages considering some countries’ top mortality cause are car crashes). Other advantages include a reduced traffic congestion which can be beneficial for the environment. It achieves this by removing the human behaviours that cause blockages on the road, more specifically the stop-and-go traffic.
Autonomous cars can also decrease inequalities due to physical or age factors, for instance automated driving allows people who are not able to drive due to different factors can be able to use these cars for more convenient transport systems.
Lastly, many crashed every year are caused by fatigue or alcohol consumption, an autonomous car can allow the elimination of ‘intoxicated driving’ and driving fatigue (which happens often during overnight journeys). As we have explored, AV is the future since it reduces the rate of driving-related casualties, boosting road safety.
