According to correspondent Michael Toscano, 2015 was the year that self-driving cars became reality, leaping from the imagination to running on the streets. A number of automakers are already selling semi-autonomous vehicles, which are cars with some self-driving features. Many in the industry say it will only be about five years before people are able to buy a fully autonomous car, driving you anywhere you need to go. Telsa Motors CEO Elon Musk is one of the strongest supporters and developers of self-drivers and his company has been the first to sell semi-autonomous vehicles commercially.
Google has been testing semi-autonomous and fully autonomous vehicles for a couple of years now, driving them around northern California streets. Google hopes to begin selling fully autonomous vehicles in two to five years, perhaps in partnership with Ford. An announcement on that could come in early January during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show. Japan’s Nissan says it hopes to release self-driving cars in 2020 and Audi’s target is 2025. The people developing self-driving cars say they will make our roads safer: that sensors, cameras, and GPS can do that better than humans.
A set back thus far to increasing self-driven car ownership is the costs. Costs need to come down before everyone will be able to own one. Additionally, regulations will need to be thought-out, issues predicted, solutions developed, and laws enacted. Then there’s the biggest challenge of all: how to keep hackers from taking control of your car. Meanwhile manufacturers are working out all the details and you can expect to see more self-driven cars on the roads in the upcoming years.