The Ultimate Driver Aid

It’s easy to mock technology, especially when you reach a certain age (like me.)  When I was a lad I remember the older generation pouring scorn on modern developments - syncromesh gearboxes are for girls and fourwheel brakes take the fun out of driving - that sort of thing.

But yesterdays gimmicks are todays essentials, and  as the horizons of technology expand exponentially, gadgets and gizmos you’d never even thought about a few years ago are becoming standard features on new cars.

How many driver aids do you really need? Obviously no one wants a car without a starter motor, and climate control is nice, but who, apart from the Prince of Wales, needs self-closing doors? And some things just get up your nose. Electronic handbrakes for example, they take longer to engage and disengage than a normal hand brake and you have to look at the dash to check that they are on or off. And what’s wrong with twisting a key to start the engine? Now you shove a plastic whatsit into a hole and then press a button – two things to do instead of one.

You can’t put a brake on technology, and now we have the ultimate driver aid. That’s it, the car that drives itself.

Google have a fleet of Toyota Prius that have driven themselves around California for tens of thousands of miles without incident. Just one minor bump apparently, when one of the robot fleet was rear-ended at an intersection (excuse the Americanisms) by a gormless human.

So we have the technology, and the state of Nevada has already issued a license for a self driving vehicle to Google. Driverless cars we are told, will lead to a massive reduction in accidents by taking human error out of the equation.  They will save fuel with efficient driving techniques and journey planning. They will even communicate with other vehicles to anticipate intended manoeuvres and avoid congestion.

Sounds  pretty good you may think, so can you have one?

Well no, or not for a long time anyway.

And why not?

Technology first. Such things as weather and faded white lines can be an issue, but what about software security? The systems will be remotely accessible to allow for upgrades but what happens when someone finds a loophole and introduces a bit of malware? (Teenagers hack into the Pentagon remember.)  Most people struggle to understand exactly how their phone works so no one will have much of a clue as to what is going on with their driverless car until it malfunctions. Chaos looms then.

But of course the real elephants in the room are the legal issues. Who pays when it crashes - the owner or the manufacturer? What happens when it hits a non driverless car? Mixing driverless and non driverless cars on the same road will be a challenge as well. A field day for the lawyers then.

I rather think that the first country to approve driverless cars will be one with a fairly uncomplicated legal system.

But personally I’m not filled with joy thinking about being driven to work by a robot. It’s not the technology I mistrust, (aeroplanes land themselves most of the time after all.) It’s just that car ownership would start to become pointless when you are merely a part of a mass transit system. People would just sit in them and play with their mobile phones. People who drove their own cars would be regarded in the same light as people who cut their own hair. Now that really would take the fun out of motoring.