Another Beauty of Autonomous Cars

I have talked about autonomous cars for some time now. But, the posts were heavily focused on autonomous cars for normal drivers. I’m here to tell you that autonomous cars have branched out into a market segments such as shuttle and taxi services.

The main goal of autonomous shuttle companies is to create an efficient, electric shuttle that can transport 12-15 passengers to a close by destination with the highest degree of safety. Companies like Easymile and Navya Technology are pioneers in this segment.

With the autonomous shuttle services, we can now have more shuttles (more transportation) and a solution that is cheaper than actually employing someone to drive the shuttle. Disney will be able to save a fortune and at the same time have more shuttles that run even more efficiently! But, the downside of all of this new tech is that many people around the world will lose their jobs.

On the other hand, there are also some startups that are embarking on fusing autonomous tech with taxis. Now, we all knew that this was coming. Taxi companies often come into conflict with their drivers and with the implementation of autonomous taxis, they will reduce their driver complaints to zero. Plus, companies won’t have to pay machines which is the main reason why Uber is so determined to integrate autonomous cars into their operations.

Again, hundreds of thousands of taxi drivers around the world will be out of a job. That is the ultimate trade off with the application of autonomous cars in heavily employed segments like taxi services.

The best company in the space would have to be nuTonomy, an MIT spinoff. They started in 2013 and are converting regular compact Mitsubishi i-MiEV cars into autonomous taxis. It features a bunch of sensors that feed the system with data. The data is evaluated through logic. But unlike other driverless cars, nuTonomy designed it so that it is able to weigh the pros and cons of a possible action, say crossing into another lane. This involves speeding, but the system knows that it is for the big picture.

They were widely received by the press since their cars went on demo runs with real passengers in some of the most complex urban environments in Singapore. Expect a production ready model by 2019.

So, the most prevalent effects of autonomous cars will be felt from the positions consumers and transportation services. The big issue of the unemployment associated with the adoption of autonomous cars is inevitable as companies need to be profitable. The real question is how the public will react to all of the drastic changes yet to come.