Every morning you get in your car, turn the key, put it in reverse and back out of the driveway, put it drive and take off to either school or work. Now imagine a time when you get in your car, turn the key and the car does the rest. This self-driving car may be becoming more of a reality, especially with cars on the market that can park themselves. Self-driving cars would have a giant impact on our society and how we drive or do not drive.

     Right now car companies have technology that allows cars to park themselves, cruise control that will change speed when you get too close to another car and a warning system that will alert you if you get out of your lane or if there is a car in your blind spot. Just these installments of technology into the car make it much more advance than anything we have seen before. The only next possible step would be hands-free driving, which is where cars are headed.

     The Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITSA), which started as an advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Transportation, is working on a new technology called Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) which sends out a signal broadcasting information about the car such as speed and direction, and possibly an alert to surrounding vehicles if on car starts to skid. With this self driving technology, research shows that it could avoid about 81% of crashes. Thousands of lives could be saved all because of this small device about the size of a cigarette pack. ITSA plans on testing about 3,000 cars in Ann Arbor, Michigan that has this V2V technology.

     If this new piece of technology would reduce 81% of crashes on the road, car makers could start to think about new designs. Car companies as of now focus on building the car to make it as safe as possible and able to survive any type of wreck. This would redirect their focus on things like new cool designs and different building materials. Producers could cut back on the amount of metal used in cars because of reduced risk on the road, making it cheaper to make the car. Making cars even more affordable could have a large impact on the economy as well. Cheaper production costs would allow the price to decrease and allowing more people to go out and buy cars. Lower costs in production could also possible mean manufacturers bring their factories back to the US giving more Americans jobs. Just this small device could have a massive impact on our country.

     There are a few thing developers worry about, such as if we are willing to give up control of our vehicles and privacy issues. We as Americans like to be in control of our lives and what we do, so the question is raised with this new technology: are we ok with giving up this much control? Privacy is another concern that creators will have to address.  Preventing abuse of information sent is the main concern about privacy.

     I believe that this technology will one day be in every single car and maybe even a requirement for each car to have due to the fact that it can reduce accident rates. It will have lasting impacts on our economy, the way we think and of course the way we drive. Without risk of crashing, we can finally raise our hands up while driving and yell, “Look mom, no hands!”

Sources

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/

http://money.cnn.com/