Self Driving Cars – Is there really a bright future?

15 years ago if you told me self driving cars would be a thing, I would surely laugh in your face and tell you that you’re crazy. There is no way that they would ever be deemed safe enough – there’s too many risk possibilities – and yet in 2024 the future of them doesn’t seem so bad. 

Many car companies have done private testing on closed courses, invested millions and billions of dollars into the technology needed for this, and spent countless hours on R & D and finally got somewhere. But first things first, what really is a self driving car? Well, it also goes by the fancy name of “Autonomous car (AC)”, and is a vehicle that operates on its own through technology without fully relying on the human to operate the vehicle. A human is always recommended to be behind the wheel regardless, just in case technology fails.

There are ample technological advancements made to the vehicle itself that allow for driving capabilities once thought to be only functions humans could perform. Functions like pedestrian and vehicle detection (through the use of cameras and sensors) as well as traffic signs and roads and even speed limits (using GPS and a stored database of the roads). 

Benefits of Self Driving Cars

• Fewer road accidents – Believe it or not, self driving cars have been known to be better drivers than humans (shocking I know); In 2016 the Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics stated that 906 drivers, 207 motorcyclists, 358 passengers, 334 pedestrians, and 42 bicyclists were involved in fatal driving accidents
  • Fully autonomous vehicles are predicted to reduce the risk of accidents because factors such as alcohol, drugs, speeding, aggression, distraction (eating and cell phone use), poor road conditions and weather, and driver inexperience won’t be factors anymore 
• Less fuel consumption
  • Stop and go traffic especially when the brakes are pressed on hard is the quickest way to drain the fuel tank. The software in self driving vehicles includes a communication system that ensures the car knows the position and speed of the other cars on the road or highway. If the car ahead slows down and the sensors on the autonomous car pick it up, it can slow the vehicles speed down in advance, resulting in a lighter braking when it comes closer 
• Transportation for the Young, Old, and Elderly – This only works on fully autonomous vehicles and even I’m iffy about putting this as a positive. But nonetheless, it is an easier way for them to get around. The self driving car can be programmed to safely pick the person up from a specified location, drive them to their desired location, and park until they are ready to leave 

Cons of Self Driving Cars

• Misreading signs / signals, not fully comprehending the shared bike and car lane, confusion operating in certain weather types 
• Privacy and security 
• Very high price tag (for fully autonomous vehicles)
  • High insurance rates (if any are offered at all) 
• Trust between the passenger and the car 

Self Driving Cars and the Government

Car makers, especially auto part manufacturers and tech companies play a very important role in the future of self driving cars. But at the end of the day, the Canadian Government gets the final word on everything – legal and illegal aspects – when it comes to driverless cars. Now the fact that they would even entertain an idea like this really does surprise me, but maybe it’s all part of an experiment, and we are test subjects – just my opinion though and I’m getting off track.

Obviously the Canadian Government is aware of the benefits and disadvantages that come with these type of cars and the Federal Government is responsible for establishing policies and regulations that are to be followed nationwide to ensure safety standards and emission requirements are met. 

The provincial and territorial governments are responsible for:

• Assigning driving licenses
• Vehicle registration
• Insurance 
• Rules of the road 
• Changes to infrastructure in accordance with the federal governments safety requirements 

In our home province of Ontario (for some of my readers), autonomous vehicles are allowed to be tested on public roads – the only province currently allowing this. Back in 2016, a 10 year pilot program was launched fully allowing driverless vehicles to drive on public roads. The only downside to the policy however, was it required all participants to have at least $5M in insurance and a licensed driver has to be behind the wheel at all times. 

Impact on Canadian Businesses

Just like everything in the province or even country, the benefits and withdraws extend to businesses as well, and this is no exception. Self driving cars will have a major impact on the economy in more than a couple of ways. For starters, taxi companies will be hit hard. Now, some would argue that they were already affected when ride sharing programs like Uber and Lyft were introduced, but those were implemented with competition rules – self driving cars won’t be. Taxi’s, Uber’s and Lyft’s will no longer be needed if the self driving car really becomes a popular thing. People will still be able to go out, enjoy their night, and get a safe ride home – all in their own vehicle. 

The same can be said about buses and trains so don’t think they are excluded. The only thing about these types of transportation though, is they go farther than you’d be comfortable taking a taxi or ride sharing service so they might actually be okay at the end of the day. But essentially everyone that works in the public transportation and even delivery jobs will be impacted for sure. 

Everyone shouldn’t start panicking immediately though, these job losses will not just happen overnight and all at once. And who knows? Maybe self driving cars really won’t be such a popular idea for long because of all the safety issues surrounding them – only time will tell. 

On the bright side, it will create more jobs in the technology fields – engineering, technicians, software developers, and even designers – so is it really a bad thing? Let us know in the comments how you feel about this, we’d love to get your opinion. 

Future Predictions and Final Thoughts

Self driving cars (or fully autonomous vehicles) are (un)fortunately – this depends on how you feel – not too far off in our future, so maybe instead of fighting this, giving it the opportunity to grow or fail might not be a bad thing. As mentioned, it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight but experts are arguing that it will make our roads safer in the long run. How do you feel about this? 

Any way you approach this argument, self driving cars will have to be able to predict the unpredictable and I personally don’t think they will ever truly develop a program or technology that will be able to do this. Maybe it would be smart to implement lanes for self driving cars only, then again, it would cost billions of dollars to reconstruct the highways and roads to account for this.    

How do you feel about this? Are you for or against it? Leave your thoughts below in the comments or over on our socials!