Tesla is one of the best electric car manufacturing companies today. They revolutionized the automotive industry with its non-petrol-dependent vehicles. CEO Elon Musk, however, tries to improve what the electric cars can offer. With the belief that today is the best time for cars to evolve, Elon Musk is now talking to Google with a potential driverless vehicle in the next few years.
One of the most common sources of road accidents is human error. Whether you are drifting because you are too tired from work, or you simply mishandled the situation; these are things that can give create life-threatening accidents.
In fact, millions of dollars are funneled towards research on how to minimize the impact of these types of accidents by having safety equipment. From the airbag to the seatbelts to the design of the car, these are some of the things that modern automotive engineering does in order to save people’s lives.
For Tesla and Google, self-driving technology is the answer to this. The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, is now interested in the research of Google regarding an autopilot technology.
The concept of self-driving technology has been present in airplanes for how many decades already. This allowed the pilots to do certain things without always being on the wheel. The bottom line why self-driving technology interests the Tesla executive is its convenience. Over the years, Google already experimented with these types of projects. The Toyota Prius and the Audi TTs for instance have all been equipped with self-driving technology.
How Does it Work?
The self-driving technology works by having a sensor called LIDAR on the vehicle. LIDAR scans the surrounding environment in different directions in order to estimate and locate moving and nonmoving obstacles. The limit for the LIDAR reaches 200 feet, and this is enough to make the driving experience a lot better.
According to Musk, Google self-driving technology is a feasible idea for the automotive industry. The problem begins with the price tag of the sensors. Also, there is a challenge to make legislation for these types of cars. So far, Nevada, California, and Florida are some of the places where cars with self-driving technology can be used for testing purposes.
Impact on Driving
Learning to drive is quite easy. Despite the simplicity of operating a car, there is a challenge among car manufacturers to tone down the effects of driving accidents. Though cars are becoming safe in terms of design, there is still the human factor that everyone needs to consider. Google and Tesla are on the same page on how to make driving easier. The only time, however, that this design will be used for cars is when the technology becomes cheap.
Cars today are not yet ready for self-driving technology. The self-driving technology, however, in the next decade can be feasible. Tesla, Audi, and Toyota are just some of the brands that are starting to consider such drastic changes with the way their vehicles operate. The automotive industry can expect car manufacturers to seek the counsel of companies like Google for reliable self-driving technology.