The future of transportation is here

The car industry is experiencing a revolution, something that has not happened for decades. In the following months, most major manufacturers plan to launch driverless taxi services.

German company Daimler announced that in 2020 it will deploy a pilot driverless service in California, US, aiming to soon expand said services to other states. General Motors and Zoox, an American startup, plan to do the same in 2020.

The giant Google also enters the competition. In the next few days Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will make available in the market its own driverless taxi service, through Waymo.

Developments in this direction have been expected for a long time, however car manufacturers and taxi services move carefully in order to avoid potential traps created by the implementation of such an innovative technology.

Therefore, Waymo plans to keep a driver in the car for the initial phase, albeit only at a support role since the vehicles have been programmed to move autonomously for 99% of the trip. Furthermore, the services will be initially deployed in urban areas that are perfectly mapped, however it will not be long before the services are expanded to other areas in the US.

All this will change the face of transportation as we know it. Transportation will become more affordable as the wage cost of drivers will be gradually eliminated. Furthermore, the passengers instead of wasting time in conversations with drivers will have more personal time at their disposal. It is very likely that for medium distances, i.e. 300-400 kilometers, driverless vehicles will replace airplanes as a more affordable option. However, road networks and the mapping thereof must be adapted and developed accordingly in order to embrace this new technology.