Waymo started out as Google’s self-driving car project and have now driven over 10 million miles on public roads, which makes it The World’s Most Experienced Driver tm.
The three car manufacturers Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors are finalising a deal with Waymo to develop self-drive or unmanned taxis.
Waymo already have an autonomous taxi program operating in Phoenix, Arizona, and they plan to roll out an app call up service known as Waymo One which will allow selected members of the public to call up self-drive cars.
Safety
With over 40,000 road deaths in the United States alone, and over 90% of all crashes caused by human error, the safety potential for self-drive vehicles is overwhelming.
However, there is still a great deal of development and testing to be done before this technology is rolled out across the world. One of the biggest problems is autonomous vehicles will need to deal with human drivers who don’t always adhere to the rules of the road. If all vehicles were autonomous things would be a lot easier, but that is not the case, so in the real-world self-driving cars will have to cope with the good and bad drivers on our roads.
Acceptance of technology
Another obstacle to driver-less technology is the perception of how safe the technology is and how users interact with it. Any first-time users of a self-drive vehicle is very weary at first, but the more they use them the safer they feel.
Governments around the world are jumping on this technology with China the latest country to offer 101 license plates for public road tests, according to article published on GNSS.asia
Manchester airport in England is also set to test driver-less vehicles on both the airport side and along the new airport relief road.
The self-drive technology is here to stay, but still has plenty of development to go before it is widely available on public roads.
Shirley Mist has been involved in fashion and design for many years. She has also written extensively for many online publications. She currently writes for The Tribune World and is a valued member of our team.