There’s been two big technological pushes in the car industry over the last decade. One of which is Electric vehicles which have been seeing a massive rise in popularity in the past couple of years. And the other is self-driving cars, what’s been going on with those? Are they simply a pipe dream or are they about to revolutionise transportation? This article will discuss.
Self-Driving In Canada
Self-driving cars are currently being tested in many places across Canada, primarily in Ontario. They’re not accessible to the general public quite yet but things are moving in that direction.
The primary target of self-driving at the moment is delivery vehicles and the transportation industry like taxis and buses. Ride sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft have publicly stated that they’d like to move to a fully autonomous model. This push towards self-driving transportation may have positive and negative consequences for Canadians.
Pros of Self-Driving
Let’s start with some of the positives:
● Reduction in accidents: This one is one of the big reason there’s such a push for self-driving cars, the basic idea being that a robot will not make the same mistakes as a human driver, unfortunately until there’s wide testing on public roads this remains mostly theoretical, and there have been reports of self driving cars being involved in accidents, but the theory is still sound.
● Fuel Efficiency: Self-driving cars always drive at peak efficiency, which means that they will burn less fuel (or more likely battery power) than a human driver by always braking and accelerating at the most efficient times.
● Driverless Transportation: Self-driving could mean safe and easy transportation for people who cannot drive, such as people both too young and too old as well as people with disabilities which prevent them from driving.
Cons of Self-Driving
Unfortunately there are some concerns when it comes to self driving cars.
● Work in Progress: the unfortunate reality is that even though road tests are now underway, what they show is that self-driving technology still has a long way to go before it really can match a human driver. Robots like perfection and driving is never a perfect process; it requires an ability to react to completely unpredictable things which robots don’t have yet.
● Price: Self-driving technology, at least as it currently exists, can easily add $100,000 to a car’s price tag, which you’ll note is a lot of money.
● Unemployment: One of the biggest concerns when it comes to self-driving cars is what exactly happens when all the taxi, bus, delivery and ride sharing drivers are replaced with bots? The transportation industry is massive, accounting for around 5% of Canada’s total employment. Total replacement could see the end of almost a million jobs.
Are They The Future?
The answer is a solid maybe, a lot of companies are pushing to make it happen but the reality is even if we do see them on road soon, it’s going to be a long time until they’re accessible to anyone but the richest people who can afford them.