Science fiction has often inspired many an automobile fantasy, and self-driven cars, appearing in movies like Will Smith's I, Robot, have portrayed the possibility of them coming to reality in a pretty compelling fashion. Ever since the first self-sufficient and truly autonomous cars appeared in the 1980s, with Carnegie Mellon University's Navlab and ALV projects in 1984 and Mercedes-Benz and Bundeswehr University Munich's EUREKA Prometheus Project in 1987, major companies and research organisations have been trying their hands to develop the technology further. And despite scepticism about their future, the developments in 2015 have reaffirmed that autonomous cars are going to be the next big thing in automotive evolution.
Tesla takes centre stage
Tesla accelerated its self-driving car efforts in November, taking on the existing players in this market andndash; Google and Apple. After launching a software update for its Model S electric cars that gave it self-driving capabilities in "beta", the Tesla chief executive, Elon Musk, took to Twitter in the dying days of November to announce a "ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalised full autonomy". It further fuelled the raging war between Tesla and Apple, where the former is accused of poaching engineers from its Randamp;D team.
Elon Musk has also gone on record this month to say that these cars are now looking possible within two years.
Traditional carmakers join the race
The German carmaker trio of BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz's acquisition of Nokia's mapping and location service division HERE earlier in December spelled the entry of more traditional carmakers jumping on this bandwagon. "This will power location services that improve mobility for people and enterprises, make driving safer and more enjoyable, and reduce emissions," said HERE president Sean Fernback in a blog post soon thereafter, spelling the entry of German majors in this industry.
Google leapfrogs competition; partners with Ford
While earlier reports had suggested that Ford will begin testing its autonomous vehicles early next year, fresh rumours regarding the American carmaker's ties with Google did the rounds very recently. According to a report, Google and Ford are forming a partnership to build self-driving cars, a move that pairs one of the world's top automakers with one of the pioneering companies developing robo-car technology.
Roadblocks on the way
California, where the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has now drafted regulations for the public use of autonomous cars, is the biggest turf for the development of this technology. However, with the new rules, a licensed driver, or "operator," must be in the vehicle when it is in use and able to take control of it in the event of a problem. Cars designed to be completely driverless, like that being tested by Google, are to be initially excluded from being granted licenses until their safety and performance can be further evaluated and the regulations revised accordingly. It clearly has not gone down well with the technology giant which also voiced its disappointment in a statement earlier.
2016 could be an exciting year
There was no shortage of autonomous vehicle news in 2015. Between safety improvements and proposed commercial applications, they're looking more and more appealing all the time. Once the ethical and legal issues have been resolved, autonomous vehicles will be off to the races. Even so, from new regulations for deployment to a rumoured partnership between two of the biggest players in the rapidly emerging autonomous vehicle industry, 2016 is looking to be the most exciting year for autonomous vehicles yet.
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