Can you believe people actually talk about self-driving cars everyday nowadays? Take yourself back about 10 years; the idea of having self-driving cars back then was real but it was still developing. People knew we would eventually have self-driving cars in the future; time has gone by so fast that if you stop to think for a second, you realize that all those speculations about self-driving cars are not speculations anymore. We actually have self-driving cars right now driving around cities.

When did people start talking about self-driving on an everyday basis? How is it that people can talk about self-driving cars without being surprised anymore? When did people create the technology necessary to have these cars? What drove people to create self-driving cars?

The shift that I am addressing is how self-driving cars are being implemented into society, how the technology has evolved to make this possible, and how are people reacting to it. Technology has changed tremendously in this past few years. There’s new software being developed and improved everyday that make the AI technology possible. Apart from software, the hardware is improving too, and engineers and designers work hard to fit all the sensors into the car while making it look pleasing.

Now that we have self-driving cars a lot of regulations and laws must be made. I asked my dad over the weekend if he would trust a self-driving car, his response was interesting. He told me that if everyone else used on a self-driving, then he would too. However, he wouldn’t get on a self-driving cars if everyone else around him had normal cars. My dad doesn’t trust that the self-driving car will have the same reaction he would have if another driver would be close to crashing with him. He said “if I see that the car behind me appears as if the driver were falling asleep, then I would let it pass me. A self-driving car wouldn’t, it’s just programed to follow the rules, it doesn’t have the human perspective or instinct”. His response made me wonder if people will ever truly trust a self-driving car. However, I side with my dad’s perspective. A self-driving car follows the rules, for now it won’t have a human driver’s experience to be able to observe other cars and change behavior accordingly.

Self-driving cars still have a long way to go. The shift is happening right now!