Flipping the Chessboard – What Automated Cars Mean For Us

By 2020, automated cars will emerge as a dominating force for commuting and travel in the UK. And with ongoing demonstrations taking place this month in Greenwich, optimism may bring that timeline forward. Automation stands to flip the chessboard over for millions of people around the world. While revolutionising the way people travel, commute, and how businesses operate around it.

But in-depth, what does this transformation mean for us moving forward? How will things change? While the US has implemented a ban against Uber due to the recent incidents involving their cars. The tide is shifting dramatically towards autonomous fleets over old methods.

All Automated roads lead to more safety

While there won’t be a spectacular and instant revolution, as we argued last week. There will be a fair amount of winners and losers as autonomous cars become mainstream. The first thing to consider is that while Uber’s accident does raise questions about the safety of their autonomous vehicles. It’s an area of technology that is rapidly evolving, to Tesla’s own admission in 2016.

“This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated. Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles.”

Taking this statistic into consideration, one assumption of future travel and roads is this: accidents would occur far less. According to the UK’s Department for Transport in 2016: approximately 1,792 deaths with 181,000 accidents taking place on roads.

If Tesla’s statement from the same year is anything to go by, alongside the pace of advancement in its technology. These factors could result in far safer roads for users and pedestrians alike.

Flipping the Chessboard for Industries and workers

Back in November 2017, The Guardian speculated on the scope of effect on the current economic landscape. And from what we can see from the performance of the likes of Alphabet, Amazon and Tesla, they’re serious winners. Digital services will continue to rise with meteoric speed, with 2018 as the latest demonstration.

For workers, it means that commuting will become far more productive while considerably less stressful. Improved AI made possible by the likes of DOVU hope to streamline travel, making excessive traffic and congestion a thing of the past!