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Automated cars that communicate: How much can that save us in lives, money, and frustration?
General Motors' Futurama exhibit in the 1939 World's Fair included a vision of what transportation might look like 20 years in the future. The forecast for 1959 included self-guided cars and automated highways.
GM's forecast was a bit hasty, and its full vision has yet to be realized. But developments since then, especially in the past four decades, have brought us closer. Major automotive companies have added automated functions to their vehicles, and various driver assistance systems- adaptive cruise control, video-based lane analysis, steering and braking assistance- are currently available on high-end models.
Automated systems can assess some traffic situations faster than humans can. As a result, automated driving is expected to significantly reduce accidents and traffic fatalities, improve traffic flow and highway capacity, achieve better fuel efficiency, and reduce emissions.
Cars will be able to drive safely while close together, with far less need for wasteful acceleration and braking. If people can be entirely relieved of driving and navigation tasks, they will be able to talk on the phone or text without causing accidents.
Human error is the most costly influence on the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported 32,788 traffic fatalities in the U.S. for 2010 and estimated that 93 percent of them are attributable to human error.
An advocacy group, the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International, published an estimate in May that traffic congestion alone costs the U.S. economy more than $85 billion a year.
Still, the public needs to be convinced that the technology is useful, desirable, and safe. There are also cultural, social, legal, business, and other issues that need to be resolved before society accepts fully autonomous cars. But there are already signs of change. Nevada has become the first state to officially license autonomous vehicles. California meanwhile has confirmed that the state does not prohibit or specifically regulate the operation of autonomous vehicles and that rule-making is required before 2015.
It isn't Futurama, but automated driving is here. Autonomous systems help with steering and with path planning, including acceleration and braking. High-precision navigation, using GPS, other sensors, and databases determine the route to a destination. They all make driving easier...