Are Autonomous Cars The Driving Force of the Future?
An autonomous car is capable of fulfilling the
transportation capabilities of a traditional car, whilst at the same time being
able to sense its environment and navigate without human input. Autonomous
vehicles sense their surroundings with techniques such as radar, lidar, GPS,
and computer vision.
Despite all this information, UK motorists still seem
wary of this new development in technology.
According to findings from a recent study carried out
by uSwitch, around half of the British public wouldn’t trust a driverless car
to drive safely. Instead they believed that such a vehicle would place the
passengers and other road users at higher risk.
Another finding from the study revealed that there was
also confusion about other aspects of driverless cars; a large number of
motorists aren’t sure who would be held responsible if the autonomous car were
to create an accident.
Numerous manufacturers have been researching and
developing these cars for some time now, so although it may be a while yet
until they outnumber traditional cars, it won’t be long at all until the first
few are nestled amongst us on the roads.
Google seem to be ahead of the race in launching the
new technology, having recently begun to trial its autonomous cars in Bristol,
Coventry, Greenwich and Milton Keynes, hoping the trial will prove a success. To determine that, we’ll have to wait and see!
Of course, to meet their aim of driverless cars being
a part of everyday life by 2020, they still have a long way to go in convincing
half the British public.