The technological race for self driving cars to become a reality on public roads is heating up. There’s been plenty of publicity around driverless cars recently, including Tesla’s self-driving technology. Other major automakers like Mercedes Benz have been developing their own self driving cars, and who can forget the fleet of Google vehicles?
But the race to develop self driving cars may have more participants than you know. In fact according to published reports from CB Insights up to 30 firms are now in the running.
Some of the names bidding to develop autonomous vehicles are familiar ones, like Apple, Google, and Uber. Others include large automakers such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes. Either way the day when self driving cars are the way you will get to work are much closer than many people realize.
Although many companies like Google have been forthcoming about their progress to the first fully autonomous car, others have not. Apple has been extremely tight lipped about their self driving cars, but that might be changing soon.
According to the German automobile publication known as Frankfurter Allgemeine, Apple has the first of their self driving cars in Germany. According to many reports and rumors the Silicon based company may be looking to pair up their efforts from the engineering corporation Magna.
Considering the latest advancements in infotainment in automobiles, the fact that two leading companies happen to be Apple and Google are not a surprise. Automakers such as Nissan and Volvo has pledged to have their self driving cars ready by at least 2020. Nissan in particular has teamed up with the brightest minds from MIT and Stanford. Volvo claims that their self driving cars will be “deathproof” in as little as 5 years. Mercedes says that they will have their driverless tech available as early as 2018.
By removing the human element and completely automating the driving process, self driving cars will be safer. Companies at the forefront of driverless technology say that efficiency will lessen our dependency on fossil fuels. Volvo safety engineer Erik Coelingh recently echoed these thoughts in a statement released last week.
“With the development of full autonomy we are going to push the limits of automotive safety, if you make a fully autonomous vehicle you have to think through everything that potentially can happen with a car.”
What do you think about self driving cars? Looking forward to the day when you won’t need to drive anymore? Or are you less than enthused about the idea of a machine driving you around? Whatever side of the driverless fence you happen to sit on, leave us a comment below and let us know!
