Imagine entering your vehicle, keying in a location into your car’s dashboard and letting it drive you to your location while you browse the internet, take a quick nap or even complete the last few chapters of the book you are reading. Self driving cars – these are coming, and very soon. It might take a while for the society to fully adopt this novel technology, but its ease of use and multifarious benefits are going to render it indispensable in the near future.
So how would these cars impact the society? Let us suppose that not every business is able to adapt to the change and adopt an appropriate business model. Such automotive companies, dealers, parking enterprises and other transportation-related companies would take a major hit. Why buy a car that is heavily reinforced with safety features if accidents can almost never happen? Why pay for a parking spot when your car can drop you wherever you want and drive a
…show more content…
Since the vehicle will not be under the control of one human, the same car can be used to transport two people at different locations. Also, due to carpooling there will be fewer cars on the road – which means lesser ecological footprint of transportation, and lesser parking space needed which can be used for other infrastructure. These cars may not reduce the number of trips or miles traveled but they will potentially reduce the cost per mile traveled. Think about the amount of money that could be saved if we didn’t spend any because of crashes that include car repairs, medical bills, insurance etc. Governments probably would not need to spend money on traffic signals anymore owing to streamlined traffic. This would in turn lead to lowered stress and a more accurate prediction of commuting time. These cars would also open up opportunities for say, blind or other physically challenged people without being dependent on others to