Courtesy of National Geographic
Take all the autonomy and privacy of personal vehicles, subtract the human propensity for distraction, and add a virtual chauffeur. What do you have? Autonomous cars that, in theory, can help commuters de-stress and allow freeways to flow more smoothly. That's the idea, anyway, behind driverless cars, which are gaining increasing attention from automakers and high-tech companies alike.
Demonstration models that Google, BMW, Volvo, General Motors, Stanford University, and others have built for testing look like modified regular cars (which they usually are-computing gear can fit in the trunk). But designers have come up with more futuristic concepts, like the one pictured here from San Francisco industrial design shop Mike & Maaike. Dubbed Atnmbl ("autonomobile," derived from autonomy and automobile), the seven-seat design does away with the steering wheel, brake pedal, and driver's seat. It's envisioned as an electric- and solar-powered model for the year 2040.
But autonomous vehicle technology is being tested on some public roadways today, and General Motors executive Alan Taub said recently that vehicles capable of partially driving themselves could become available before the end of this decade.
"You think that driving a car is hard, but it's not actually that hard for a computer . . . if the computer actually has good data about what's around it," Google co-founder Larry Page said in a talk at the search giant's Zeitgeist Americas event this fall. "I think they'll work substantially better than an average person, and get better from there. You'll get a software update and your car will be safer
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