Advances in technology have been a blessing to the human race for as long as I can remember, from VHS to Blue Ray to streaming, from online phone to mobile phone, but one of the biggest might as well be self-driving cars. But like any innovation, questions arise and with autonomous cars we quickly ask ourselves: what will the future of driving be like? Will the man lose the privilege of driving? In this article, I explore some of the reasons why I think this might happen.
Whenever a Tesla crashes, there’s always a bunch of news about it, but remember, humans are the main reason we have car accidents. Errors, driving under the influence and distracted driving, we have it all. According to a WHO report, more than 1.3 million people die each year in road accidents. But as self-driving car technology improves, the number of accidents caused by human error will drop significantly.
You might not be a big fan, but you can’t deny that self-driving cars are more popular than ever, just look at Tesla, Google and UBER and the investments they’re making in this technology. With the potential to make our roads safer and more efficient (goodbye traffic!), self-driving cars will become the norm in the future.
And now comes another interesting part, insurance companies will have a big role in the future of driving. In the future, insurance companies will start punishing people who still want to drive their car instead of using a self-driving car, the reason is quite simple – self-driving cars are safer, less prone to accidents (remember you all the mistakes distractions from us humans). In the future, this could mean paying lower insurance premiums for those who use self-driving cars and those who still want to drive them will have higher premiums.
But there are significant benefits to reaping from self-driving cars, and these are just a few: they’re safer than human-driven cars, they’re generally more efficient (although I’ve seen articles and also videos showing that electric vehicles aren’t as CO2 efficient as they claim), they are always programmed to take the fastest route, which will most certainly improve the flow of traffic on the roads and avoid traffic jams. Now there’s the topic of the carbon footprint of electric vehicles, and it might be on a new post, but this is a video about it that might get you thinking:
Of course, this is me writing about something that I found interesting and much more can be said, but the future of driving is uncertain. But this does not mean that the autonomous car will disappear, on the contrary, it will become widespread. As technology improves, these cars will become more and more accessible to the common driver and I’m pretty sure insurance companies will penalize those
In conclusion, the future of driving is changing rapidly. The rise of self-driving cars will lead to a safer, more efficient and more sustainable form of transportation. However, this change will also have consequences, as humans could lose the privilege of driving. It’s up to us to embrace this change and make the most of the benefits it brings (personally, I see myself sleeping on those long trips).
Leave a Reply