Some Automakers aren't embracing autonomous cars with open arms

May 31, 2018, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

While many auto makers like Ford and Toyota are fully embracing autonomous vehicles, it seems BMW is not convinced that the full autonomy is something that we are ready for it. According to CarBuzz.com Peter Schwarzenbauer, a board member at BMW, their new cars will be connected to the cloud network of real time safety and driving information, but they will not be driving themselves.

According to Mr. Schwarzenbauer the new BMWs will have ‘Level 3’ autonomy which means they will have the capability to drive themselves in slow traffic under driver supervision. BMW doesn’t think that society is ready to abdicate driving responsibility to a machine. They believe that full autonomy and trust by humans in it is a long way off. BMW believes that people will want the highly accurate and current data available from the cloud but that ultimately they prefer to drive themselves.

The big three German car companies (BMW, Audi and Mercedes) own an open platform mapping system called HERE which collects real time information from 700,000 cloud connected cars. The data is analyzed and sent back into the cloud for real time decision making by drivers. This data is very useful to the car makers, and to insurers as well one would imagine. BMW is also working on AI which would be a camera on the front windshield. The camera would identify and predict the trajectory of oncoming traffic (cars, pedestrians, cyclists etc). Presumably the technology would warn drivers of pending collisions and take over maneuvering of the car to avoid the crash.

It is interesting to see the approaches being taken by the car manufacturing sector globally. The differences underline the fact that no one is sure how the autonomous car movement is going to play with drivers.

The four great advantages of autonomous vehicles that are widely promoted include:

• Increased safety
• Greater efficiency of road usage and travel times
• Energy conservation by using less fuel and requiring fewer cars overall
• Increasing human productivity and leisure time

Four disadvantages include:

• Establishing trust and uptake by humans
• Cost of the units
• Increase in unemployment rates caused by displaced workers (taxi drivers, truckers etc.)
• Learning curves for the new technology may be steep for many

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

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