What They Say
The New York Times looked at the barriers to a quick introduction of self-driving vehicles after the release of a book that pointed out that car makers have been promising to do things to solve the problems created by their products. The book author also believes that autonomous cars may never get here. There is also an excerpt of his book here.
What We Think
Several years ago, the organisers of the CES preview event in Europe held it just before the Paris Motor Show, so I had a chance to go and here what was being said about autonomous vehicles and heard the scepticism from the car side, compared to the optimism from the high tech industry. So far, the automotive industry time scales look more likely. The NYT article highlighted that the US has been built around the car which is probably why as a European, there’s a lot of it I don’t love (and plenty I do!). It also highlights that we need to be prepared for unexpected consequences. Uber was supposed to cut the number of cars and trips, but it has done the opposite.
Autonomous vehicles could be used to deliver ‘mobility as a service’ – although you should see my wife’s hackles rise if I suggest we don’t really need two cars and she assumes it is hers that will go (she likes small cars and if we had one, it would probably need to be bigger). That would reduce the number of vehicles and could allow parking away from crowded residential areas and city centres to really improve them. But it could also increase the number.
Anyway, in case you think this is nothing to do with displays, autonomous vehicles are a really good potential market for larger displays to entertain passengers. And it’s Friday… (BR)
