Car without a driver opens new era for the industry and society

Financial Times-Are a little after 11:0 on a hot July morning in Parma, in Italy, and a silver Hyundai sedan rotates along the city ring road with little traffic in front. The car gets an entry toward the center of the city and the two men in the front seats continue talking nonstop. Neither is with the hands at the wheel or looking at the road.
When a pedestrian step off the sidewalk to the asphalt, the car slows to a stop. The men in the car gestures so that it passes through. He hesitates, confused by car have stopped myself. The man in the driver's seat out of the car, walks up to the pedestrian and does go to the sidewalk.
Then, something amazing happens. The car accelerates down the road now empty. The man previously in the driver's seat stand on the sidewalk, watching the future move forward.
Autonomous cars have become the new craze in the industry, with technology companies and automakers in dispute to build vehicles that will revolutionize the way we travel, we work and we move to employment and to the usual buy cars.
The idea may sound futuristic, but his supporters argue that the benefits are tangible and will arrive soon. Automakers maintain that autodirigidos vehicles will prevent 90% of car accidents. Experts say will transform the traffic jams in a thing of the past. And traders expect a world in which the front seat will become Office, cinema, breakfast table or place to change clothes.
"There are no limits," says Alberto Broggi, one of the pioneers of autocondução and principal behind the project name Parma. "We're taking cars apart from everything that people imagined before."
These cars, supporting defenders, will be able to leave employees in their offices and children at schools and then collect others, making the traditional cab something obsolete and transforming the concept of property. "It's a new world," says the Chief Executive of Ford, Alan Mulally.
As in all the overwhelming technological advances, however, there's a catch. With the technological capabilities by taking the lead, the authorities are applying legislative brakes, while businessmen are grappling with costs.
Despite the ability to save lives, automated cars may find difficulties in social acceptance
Automakers can dream to offer trips to work in which people spend an hour answering emails or on trips to the school when parents help their children to review the multiplication tables, but lawyers and insurers have nightmares about possible hits on that responsibility falls on a defective microchip instead of a person.
"Cars without driver will be on our roads in 2020," says Mike Woodward, Deloitte partner specializing in the automotive industry. "But there's a storm in training [...] Who, exactly, will be liable if someone gets killed? "
Automakers say that these difficult issues will not stop them. "There is much to be done," says Mulally. "[But] we are absolutely committed to this technology."
Professor Broggi comes using autonomous cars for over 15 years, without any failure. During most of that time, however, the technology was just something marginal. "The first test I did was there in 1998, when nobody talked about autonomous cars [...] The media treated it as if I were crazy teachers oddity ", says professor Broggi. "When we got to the national newscasts here in Italy, our trip [the car] was broadcast after news about the world's fastest cat".
It was a demonstration of the autocondução technology of Google in 2010 that brought attention to the subject more seriously. The event made the automotive industry press the turbo, says Andy Palmer, head of product planning for Nissan. The starting shot of the race had been raised.
Parts manufacturers such as Bosch and Continental, began to display their technological skills in cars filled with cameras and sensors. Brands such as Mercedes-Benz showed vehicles ready for the streets, while Nissan launched the challenge, promising for 2020 a mass production car without driver. Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors electric car manufacturer, also entered the game. After having shaken the sector with the first electric luxury sedan to make a profit, said that within three years will have a vehicle on the streets that can operate without human control in 90% of the distance to travel.
In view of the current technological capacity, many say that they don't sound exaggerated ambitions. The new model S500, Mercedes, drove alone hundred kilometers in Germany in August, guided successfully by roundabouts, traffic lights and occasional cyclists.
Much of the technology is already present in the cars of today, since parking cameras to track detection systems; Since the electric assisted direction until the control of speed and distance.
The consequences, in personal, economic and social terms, promise to be comprehensive. If we believe in the visionaries, the changes will precipitate nothing less than a complete rereading of the car-the second most valuable property of many people, after their homes, and an emblem of materialism and of personal freedom that spread by the developed world in the 20th century.
The most obvious effect of cars that control alone is the time to be conquered by the drivers. Americans who go to work by car spend about 50 minutes a day behind the wheel, according to Ragunathan Rajkumar, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Save those dead hours "improves productivity of the individual," he says.
A second effect could be a great reduction in the number of people killed and injured in car accidents. It is estimated that more than 1 million people die in accidents on the streets and roads of the world each year, with many millions more maimed and wounded. Most accidents are caused by human mistakes.
"Our idea is very simple, that the cars aren't supposed to beat," said Toscan Bennett, Vice President of product planning at Volvo, which produces cars scheduled to detect and avoid collisions against moose. "And one of the ways to prevent cars from crashing is in fact take the human being out of the equation".
Despite the ability to save many lives, automated cars can still find difficulty in social acceptance. Even a small number of deaths would be enough to raise complicated questions about technology. "People don't feel comfortable [the idea of] robots killing them," says Bryant Walker Smith, a researcher at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.
Another significant benefit could come in the form of faster travel. To not be under the control of humans distracted and slow reactions, with the cars could be organized more efficiently, navigating the streets in more compact formations and quick. "Most of the congestion is caused by mismatching the speeds of the different vehicles," says professor Rajkumar. "Autonomous Vehicles need not accelerate or decelerate". In addition, when approaching cars, in narrower lanes, the constant speeds, autonomous vehicles could be grouped in more compact form in the same space of the roads.
This could also have significant impact on urban planning and reduce the need for new avenues of movement as the population grows, especially in cities of developing countries that risk being strangled by traffic.
The long-term effects on society are likely to be even more comprehensive, although difficult to predict. The consequences on the ownership of cars, for example, can be profound. In the early days, the high costs would make few people could afford the vehicles. The standalone prototypes of Ford cost about $ 500,000. Although these costs will fall with the entry into production of the vehicles, the majority of buyers still couldn't buy them.
To split and justify the cost, autonomous cars simply have to work harder, circling the streets endlessly carrying people, according to Paul Saffo, an analyst with Silicon Valley.
Ultimately, there may be reasons for owning a car, no matter how much the prices fall. If they can be called with a single application of smartphone and dumped after use, then why bother having a car? "People won't buy cars-robots will make signatures", says Saffo.
It must give reasons for the automobile sector think about the subject. Houses garages full of cars or multi-storey car parks with queues of vehicles real estate are symbols of the prosperity of the automotive industry. Images like these may someday be seen as signs of inefficiency and waste.
Are humans, however, the ones who will determine whether the cars without driver will become the norm. Habits and cultural norms don't change so fast-especially when it comes to an object that became prominent part of everyday life. A study of the Automobile Association of the United Kingdom concluded that 65% of people enjoy too much driving for wanting a car as.
A generational change may be needed to overcome such rooted beliefs. Saffo, who came into adolescence in the years 60-the golden age of car-says: "For people my age, the car was the freedom". As for students for which he teaches at Stanford University: "for them, freedom is a smartphone".
The desire to be released rather than enslaved by technology will be a deciding factor. The average American spends 38 hours a year stuck in traffic. The cars are more than 90% of its lifetime standing. Is an inefficiency that would be eliminated if the cars control the streets; and passengers...