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Self-Driving Cars: Unlikely, But Not Impossible

Earlier today I wrote about the innovative work Toyota is doing in applying brain-monitoring technology to the development of intelligent cars. Well, I recently came across two other articles that suggest the era of self-driving cars could soon be upon us. (In the interest of full disclosure, however, I admit that the pace of adoption will probably be slow because humans will only reluctantly relinguish control of the steering wheel, and lawyers will likely sue the pants off the manufacturer of the robotic car unlucky enough to kill the first pedestrian.)

The first article explains how traffic jams are caused not simply by the addition of extra cars onto freeways. Rather, traffic jams are caused in equal part by the braking reaction of individual drivers. According to models, once a driver slows down every car behind that automobile slows down a little bit more. This creates a “backward travelling wave” and leads to those maddening situations when you are stuck in a traffic jam and when it eventually eases up you come to find out that there is no cause—traffic just appears to mysteriously start moving again.

The second article reveals GPS technology has now reached the point where vehicles in different lanes can talk to each other and, thus, know where other automobiles are at all times.

I would now encourage you to watch this video about BMW’s self-driving automobile:

If you put all the pieces together, one can make a strong argument that in the future self-driving cars might be better than human-operated cars. The end result—if people are willing to “unlearn” their need to control the car at all times—could very well be fewer traffic jams.

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Jack Uldrich is a writer, futurist, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve and The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business. He is also a frequent speaker on future technology and future trends, nanotechnology, innovation, change management and executive leadership to a variety of businesses, industries and non-profit organizations and trade associations.

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