The NPR.org reports that General Motors (GM) will be mass-producing a “self-driving car that has no steering wheel, pedals or any other manual controls.” This car will be on the street in 2019 and has no steering wheel, no brake or accelerator pedal, and a car dashboard that is …well, not a real dashboard. Surprisingly the interior of the car and the placement of the seats is as if someone was driving.
Pundits are already talking about the interior following “rigid interior design rules when you’re not required (or able) to drive” while GM is asking for a waiver of federal laws regarding safety because the rules are designed as if someone in the car-a human-is actually driving it.
These vehicles are being tested in San Francisco and in Phoenix, and apparently occupants will be able to “end the ride” by having a “stop request”. Waymo which used to be part of Google is also producing some autonomous vehicles without steering wheels and pedals, and have a
Waymo, a company that used to be part of Google, has also “made a limited number of autonomous vehicles without steering wheels and pedals,” according to The Associated Press. That company has a program for people to ride in self-driving cars in Phoenix which has been operating in the past year.
At first blush self driving cars seem great. There are around 1,300,000 annual fatalities worldwide from traffic collisions. Millions more serious injuries. There are billions of hours spent driving per year. If you could magically replace all cars the world with self-driving cars and they live up to the hype and reduce accidents by 90% or so then you’d save 1.15 million lives per year. That is pretty compelling. You’d also free all those hours for more rewarding things than staring at a road.
There would be unintended consequences though. When something gets cheaper we use more of it and driving would become much ‘cheaper’ in time and in lives. I’d imagine self driving cars might result in several times more total miles driven, so even if they reduce accidents per mile driven by 90% the total reduction in accidents might only by 40% or 50% or so. Still that is a huge amount.
It would also likely change trip choices from active modes to inactive modes, and result in more time spent inactive. That would increase deaths from things like heart disease and diabetes.
It would also change our land use and our cities, stretching out the suburbs and exurbs as people accept longer commutes, and increasing traffic into city centers as people don’t have to worry about parking and the like.
Plus even ideal self driving cars that didn’t induce undesirable side effects would only make cars about as safe as buses are now.
I suppose the ideal would be super safe self-driving cars combined with demand/usage based charges to avoid a huge amount of induced driving and provide funding for still safer and healthier alternatives.
I am not so sure about that. With autonomous cars people will more likely rent cars rather than own since the car can pick and drop you off. This means all the costs are marginal rather than upfront. Before we ordering a buffets and in the future it will be a la carte.
People will always be driving cars with steering wheels, acceleration pedals, brake pedals, rear view mirrors, trailer hitches, and roof top carriers just maybe not so much in the downtown core of a large city where there are many other alternatives.
Can the autonomous car with its’ extremely high maintenance costs compete with mass transit systems and taxies?
Can an autonomous car operate during increasingly extreme weather events caused by climate change?
Will the autonomous car always be limited to narrow specialised applications like the ones we have seen so far which are mainly of the passenger shuttle variety?
Will the autonomous car ever be more than an expensive and novel fad?
I hope engineers succeed in this robotic adventure because I would like an autonomous solar powered motorhome which would solve both my commuting, vacationing, housing, and energy needs all at the same time ………….. admittedly parking is still an issue………….some things never change.
Perhaps the real revolution will be in replacing oil with renewable electricity as internal combustion engines are scaled down in the next few years in favour of hybrids and very efficient solid state lithium ion batteries. What this will inevitably mean is the scaling down of the quantity of cars on the road due to a shortage in electrical generating capacity, the liberation of thousands of m2 of space from the road network, and the bankruptcy of the Trans Mountain pipeline project.
When it comes to considering all vehicles, the electric train and bus and Reeboks within the complementary walkable neighbourhoods remain the most cost-effective and efficacious transport modes on a per capita basis.
AVs and EVs are not really related. Many EVs will not be AVs, and many AVs will not be EVs.
The pace of ascent of EVs is widely exaggerated due to price, range constraints, lack of profitability for dealers and car makers amid billion $ investment requirements, environmental concerns of battery production and recycling, inconvenience and charging infrastructure. EVs will dominate marketshare of new purchases in cities maybe by 2050, maybe, but that leaves vast parts of the non-urban country and existing vehicles.
“many AVs will not be EVs”
That is an interesting theory. How do you expect these non-EV AVs to refuel themselves? Will they carry androids which jump to the pump?
Some EVs can dock themselves today. Straightforward technology.
Don’t invest all your money in companies planning to dominate with IC engines until 2050.
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Awesome. When can I buy one?
Will they also not be legal, like Uber, for ten more years after other cities allow them here in Vancouver ?
You know that the Motor Vehicle Act is provincial, not municipal, right?
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Taxis have drivers by definition. The Vancouver vehicle for hire bylaw defines vehicles without drivers, but which are available for hire, as rental (u drive) vehicles, not as taxis.
Sure, that could change. But the issues we are facing with AVs will be addressed provincially, and in terms of standards, federally, IMO.