Autonomous cars by 2040 -- no more driver's licenses


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(Wired) -- The timeline for autonomous cars hitting the road en masse keeps getting closer. GM's Cadillac division expects to produce partially autonomous cars at a large scale by 2015, and the automaker also predicts it will have fully autonomous cars available by the end of the decade. Audi and BMW have also shown self-driving car concepts, with the former working with Stanford to pilot a modified TT up Pikes Peak. Meanwhile, Google is ripping along at its own rapid pace with a fleet of fully autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids that have logged over 300,000 miles. And the company has pushed through legislation that legalizes self-driving cars in Nevada. California is close behind, and Google has also been busy lobbying joyriding lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

But while we know that robo-cars are coming, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recently released predictions that autonomous cars will account for up to 75 percent of vehicles on the road by the year 2040. The organization went even further, forecasting how infrastructure, society and attitudes could change when self-driving cars become the norm around the middle of the century.

IEEE envisions an absence of traffic signs and lights since highly evolved, self-driving cars won't need them, and it believes that full deployment could even eliminate the need for driver's licenses.

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75% of all vehicles in under 30 years? Seems like a pretty bold statement.

And honestly, that's assuming 75% of drivers would trust a computer to drive for them. Myself and plenty of other people enjoy driving (except in rush hour), so I won't think it would be as easy of a sell as they think it would be.

Plus there's the factor of it being affordable enough for everybody. Maybe they would give the option for manual or autonomous mode. But would it be smart enough to account for the idiots that will be driving next to you?

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I wouldn't trust a computer to keep my life safe.... I don't trust me, either though... :rofl:

Plus, if the car is autonomous, chances are you can't speed anymore... That would cause a whole **** ton of people to be chronically late for everything... All the time. :p

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