(What I imagine I could've been doing on my way to college instead of holding a steering wheel for nine hours. (Not actually me)Volvo)
I went to college nine hours away from home — easily doable in a day's drive, but tedious nonetheless.
On one trip through the cornfields of Indiana, I remember turning to my friend wondering why we hadn't figured out cruise control for steering wheels. I had already been cruising at a steady 70 m.p.h. for hours with my feet on the floor. Why did I have to touch the steering wheel to keep it in the lines too?
Less than six years later, the answer is that I don't have to touch the steering wheel anymore. Self-driving cars are here, and they're arriving faster than many predicted.
The pace at which a self-driving car went from myth to reality has caused all sorts of problems, from a talent shortage in the field to a sudden arms race in trying to build the best self-driving car on the market. Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick called it "existential" for the company to develop its own driverless car technology.
Yet, there's still a large distinction — and years of development — between the self-driving cars hitting the streets today and the driverless cars that we dream of in the future. Most "driverless" cars today still have a driver in the front seat. Teaching a car how to drive itself (even with a driver on hand) is just the important first step.
Dreams of driverless
It's hard not to be seduced by the images of driverless cars.
Mercedes-Benz' concept car shows four seats all turned to face each other. Bentley's driverless dream comes with a holographic butler — a future staple for the high-end autonomous car. The Rolls-Royce has a two person couch with a giant TV where the driver normally sits.
(Bentley)
Even Larry Page is rumored to be working on a flying car so we all finally get one step closer to"The Jetsons" future we've envisioned.
However, what's not acknowledged is just how hard it is to get cars to that point. When I asked Uber's Kalanick just what's holding truly driverless cars back, he laughed because there's just so much — and a lot of it just that the technology hasn't even been developed. A self-driving car shouldn't freak out at a four-way intersection or turn off every time it goes over a bridge.
To get in a self-driving car today, it feels like having cruise control, but for the whole car. The autopilot keeps the car's speed steady, it stays evenly inside the lines, and maintains the proper following distance. The only way to experience a self-driving car is to either own a Tesla or live in Pittsburgh and magically hail a self-driving Uber.