Future cars conceptualised decades ago, which many thought existed only in fantasy and fiction science stories, are here at last but they will be missing on Nigerian roads for a long time, RASHEED BISIRIYU reports
Nigeria may appear to be in a different planet looking at the high-tech vehicles being produced and celebrated in developed countries.
A survey by our correspondent showed some of the automobiles making the headlines in Europe, the United States and even Asia that may not be coming to Nigeria soon are self-driving or autonomous cars, flying cars and electric vehicles.
Although there is no doubting the presence of premium automobiles in Nigeria with their exquisite and imposing features, they are considered as traditional or conventional rides compared to the high-tech vehicles being conceptualised and churned out in other climes.
Driverless cars, also known as autonomous, self-driving or robotic cars are unmanned ground vehicles capable of sensing their environment and navigating without human input. An autonomous vehicle uses cameras, radar, sensors and a Global Positioning System unit to sense its environment, the road and other objects so it can drive without human input.
“Engineers must expose the car to millions of situations for the computer to understand what to do, essentially it is like showing a computer millions of flash cards,” said the Globe and Mail.
Many automakers have this year test-driven autonomous cars and hope to roll them out soon, although no cars permitted on public road are fully autonomous.
According to techtarget.com, a driverless car is a robotic vehicle that is designed to travel between destinations without a human operator. “To qualify as fully autonomous, a vehicle must be able to navigate without human intervention to a predetermined destination over roads that have not been adapted for its use,” it says.
Companies developing and/or testing driverless cars are Audi, BMW, Ford, Google, General Motors, Volkswagen and Volvo, among others. Google’s test involved a fleet of self-driving cars such as six Toyota Prius and an Audi TT — navigating over 140,000 miles of California streets and highways.
The United States’ House of Representatives on September 6, 2017 passed legislation for the introduction of autonomous vehicles on the nation’s roads, noting that autonomous vehicles were the next defining chapter for the automotive industry. A report by an online journal, Tech Crunch, said the US approved a bill called the Self-drive Act, was put together by both Democrats and Republicans, which it described as a rarity in today’s congressional goings-on.
“If it becomes law (which still requires it to pass the Senate), then it would make it possible for companies working on self-driving to field a lot more vehicles per year – as many as 100,000 autonomous test cars annually, in fact,” the report stated.
Auto experts, including those at the Globe and the Mail, said autonomous vehicles would dramatically change the world. “The self-driving car will likely change society more than any technology has over the past century. Roads will be safer, we’ll have more free time, cities will be reshaped and traffic may become a thing of the past,” they stated.
Self-driving car is not a 2017 concept. For instance, Mercedez-Benz revealed its F015 autonomous electric car to the media at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, in January 2015.
The Ford’s Chief Executive Officer, Mark Fields, was quoted in a report by ustoday.com as saying this technology would have major impact on the auto industry as the assembly line once did. One estimate suggested that autonomous vehicles would be a $42bn of the US auto market by 2025.
The flying car
Many that have sat in a vehicle trapped in a city gridlock would often daydream about their car suddenly developing wings, taking off and flying over the road. That dream is fast becoming a reality as automakers are developing flying cars that can beat traffic.
‘Is 2017 the year for flying car’ was how steemit, an online journal titled its report on the issue, to underscore the influence the new auto technology in the industry, which is also an indication that it has been one of the topical issues being discussed globally.
A flying car is a type of personal air vehicle providing door-to-door transportation by both ground and air, according to the report.
Toyota is said to be building a flying car to light the Olympic torch in 2020. According to Business Insider, the Japanese automaker is making a flying car with the ultimate goal of using it to light the torch at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
It said the flying car, dubbed Sky Drive, was being developed by Cartivator Resource Management, adding that Toyota had invested 42.5 million yen ($386,000) in the start-up to make the project a reality.
The Sky Drive is expected to undergo its first manned flight in 2019.
“Toyota isn’t the first to explore a flying car. Terrafugia, a start-up born out of the MIT, currently sells a flying car called the Transition. The car, however, needs a runway to take-off. Drivers must have a Sports Pilot License to operate the vehicle,” said the report.
Last year, an elevated bus that could carry passengers over cars to avoid traffic jams was unveiled by engineers in China at the 19th China Beijing International High-Tech Expo alongside models of deep-sea submersibles, lunar rovers and virtual-reality canoes.
In a report on wire.co.uk, Matthew Reynolds reports that Models for the Transit Elevated Bus show the vehicle – which resembles a tram more than a bus – moving above the road surface while cars drive through the tunnel-like space beneath it.
According to the report, while the model debuted at the Beijing expo looks more like a toy railway set than an example of the future of city transport, plans for the elevated bus are already taking shape; adding that the TEB will have a capacity of 1,200 passengers, the same as a standard subway train, but will cost just one fifth as much to build.
The engineer in charge of the TEB project, Bai Zhiming, said, “Its construction can be finished in one year.”
Running on rails embedded into the road surface, experts said the elevated bus would be one possible solution to traffic congestion being experienced in major cities such as Lagos.
Techproton writes about AeroMobil as an exceptional vehicle. “It‘s a real flying car, with all that a car and an aeroplane have to offer. Because of its true flexibility, you have a choice: road or air. The choice is ultimately up to you, but, whether you choose to be aerial or earthbound, AeroMobil will always turn heads,” it stated.
The idea of electric automobile was conceptualised as an alternative to petrol/diesel-powered vehicles. At a time when fuel was becoming a major source of power and nations endowed with the product were beginning to dictate the economic prosperity of others, auto engineers in the latter countries felt there was a cut short the ‘power’ being wielded by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which determines the global oil price and quantity produced/sold by members.
Some analysts said the concept of electric vehicle was not really new but its current high production and popularity was largely due to the decision by many nations to ban the use of fossil-fuel vehicles from 2030 to reduce air pollution.
France, the United States of America, India, Britain, Scotland, Norway, Germany and The Netherlands are among countries that have set targets to phase out petrol and diesel-powered vehicles in favour of cleaner vehicles.
Already, many are erecting charging stations like fuel filling stations.
The EVs are said to be available in virtually every size and style, from compact two-seaters to seven-passenger SUVs.
Bloomberg reported, “The EV revolution is going to hit the car market even harder and faster than BNEF predicted a year ago.”
Experts said modern EVs could travel between 100 and 400 miles on a single charge, depending on type and driving conditions.
A report by themerklenews.com listed top five EVs as Ford Fusion Energi, Nissan Leaf, Toyota Prius Prime, Chevy Volt and Tesla Model X.
While Nigeria is struggling to assemble uncomplicated vehicles in its recently approved over 50 auto plants, using components already manufactured in other countries, top world automakers such as Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America, India and China have turned those automobiles found in science fiction books to reality.
Experts said unfounded fears about quality of vehicles assembled locally still had made Nigerians to heavily consume fully-built imported vehicles.
Local automakers are expectedly lamenting poor patronage of their products, a situation that has kept a number of the auto plants ideal.
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