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Will Autonomous Vehicles be Future Heatwave Heroes?
The future of driverless cars looks cool
While truly (and fully) self-driving cars are still a decade or two away from being a practical or commercial reality, no one in the world of technology will argue that these cool cars of the future are being fast-tracked for imminent production.
Tesla and Amazon
From Tesla’s Autopilot and cutting edge, AI-advanced Project Dojo, to Amazon’s bid for super truck self-driving supremacy (alongside newly acquired driverless startups like Zoox Inc. and Plus), the big hitters are in it to win it.
Big-name car manufacturers
Car manufacturing behemoths like Volkswagen (working with Microsoft), Ford, General Motors, Toyota, and Hyundai (which have already invested $7.4 billion to make electric vehicles in the U.S. and are also pushing hard to roll out self-driving “flying taxis”) are all working round-the-clock to gain pole position in the self-driving car market.
Tech companies
China’s Baidu (also focused on the development of state-of-the-art ‘Robo-taxis’), and even Apple and Google Inc. seem driven to produce some form of fully autonomous vehicle (AV), sooner rather than later.
Not that surprising considering the self-driving car market is projected to be worth $2 trillion by 2030, with almost 60 million autonomous vehicles set to be navigating neighborhoods and highways globally according to projected estimates. Which is cool. But how can AVs help us when things get hot?
How AI-based self-driving cars help in a heatwave
Current forecasts for the myriad foreseen advantages of driverless cars include:
- Reducing traffic accidents caused by human error, while also minimizing traffic congestion.
- Autonomous vehicles will make transport of goods far more effective because there’ll be no fatigued driver needing to take breaks and pit stops.
- In addition, less valuable space, used up for parking lots and spaces, as most autonomous vehicles will constantly be on the move.
But in a slightly left-of-center article published in June 2021 in Forbes, world-renowned AI, and ML expert, Dr. Lance B. Eliot, examines how fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) of the future may one day also help us battle the soaring temperatures.
Driverless cars offer respite from a sweltering summer
Eliot argues that once the necessary AI-driven technology is properly in place, true fully autonomous vehicles could help us during hellish heatwaves as follows:
People without home aircon could order self-driving taxis to give them a few cool hours away from the heat.
We wouldn’t get burnt by hot seatbelt buckles and searing steering wheels because fully automated cars won’t even need them.
Alternatively, the AI with natural language processing (NLP) capabilities will warn the passenger if there are hot parts of the vehicle, and also open car doors electronically, etc.
Because people will most likely sit in the back of cars, they’ll be less exposed to damaging UV rays from the sun.
The AV’s AI will also scope out the best drop-off and collection spots to help passengers stay protected and in shade.
The Bladerunner and Buck Rogers era it appears, is imminent!
Read Eliot’s original article here.