Electric vehicles have yet to actually become normal and there are a lot of issues to cure before they even become the standard let alone fully automated electric vehicles – mainly battery life, charging availability and charge time. But that doesn’t stop journalists from all walks of typing from getting excited for automated vehicles. Wether it’s the business columnist admiring Elon Musks attempt to take over the world and eventually the universe, the ecological nuts that seem to think manufacturing new cars with all those batteries will come at no environmental cost… to of course our very own motoring typists who’s views appear to fit into three camps:
- It’ll be the death of the driving enthusiast.
- Resignation to the idea enthusiast driving will become like owning a horse – expensive and needs a lot of private land.
- Don’t care, I’ll be dead by the time it’s a thing.
Personally, I think it’s going to get fun and and easier to travel for those that aren’t dead by the time it happens, and here is why:
We are at least thirty years from a complete shift to fully electric, and that’s assuming there isn’t actually a better answer coming. For fully automated… I’m not even convinced our children or children’s children will see it.
The problem for those that want fully automated vehicles is that there are a few large issues to contend with. It would be easy if one day all manually driven cars disappeared from the road – but that isn’t going to happen. The government isn’t going to suddenly outlaw all fossil fuel vehicles and we aren’t going to just junk the ones we have to go out and buy brand new ones. So, even if you gave the average car a 12 year life span, fossil fuel cars sold now will only just reach the end of their serviceable life in 2028.
Do you see fossil fuel cars stopping being sold next year? Or the year after?
No. Of course you don’t. You are a smart intelligent person that lives in the real world.
So there will be a long period of time when automated cars, fossil fuel cars, all electric and hybrid cars will be sharing the road.
Excellent! All those rich people that don’t like driving will start buying automated cars and then the proletariat will follow as they become affordable, we gain the infrastructure, the insurance companies sort their nonsense out, and the state and federal governments figure out all the legislation that’ll be needed (as well as the unneeded – because government).
Taking all that into account I’m confident that unless we have some insane leaps in medical science I will probably be dead – but let’s go with the most optimistic number of years for this to happen I’ve seen and say… it’ll happen in ten years. Oh I do hope so, because it’s going to be awesome for those of us that love to drive ourselves.
Due to the nature of automated cars, they will need to have some serious rules built in to their operating systems to avoid accidents… they will automatically avoid other cars when there’s a high chance of impact. So, say for example… if you pull up to a two way stop sign and the other car pulling up just ahead is automated; then knowing the other car is automated, what is there to stop you simply pulling across and going upon your way?
Need to merge into a busy motorway? Pick the automated car and simply force it to make you a healthy gap. Let’s not forget that In the outside lane of the motorway there’ll be so many less idiots just camping out there just below the speed limit.
Unfortunately – or fortunately; depending on your point of view, if you follow my logic to conclusion then automated car passengers will soon get fed up with being bullied on the road and finding it takes them forever to get anywhere. Add to that how easy it’s going to be for those with bad intentions to stop an automated car… then people are going to start thinking twice about their decision to be lazy and let technology rule them while they travel.
Automated cars in my lifetime?
Not going to happen.
