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Self-Driving Cars and Shorter Travel Time is Imminent

By On September 17, 2012 · 1 Comment

Imagine a world without unsafe drivers on the road. Now imagine getting from San Francisco, CA to Los Angeles, CA in just 4 ½ hours, which in the present day now takes about 6 hours. Now imagine that trip costing you $28 and you will arrive at the kind of future I see and here is how that can happen.

 

Self-Driving Cars and Trucks

 

Google has been in overdrive when it comes to investing in research and development of self-driving cars and has shown that the technology is totally doable. If self-driving vehicles were widely adopted we could see vehicle collisions and injuries nearly disappear which would save consumers a lot of money considering that automobile insurance would surely become irrelevant.

 

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Google Self-Driving Car
Flickr: DoNotLick

Better yet, with taking human beings out of the equation when it comes to driving we would also see the ability for vehicles to travel at speeds higher than is the norm with very little risk of accident. As a result of increased speeds we would see the amount of time required to get to locations decrease much.

 

Fuel Efficiency

 

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Fuel Efficiency Visualized
Flickr: glennbatuyong

One of many major achievements President Obama can claim during his time in office is demanding higher fuel efficiency for all domestic vehicles. In fact, we should see 54.5 MPG vehicles becoming the standard in coming years. This level of fuel efficiency would be equivalent to bringing the price of gas down to $1.00 per gallon.

With higher fuel efficiency comes lower consumption and costs for vehicles. This in turn means that a self-driving car could drive at a higher speed without concern of consuming more fuel than necessary.

 

Road Signs Become Obsolete

 

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Could NFC Tags replace Road Signs?
Flickr: voidobjects

Cars that self-drive and go faster means that passengers will have less time to choose places to pull off for a bite to eat or visit attractions along their route. It would become necessary, in my opinion, for road signs to become a thing of the past. A newer technology, like NFC tagging, could be used to send landmark and geographical data to a console as the vehicle is in route to its destination so that a quick break or detour for lunch could be made.

What are your thoughts on the future of travel options including self-driving vehicles? Is this just fantasy or is all this technology feasible?

 

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  • JOEY G

    I THINK THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN TO THE WORLD IS SELF DRIVING CARS. I WILL TELL YOU ONE REASON WHY. I LIVE IN OHIO AND I HAVE BEEN DRIVING FOR 47 YEARS. THE LAST 20 YEARS I HAVE BEEN USING BYOPTIC LENS’S TO DRIVE AND LAST YEAR WHEN I WENT TO GET MY DRIVERS LICENSE RENEWED THEY BLOCKED ME FROM GETTING IT BECAUSE THEY SAID I HAD TO GO THROUGH THE BYOPTIC DRIVING PROGRAM BEFORE I COULD GET MY DRIVERS LICENSE. THAT PROGRAM TAKES A WEEK TO GO THROUGH. IT WOULD END UP COSTING CLOSE TO $ 5000.00 TO GET MY DRIVERS LICENSE. NOW THAT WOULD ONLY BE FOR DAYTIME DRIVING FOR THE FIRST YEAR AND IF I HAD NO VIOLATIONS FOR THAT YEAR THEN I COULD GO TO GET MY NIGHTTIME DRIVERS LICENSE AND THAT WOULD COST CLOSE TO ANOTHER $ 5000.00. NOW I DID NOT HAVE A VIOLATION ON MY LICENSE FOR OVER 15 YEARS NOW DOES THAT SEEM RIGHT TO YOU. I AM RETIRED AND I CANT AFFORD THAT KIND OF MONEY AND I CANT SEE HOW ANYONE ELSE CAN EITHER. SOMEBODY IN OHIO IS MAKING A KILLING ON POOR PEOPLE WITH EYE PROBLEMS. I HOPE SELF DRIVING CARS GET HERE SOON. AND I HOPE SOMEONE LIKE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES COULD HELP ME AND ALL OF THE OTHER POOR PEOPLE THAT ARE IN THE SAME BOAT AS I AM NOW. THIS IS MY EMAIL ADDRESS I HOPE SOMEONE READS THIS THAT CAN HELP ME OUT SO I CAN DRIVE AGAIN JOEYGBAND@GMAIL.COM PLEASE SOMEONE HELP US POOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN GET IT TAKEN CARE OF. THANK YOU PRESIDENT OR SOMEONE ELSE IF YOU CAN HELP ME AND ALL THE OTHER POOR PEOPLE LIKE ME THAT HAVE HAD THIS HAPPEN TO THEM. THANK YOU AGAIN. JOEY