The End Of Human Driving: Is The World Ready To Sit Back And Enjoy The Ride?
The end of human driving may be upon the citizens of the world, with new technological advancements that is becoming readily available. There could be a time when the family drive to grandma’s house or commuting home from work may be a thing of the past.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla believes that the end of human driving could be the way of the future. While it sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, Musk explains that the end of human driving may be the route to go in regards to safer roadways.
Even if this were to occur, it would be quite some time before these cars were made readily available to the public. Musk has already added self-driving features to his line of cars, but is still working on the technology to have a car drive on its own.
If cars were able to drive on their own and end human driving, people could sit back and allow the car to navigate the roadways. This would allow its occupants to relax and enjoy the ride.
Musk used the analogy of elevators to describe the end of human driving in his speech at NVIDIA’s annual conference this week.
“It would be like an elevator. They used to have elevator operators, and then we developed some simple circuitry to have elevators just automatically come to the floor that you’re at… the car is going to be just like that.”
Though Musk does concede that with such technological advancements there could come a time that drivers would be banned from driving their own vehicles.
“In the distant future, they may outlaw driven cars because they’re too dangerous.”
Musk has been outspoken about being cautious with artificial intelligence, but believes that these self-driving cars are something that we need not be concerned about at this time. Though his company is one that touts safety standards, and his vehicles are equipped with self-driving features, they are not, at this time, completely autonomous.
To reiterate his stance, Musk took to his Twitter account to make it clear that he is not in favor of ending human driving.
To be clear, Tesla is strongly in favor of people being allowed to drive their cars and always will be. Hopefully, that is obvious.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 17, 2015
The end of human driving could be the wave of the future, but will consumers be willing to relinquish the control they have from behind the wheel. The technology is surely exciting to see come to light, but with it one must wonder what that means for one’s own independence. Has the end of human driving arrived?
