Perhaps you’ve heard about cars that are able to adjust their own speed to the car in front of them, or avoid accidents by swerving or braking to avoid collisions with other cars or objects? It’s becoming more and more common, and it sounds like FUN!  I came across an article this week that described some of the more recent advances in self-driving cars.

Of course, some question the safety of these driverless cars, but when you look around at the number of drivers around you on the East Valley freeways eating Big Macs, shaving, fiddling with their GPS, or texting their friends – wouldn’t it be good if at least the CAR was paying attention to where it was going??  Nevada has already passed laws governing driverless vehicles and Continental Automotive Group is headed there to conduct extensive testing. To convince Nevada lawmakers, Continental’s engineers racked up 10,000 miles of autonomous driving, including the trip to Las Vegas from their testing center in Michigan. Over 90% of the trip happened without a hand on the wheel or a foot on the pedal. Continental has designed the software to successfully handle two of the most stressful and least enjoyable driving conditions – stop-and-go traffic and long, boring stretches of highway.

The goal of these fancy machines? To reduce accidents, traffic congestions, and fuel consumption. Other benefits are pretty exciting too:  The age and state of the driver does not matter and parking is a non-issue when the car can drop off its passengers and drive home!

Yes, it sounds pretty sci-fi, but it’s happening, and it’s happening quickly. While the semiautonomous car is still a couple of years from production, a large portion of the safety technology is already on the market. And, it’s not just one or two mad scientists out there – Ford, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Cadillac, and GM have all joined in on the research and development.  The current test car, a Volkswagon Passat has a stereo camera in the windshield to monitor the road for speed bumps and dips, and a long-range radar in the front grille and short-range radars on the corners to capture details of the surrounding environment to command the car to steer, brake, and accelerate appropriately.

Of course, being your mechanic, we think the best part is that your car could bring itself in when it wants an oil change or its tires rotated! Wouldn’t that be something? Imagine your car dropping you off at the office and heading off by itself to take care of those preventative maintenance things that it is so hard to fit into your schedule. It will certainly be interesting to see what the future unfolds…