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August 21, 2015
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Image source: Volvo

Unless you’ve been living under a tree, alone, shunning all electronic devices, in central Australia, in a town called Oodnadatta (it exists!) for the last few years, you’ve probably heard about Google venturing into automotive.

The Google Self-Driving Car Project, as it’s officially known, is Google’s ambitious project to introduce self driving cars to a mainstream audience.

While the project isn’t new, there are some particularly interesting recent developments that have moved the project on considerably which could have a far reaching and dramatic effect on the automotive industry and how people travel.

While there are still some major concerns to resolve, issues around safety and liability being the major ones, the project is gaining some serious momentum.

And with extensive test drives of autonomous cars being undertaken as we speak, it feels like only a matter of time before fully autonomous cars become part of every day life.

So, to get up to speed on what’s new, we turn to Twitter for the lowdown:

While the Google car still resembles a child’s toy, right now it’s what it does that’s important:

But interestingly, it’s not just Google who are working on autonomous cars.

A Chinese rival is also getting in on the act:

And there’s even a date. 2020 is the year apparently that we will all be able to put our feet up when driving.

Is this realistic?

Time will tell:

And Google may even have their sights on manufacturing cars. This would be a complete game changer.

Especially as Google aren’t a large scale manufacturer of anything currently:

And the industry around autonomous cars is beginning to grow.

The cars needs testing areas, so companies are fighting to secure these contracts:

And interestingly, the general public are starting to take notice too.

There’s little pockets of evidence to suggest that people will want to try autonomous cars when they’re available:

And the clincher? Even ‘celebs’ are showing an interest…

https://twitter.com/DonOsmond/status/630808050090139648

Others are wondering about Google’s choice of existing names:

https://twitter.com/PadmaVaralli/status/630567312567894016

Will the future of automotive be solely autonomous? Some think so!

This looks pretty cool though, if collisions could be reduced to close to zero through the removal of human error (which Google suggests accounts for 94% of accidents) then faster travel could happen safely…

But are Google looking at even more advances?

We hold complete control over when to drive our cars, but how will an autonomous car decide?

https://twitter.com/AutonomousCaRR/status/628534867563646976

And it’s not just Google who are getting in on the act, Apple are at it too:

Ultimately it seems that production isn’t too far off:

So, what do you think? Are autonomous cars a good thing?

Are they inevitable or will the hugely complex challenges around bringing them to consumers prove too great?

You can be sure of one thing, they won’t be going away soon…

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