The mundane automobile is about to disrupt your life. Thanks to rapid advances in mobile robotics, cars are poised to morph into the first mainstream autonomous robots that we will entrust with our lives. After almost a century of failed attempts to automate driving, modern hardware technology, and a new generation of artificial-intelligence software called deep learning, are giving cars human-level ability to safely guide themselves through unpredictable environments.
We wrote this book to tell the story of this revolution. We found ourselves drawn to driverless cars for two reasons. First, we keep a close eye on potentially disruptive new technologies, and driverless cars promise to be one of the most game-changing new machines we’ll encounter in our lifetimes. The second reason was more personal. Like most people, we drive an hour or two a day in all kinds of weather, frequently with precious cargo—kids, friends, and pets—on board. Yet, if it were possible, we would prefer to drive, but without having to sit behind the steering wheel ourselves. When Google’s driverless cars started making real progress a few years ago, needless to say, we paid close attention.
In the coming decades, driverless cars will gradually replace human-driven vehicles. As transportation evolves into an automated, on-demand service, the result will be a major paradigm shift in the way cars move people and goods around the physical world. Driverless cars will change our perception of time and space, how we commute to work, where we live, and how we shop.
We believe that many changes will be positive, as driverless cars will save millions of lives, smooth congestion, and help clear the air. Parents will no longer spend several hours in traffic each day chauffeuring their kids to school and activities; the elderly and disabled will gain new mobility.
Every disruptive technology has a dark side, however, and driverless cars are no exception. Millions of truck drivers and taxi drivers will lose their jobs. Public transportation will languish as people are drawn to the unbeatable convenience of on-demand, driverless pods that can pick anyone up, anywhere, at any time, for less than it costs to buy a bus ticket. Unless stringent privacy protections are put into place, driverless-car passengers might find themselves sacrificing privacy for safety and convenience as the software that guides their driverless car tracks and logs their every move.
In the following pages, we explain how cars will be transformed into intelligent transportation robots. We assess the impact that driverless cars will have on the automotive industry. We describe how cities will be affected as driverless cars transform everyday driving, a tedious and dangerous activity, into friction-free personal mobility. We explore the nearly sixty-year-long history of failed attempts to automate driving. Finally, we guide the reader through a clear and engaging explanation of the hardware and software technologies that enable the modern driverless car.
Our goal is to give readers the insight they need to make sense of the new world that lies ahead, when driverless cars outnumber those with human drivers. We hope you will enjoy the journey.