Autonomous driving in personally owned vehicles is one of the biggest goals the automotive industry seems to be working toward right now, with every automaker debuting its own advanced driver-assistance software that takes us one step closer to just getting in our cars, telling us where we want it to go, and having it take us there with minimal input. That idea is what led me to today’s question.
I want to know what company you think is going to solve personal autonomy first, but before we get into that, I’ve got a disclaimer: I’m not interested in your thoughts on autonomy as a whole. You and I both love driving. We’re not going to give it up. No one is going to make us give it up anytime soon. Please don’t worry about that. Now, if you feel personal autonomy isn’t achievable at all, that’s its own discussion, and it’s also a welcome answer. In any case, it can be an automaker that’s already hard at work on automated driving systems. Maybe it’s a group of automakers working together to come up with something. Hell, it could even be a company like Alphabet’s Waymo licensing out its technology for use in personal vehicles. I don’t know what the future holds, and that’s what’s so cool about this whole exercise.
My choice
Right now, I think there are three ways the race for personal autonomy could break. It’ll either be Mercedes-Benz or General Motors, both of which have by far the best Level 2 advanced driver assistance software on the market with their MB Drive Assist and Super Cruise systems. To be fair, Super Cruise is sort of in a league of its own when it comes to Level 2 systems, but I’m including Mercedes because it already has a Level 3 system on the road called Drive Pilot. How sick is that?
The third way I could see this going is also probably the most likely: the Chinese do it first. I’ve got a hell of a lot of confidence that China will find the solution to personal automated driving before the West does, and I’ve never been wrong before.
Of course, there’s always the chance none of this will ever catch on, and we’ll all be stuck in traffic jams forever, but that’s enough out of me. Why don’t you head on down below and let everyone know what automaker you think will crack personal autonomy first? As always, I’ll be awarding bonus points if you back up your answer with actual reasoning.
