Imagine if you can take your “car” to downtown for having lunch and leave the vehicle to park all by itself. Imagine a blind or a disabled, an elderly or a drunk, riding the vehicle all alone without fearing an accident, or being nabbed by the police. This is the Self Driving Car or the “Smart Car” for you.
Google is the forerunner of the much hyped project – the Self Driving Vehicle Project. The research effort was initiated to study how these cars could be beneficial to save peoples’ lives, reduce driving time and curb pollution. Toyota Prius hybrid vehicles were the first vehicles which Google used with trained drivers all over the roads and highways of California, and thereafter included other vehicles in this effort.
Google has recently launched a prototype of the much hyped Self Driving Car. This car is expected to be a revolution in the car industry which could unsettle the automobile industry in general. This is therefore being keenly watched by leading car manufacturing companies. While the external car is elegantly designed – beautifully curved, compact and cute and look trendy, a sneak peak view of its interiors in the current prototype design shows a spacious seating with no steering wheel, and an appearance like a toy.
A prototype of the interior of the Self Driving Car however lacks the elegance that is so prominent in other vehicles. As an example, the seats lack the luxury which is so common in conventional cars. The storage space, which is in the front of the vehicle lacks the aesthetic sense desired. The dashboard also is in a primitive state and needs to be upgraded. So, the prototype is still in a functional state. Google would do well to look at all these design issues so as to improve the user experience in the future before any commercial launch.
While Google has created quite a bit of news by being the front runner in the self driving cars space and testing self-driving vehicles in California, there are other companies which include Delphi, Tesla, Audi, Daimler Benz and Nissan, which have also initiated work in this space.
A major concern is the safety of these cars. These cars would require thorough testing and rigorous approval processes under different conditions that they are likely to face. Any commercial launch which is not full-proof could cause a significant dent in the brand equity that Google enjoys currently. Other car companies would quickly take advantage of any failure on part of Google.
The Associated Press reports that four out of the forty eight self-driving vehicles licensed to operate on roads in California have met with accidents since the state began issuing permits in September. These are stated to be minor fender-bender accidents. However, this information itself is concerning. Out of these accidents, two allegedly happened in self-driving mode, while others are blamed on human errors. Three of these four cars are Lexus SUVs belonging to Google’s extensive self-driving tests which occurred near the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, while the fourth belonged to Delphi Automotive. Google however has maintained that the self-driving car was never the cause of the accident. As per Google’s project head Chris Urmson, the higher rate of accidents could be due to reporting of even minor fender benders, which are often not reported by human beings in other accidents involving conventional cars.
Since the state law of California allows such collision reports to be kept private, the specific details around these incidents are not disclosed to public. As per Associated Press, these crashes were not severe and occurred at speeds below 10 mph. This raises another concern as to what could happen if such crashes occured at higher speeds for these vehicles.
The law dictates that for the cars to be road-worthy for tests, they are to be fitted with a steering column and brake pedals and currently, they are not in place. Google’s cars have a gamepad sized device which takes care of both these features. So, will Google redesign or implement these additional features to abide by the law? It seems that Google is going to abide by the laws. Recently, Google has announced that its in house designed self-driving cars, which would be smaller smart-car prototypes would leave the test track very soon. They would be restricted to speed of 25 mph. They would not be “driverless”, as a “safety driver” would be in place to alleviate fears and comply with car regulations for self-driving. While the driver would not be actually driving, he or she would have access to a steering wheel and pedals that would allow him or her to take control of the vehicle if needed. Also, these cars would have sensors to detect blind spots, an excellent safety feature, in comparison to conventional automobiles.
The restriction of 25 mph however appears to be too restrictive and cannot help in a commercial launch, as the highways in California and USA in general allow much higher speeds. Google’s success, therefore would depend on the achievement of safety considerations at different levels of speed. Nevertheless, this project is bound to kick off numerous possibilities in the future.