Autonomous cars and the technology behind them seem to be all anyone can talk about recently. The world is curious about how these cars will work, how safe they will be, how expensive they will be, and if they will be able to fully drive without any human interaction. To some this may still seem like a far off discussion but according to a recent study completed by Boston Consulting Group, partially autonomous vehicles are already here and fully autonomous vehicles may be on the road by 2025!
Of course with all this news on autonomous vehicles, our TaxiFareFinder team can’t help but wonder how this will affect the taxi and rideshare industry. At the moment taxi drivers are focusing all their energy on getting rid of Uber and Uber drivers are focusing all their energy on converting taxi customers to Uber customers, but with the possibility that autonomous cars will be fully rolled out by 2025 maybe these drivers should worry a little bit more about self driving cars taking over their jobs.
According to BCG’s study, multiple communities around the world are already testing driver-less forms of taxis, “Wageningen University, in the Netherlands, plans to introduce a driverless taxi later this year. The vehicle, one of the first of its kind, will operate between two campus locations. Milton Keynes, a planned community in the UK, is developing self-driving “public transport pods” for rollout in 2017. Last year, Singapore conducted a two-month test of driverless vehicles, in which 500 people tried out self-driving buggies that plied the paths of the gardens in the city’s Jurong Lake district. Later this year, the city will begin testing AV jitneys that will convey people for short distances at low speeds in another part of town. The object of the test is to observe how AVs perform in real traffic conditions on public roads and how they interact with pedestrians and bicyclists at intersections.”
Do you think autonomous cars will really be rolled out by 2025? How long after will autonomous taxis be available? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
For more information and further insight on autonomous cars visit BCG Perspectives Study on Autonomous Cars.
