How Autonomous Car Will Change Everything

Both the electric car trend and the self-driving car initiative may be considered fads that in the long run are simply untenable. Autonomous cars present numerous safety obstacles that are currently not being addressed, and the electric car phenomenon presents numerous obstacles as well. Currently it is a niche market: increasing power to the electric car and making it equal to gas-powered vehicles is a substantial obstacle, and a solution—expanding the number of electric vehicle charge points—needs to become part of the infrastructural horizon. In the UK, this solution is already being applied, as Murray (2016) shows: charge points are set to outnumber petrol stations in the United Kingdom by 2020.

However, much of the rest of global society is affected by the autonomous car in only a marginal way: if they are ever allowed to proceed into the mass market it will be a different story. For now they are simply being tested by companies like Google and Uber, and as McGoogan (2017) notes, those two companies are locking into a legal battle that could have repercussions across the industry as a whole. Nonetheless, all autonomous/robotic enterprises will eventually put blue collar workers out of jobs: should autonomous trucks and taxis be introduced, many people in the transportation industry will be out of work. However, jobs will surely open up in the robotics industry. Indeed, as more emphasis is placed on developing autonomous technology, engineers, computer coders, IT developers, and information security workers will be required in large numbers. Each of these industries stands to benefit. The blue collar fields are what stand to be decimated.

Industries that will start up out of the rise of self-driving cars will likely be a new type of monitoring/networking system like that in the aviation community, where individuals guide and track vehicles on their voyages, interacting with the technology, monitoring the vehicle’s systems and so on. This industry would have to incorporate safety, technology, and communications systems along with training personnel and building facilities to support these needs.

Electric cars and the autonomous car will certainly change the landscape of the auto industry should they ever replace completely the gas-powered vehicle and the self-driving vehicle. Gas plays such a major part of the global economy, however; and many people enjoy driving gas powered cars themselves. They enjoy the roar of the motor and the thrill of controlling a vehicle. The new green technology and the autonomous technology will make driving and roads and regulations completely different—and how that impacts communities is anyone’s guess. Whether communities as a whole will permit this innovation or reject it still remains to be seen.

References
McGoogan, C. (2017). Google sues Uber over ‘stolen’ driverless car technology.
Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/02/24/google-sues-uber-stolen-driverless-car-technology/
Murray, J. (2016). Electric vehicle charge points to outnumber petrol stations by 2020,
say Nissan. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/04/electric-vehicle-charge-points-to-outnumber-petrol-stations-by-2020-say-nissan