Smart Glass Glimpse, 09/19/16
Smart Glass Glimpse brings you the latest technology news in the glass and glazing industry so you can easily keep updated.
How Much Longer Until The Future of Driving?
Lately we have focused a lot on the trend of autonomous vehicles that has taken over the transportation and technology industries. However, the question remains: How long until the roads are full of driverless cars? Today, we will discuss the progress of the key players in the race to autonomous driving systems.
Companies such as General Motors and Tesla are moving in new directions, proving to be ahead of their competitors. General Motors will be the first in the road next year with an in-cabin assistance system that watches the driver and gives them a hard time if they're not alert enough. Although this system does not entail a completely autonomous vehicle, it does improve the awareness of a human driver. At the same time, Tesla is updating its Autopilot software to use radar instead of cameras as the main way of gathering data about the car's surroundings. In addition, the update will request the driver to refrain from taking their hands off the steering wheel for long periods of time. Tesla spokespeople have said that this update might have prevented the fatal accident in Florida.
Other key players such as Apple and Google seem to be moving in no direction at all. Apple claims to be rethinking their original strategy after laying off dozens of employees. Since the technology giant has been so secretive about Project Titan, it is impossible to know if their testing of autonomous vehicles is actually leading somewhere. Google, on the other hand, has been in the game for years! They've been testing autonomous vehicles since 2009 but appear to have reached a standstill. Right now, Google has a few accidents but no progress to report.
No matter what your opinion is on autonomous vehicles, there is no denying that they could be a good thing for all of us. A new projection from Aon, a risk management service, suggests that premiums on auto insurance could be reduced by up to 40% with a self-driving car. I don't know about you but that sounds pretty good to me.
Of course, we ought to remember that we're not talking about smartphones and computers here. The upgrade cycle from iPhone 6 to iPhone 7 will not take long. However, the upgrade cycle from our vehicles today to autonomous vehicles is unimaginable, especially considering that most people keep their cars for about 10 years. I guess Apple and Google still have lots of time to figure out their next moves.
Question for you: Should all cars have human drivers? Should we trust self-driving vehicles with our lives? Tell us in a comment below.