Read While Commuting? Self-Driving Cars Have You Covered

Advertisement
By Agence France-Presse | Updated: 20 November 2015 17:23 IST
Read While Commuting? Self-Driving Cars Have You Covered

Ever dreamt of kicking back, letting go of the wheel and reading the paper on the commute to work? In large cities, that could soon be a reality, say auto manufacturers.

Semi-autonomous cars have already hit the road, capable of gauging distance, accelerating and breaking automatically, and rectifying the situation if, say, a distracted driver approaches another car too quickly.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti got behind the wheel of one such vehicle, a Volvo XC90, as he kicked off a connected car exhibition at this week's Los Angeles auto show.

"I think that 20 years from now it's going to be the norm," he said in a segment broadcast on television network ABC.

Advertisement

The vehicles are meant to help out "in case of commute and congestion," when drivers are most frustrated, Marcus Rothoff, Volvo's autonomous driving program director told AFP.

Automakers are now focused on the next generation of smart vehicles: the fully autonomous car, which would allow drivers to read, watch a movie, or even send emails.

Advertisement

Such vehicles are a dream for residents of large cities like Los Angeles, the capital of US traffic jams, where drivers frequently spend two hours a day on the road.

"We plan to put 100 autonomous cars in consumer hands by the end of 2017," Lex Kerssemakers, head of American operations for the Swedish automaker said Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Advertisement

Who will be responsible?
Manufacturers worldwide are racing to capture the huge market potential. Japan's Nissan has said it wants to put a self-driving vehicle on Japanese highways by 2016. Honda and Toyota are targeting 2020.

The driver will simply enter a destination and the navigation system, sensors and software will do the rest.

Already Internet giant Google is testing prototypes in its Silicon Valley stronghold.

And US auto giant General Motors and Tesla are working on their own versions. Tesla has already equipped its latest cars with software that allows them to parallel park automatically.

Volvo on Wednesday in Los Angeles unveiled a prototype of the interior of its self-driving cars. Once on autopilot, the driver's seat reclines and a screen on the passenger side offers movies and the Internet.

"Within this decade the technology can be available," said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst at Edmunds.com.

"The key question is the responsibility: What happens if the car hits a school bus or kills its driver?

These questions will take more time," Caldwell said, even though the vehicles have a much faster reaction time "than for a human."

Rothoff said drivers must "trust the system because if you don't trust it you cannot use this (spare) time in a good way" for other activities like reading.

The objective is for the technology to be so reliable that the manufacturer can tell customers that they won't be responsible for any accidents while on autopilot, he said.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Here's When Apple Could Unveil the iPhone 17 Series
  2. Realme 15 Pro 5G to Get 50-Megapixel Sony IMX896 Main Rear Camera
  3. Realme C71 5G Launched in India With 6,300mAh Battery: See Price
  4. Grok Will Now Let You Chat With a Goth Anime Girl That Has an NSFW Mode
  5. OnePlus 13 Series Gets AI-Powered Plus Mind Feature With Latest Update
  6. LG Launches OLED Evo and QNED Evo TVs in India With These Features
  7. Oppo K13 Turbo Series Design, Colours Revealed Ahead of Launch
  8. Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Review: Flip Phone Perfection?
  9. iQOO Z10R With 32-Megapixel Selfie Camera to Launch in India on This Date
  10. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G to Launch Soon in India: Details
  1. Grok for Government Announced as Elon Musk’s xAI Wins $200 Million US Defense Department Contract
  2. HMD T21 Tablet Launched in India With 10.36-Inch 2K Display, 8,200mAh Battery
  3. Google’s Gemini Space Feature With Sports, Birthday Reminder Cards Spotted: Report
  4. iPhone 17 Lineup to Launch in the Second Week of September: Report
  5. Meta Introduces Stringent Measures Against Unoriginal, Improperly Reused Facebook Content
  6. Samsung Said to Have Begun Testing One UI 8 on Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4
  7. Google NotebookLM Gets Featured Notebooks, Offers Expert-Curated Sources for Users
  8. Global Smartphone Market Grew 1 Percent YoY in Q2 2025; Samsung, Vivo Witness Biggest Jump in Shipments: IDC
  9. LG OLED evo and QNED evo TVs With Alpha AI Processor Gen2 Launched in India: Price, Specifications
  10. Realme C71 5G Launched in India With 6,300mAh Battery, Reverse Charging Support
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.