Self-steering, self-accelerating, self-braking car by 2021

Although there is no guarantee that any of the self-driving vehicles will ever work, the customers and companies believes that autonomy is certainly the future.

Nobody really knows what this technology race mean for the brands of automakers, which have been rooted in performance, excitement, emotion, consumers’ self-images and safety.

It is too early to know whether the rides in autonomous cars will cost more than those with a driver.

Some big players are working towards the new technologies. Uber announced its Pittsburgh project than it acquired Otto, a 90-person start-up that has developed self-driving truck technology.

General Motors has a some of self-driving Chevrolet Bolts in San Francisco and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Volvo’s tie-up with Uber one example of a car manufacturer partnering with the ride-sharing giant. Toyota has made an unspecified investment in Uber. GM is committed to putting autonomous Bolts in Lyft fleets, but hasit is not clear when that will happen.

These cars won’t be sold at dealerships for personal use.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• In the largest mega-cities, owning, operating and parking a privately owned vehicle will be prohibitively expensive and inconvenient in gridlocked traffic.
• Ford pledges a self-steering, self-accelerating, self-braking car by 2021.
• The new vocabulary includes artificial intelligence, algorithms, sensors, micro-cameras, Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), radar and 3D mapping as much as horsepower or torque.

“All the major automakers can see that their business model based around simply building a vehicle and selling it for a profit may not sustain them in the second half of this century,” said Ian Riches, director of automotive practice at Strategy Analytics in London. “Unless they do something they’re almost guaranteed to fail.”

Original Source: http://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2016/08/21/uber–lyft-gm-pittsburgh-autonomous-vehicles-self-driving-autos-equal-profits/88944036/