New roads for the autonomous vehicles
When talking about autonomous cars, we may not realize the enormous challenges ahead in the transition process from the current traffic model.
This movement from 100% people-driven vehicles to semi or fully autonomous ones is more drastic than the migration from horse carts to the combustion engine and, therefore, a little more complex.
Apart from the moral and legal dilemmas involved, it is expected that the adoption of autonomous cars will reduce by up to 90% the number of accidents, which are mostly caused by the recklessness or malpractice of human drivers.
It turns out that some disruptive technologies do not happen on their own, otherwise, they depend on other structural changes (for example, electric cars will not be popular if there are no charging points scattered around cities); with autonomous cars, it’s the same thing.
First of all, autonomous vehicles could be seen in two ways: AVs, Autonomous Vehicles, and CAVs, Connected Autonomous Vehicles. The first, AVs, are self-manageable and feature sensors and built-in devices to detect the bearing range, other vehicles, traffic lights, pedestrians and other traffic elements, usually integrated into a GPS system but, in essence, remains an isolated device/vehicle detecting the world around it. The CAVs, however, are connected to each other and, thus, can work in an intelligent road network, looking around at the entire movement chain.
The result? Continuous motion:
However, in order this to be possible, a controlled environment would be required, ie an environment where ALL vehicles are autonomous and connected to this traffic management network. The problem: our streets and roads are already built and, at least for now, are far from being connected. One possible solution: to create a new traffic ecosystem apart from the current one.
Many thought about flying-cars (which, according to Back to the Future movie, should already be crossing our skies! Shame on you, car manufacturers!).
At some point in the past few days you might have watched Tony Start, I mean, Ellon Musk video about The Boring Company.
It all (publicly) started with this tweet (whoever has driven in LA’s “free” ways will understand the frustration as well):
And this has moved to the development of an underground system of tunnels to connect medium and long distances through rails and platforms that ‘carry’ vehicles under the city of Los Angeles:
In a conventional street, cars drives into a platform, being transfered to this new autonomous controlled environment, allowing it to travel up to 200km/h (120mph) to specific points of the city.
This system not only segregates remotely (or autonomously) managed traffic, but also connects any "dumb" vehicle to a connected platform, potentially turning any car into a CAV.
Thus, we have an initial transition system with the potential to become the new standard for individual or collective transportation of the future.
No wonder Tesla (Musk car company) has become more valuable than General Motors and Ford Motors this year, reaching a market cap of $ 51 billion.
Way to go, Tony!
