The Automated Car’s on the way
The new Lexus LS 460’s ability to park itself presents some interesting food for thought.
For one, Toyota generally doesn’t take huge risks in new technology unless they’re darn sure their clientele would support it. That is, they think Lexus buyers want cars that will park themselves. Toyota didn’t get where they’re at by being wrong.
Take this concept of automobile automation a few large steps forward, and we have the mythical Automated Highway, where the cars drive themselves within inches of each other. No rubber necking (hard to rubber neck when 1, the machine is driving and 2, there are no accidents!). No swerving back and forth between lanes, no left lane hogs…transportation Nirvana! We already have active cruise control, so the “automated parking” geegaw isn’t the first step along this path.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, as full blown automation is certainly coming. On the one side you have the advancing technology as mentioned above, and on the other we have the increasing preoccupation with stuffing as much “productivity” into our days as humanly possible, leading to the multitude of things done in moving vehicles that have nothing to do with driving, and a seemingly increasing disintrest in the act of driving itself. The Lexus parking system still tasks the “driver” with operating the pedals, so it’s not actually fully automated; but be assured that’s coming (it can already tell you you’re going too fast, you stupid human).
Additionally, many people simply don’t want to drive. We all (I’m sure) know people who for various reasons don’t drive at night or in the rain and snow. We all (I’m sure) know people that *shouldn’t* be driving…anywhere, at any time. Automated highways would also be popular with those who seem to have issues with keeping up with the speed of traffic.
The transportation industry would love it; nonstop unmanned trucks who don’t need rest periods, hurtling along on dedicated high speed lanes.
As huge as those implications are, the underbelly could be considered rather frightening. Imagine if the power grid were to go down? Do the cars just stop or careen out of control? How many failsafes do you include and what happens when a virus infection occurs?
How much will all this cost? From the infrastructure to the simple act of maintaining one of these creatures, this isn’t something a mobile cold patch unit or a Jiffy Lube is going to be able to handle. What about people who can’t afford something like this? Does this shrink the middle class even more (assuming, of course, there still is one when this all comes to pass)?
The next leap (for it’s much more than a step) would be automated surface roads. This obviously is a lot more complicated as you introduce an amazing number of variables here that don’t exist on the Interstates, and you need a *much* smarter vehicle. But if we now have vehicles with active cruise control that can slow themselves automatically, and you have a car that can steer into a parallel parking spot all by itself, how is the fully automated car unrealistic?
It’s just a matter of time.
Enjoy your drive :)
