Our last class lecture touched briefly on the concept of automatic parking. An episode of Top Gear from a few seasons ago displayed how far autonomous driving had come by showing a BMW concept flying around a test track unaided by its human occupant. You can watch the video clip here.
While the test track scenario is useful for demonstrating the effectiveness and accuracy of GPS-based steering, I think the near future will see this technology used rather mundanely on our interstates, although autonomous city cars are already in development. I think it will start with interstates largely because of ease. On the highway, there are no stop lights to negotiate, or stop signs, or frequent 90 degree turns. On the highway, an autonomous navigation system could simply take over once you enter an on-ramp, using the on-board GPS as its brain to take you to whatever address you punch in. Negotiating interactions with other cars would be relatively simple with proximity sensors, particularly if every car was automatically travelling at the same rate of speed.
In fact, the technology would actually improve several limiting factors associated with human control, not least of which would be road rage. The less obvious factor that limits human control is accuracy. A computer controlled system would allow for "stacking" of autonomous cars. Meaning, they could run closer to each other front to back because the need for human reaction time (slow) would be replaced by a computer (fast). This could also mean that an overall higher rate of speed could be achieved on highways. In the absence of human error, it wouldn't surprise me to see autonomous cars safely travelling at speeds of 100 MPH or more on the highway.
Of course, for those of us who actually enjoy driving, even the thought of automatic transmissions leaves a bad taste in our mouths. But we'll just have to get our kicks around town and at the track. On the highway, we'll have to get used to enjoying a good book, taking a nap, or watching a movie. I don't think I'd mind that too much.
