On the road to self-driving cars

I wrote earlier about driverless cars, and now I have come across an item in Smartmoney that charts progress to fully autonomous vehicles, including the Volvo XC60’s queue-assist adaptive cruise control function. Smartmoney writer Missy Sullivan quotes an owner of a XC60 as saying, “It’s like being a backseat driver, only in the driver’s seat.”

As Sullivan puts it, “Memo to US drivers: Get used to it. As car buying once again accelerates…chances are good that consumers will be driving off dealer lots with an increasing number of robo-car features.”

As Sullivan notes, adaptive cruise control has been around for years, but she cites many other and newer robo-car features: health monitors that aim to reduce driver stress, self-slamming brakes that protect pedestrians, collision warning systems, and automated parking systems.

Such features, Sullivan says, are changing consumers’ car-buying habits. She quotes Thilo Koslowski, lead automotive analyst for Gartner, as saying, “Horsepower fascination is being replaced with bits and bytes.”

A key enabler of autonomous vehicles will be smart-road technology. Roads, Sullivan writes, “…won’t just lie there sprouting potholes but will beam data about traffic, construction and driving conditions to passing motorists.”

This concept raised some red flags among the commenters to my earlier post. Writes Watashi, “Let’s be practical for a moment dreamers. State DOTs have their hands full just keeping infinitely reliable traffic control devices in place (road signs). How can you expect them to keep complex control schemes running on millions of miles of roadway?” Watashi adds, “DOTs would most likely morph into something resembling the FAA. The future is scary enough without that thought!”