Smarter Cars, Smarter Policies

World must wise up to avoid being taken for a ride by autonomous car proponents.

When carmakers and technopreneurs first started promising the world a fleet of self-driving cars by as early as 2019, I was among the first to think “Yes! No more idiotic drivers ruining my day”.

That was some five years ago. Alas that day is not anywhere near. It is certainly not going to be 2019.

The bullish companies are now rolling back their bullish forecasts.

Many, in fact, are now saying that for autonomous vehicles to be feasible, proper road infrastructure must first be in place.

A World Economic Forum report put out in April 2018 said autonomous vehicles will need a superfast high-bandwidth mobile network to allow them to “talk” to one another.

Roadside computing devices will have to be erected to enhance this communication.

An earlier article in Wired magazine also pointed to the need for roadside equipment for driverless cars to work.

In other words, governments the world over will have to invest hundreds of millions – if not billions – in setting up these systems so that they can pry drivers from the wheel.

And that is on top of enhancing present infrastructural properties such as lane markings, road signs and traffic junctions.

In short, driverless cars are not as clever as we thought they would be. In fact, they are quite dumb. I should have known better.

The airline I prefer fails regularly to key in my flyer-miles because my name on the ticket is sometimes not in the same exact sequence as it is in my passport.