Driverless cars are sure to revolutionize society as we know it. We at DriverlessTransportation.com are excited about the changes that will come from this new technology, and we believe that every single person’s life will change.

It’s particularly interesting to actually envision a world without drivers. What will it look like? What will it sound like? How will my everyday routine change? In addition, it’s interesting to think about the trajectory of this industry as a whole, and what will happen with time.

We, as a team, each decided it would be fun to make our own predictions about what we see happening in the next year (or so).  These are listed below. We cast short-term predictions about the technology, the business, the societal impact, and the legal ramifications that come with the introduction of driverless transportation.

If you’re interested, leave a comment with your own predictions. We’ll look back next October and see how we did.

In our next blog, we’ll try some longer term predictions.

Rick

1. Google hits a Million Miles on its driverless fleet.
2. Tesla announces a schedule for driverless vehicle before 2018.
3. One of the major Automakers (other than Toyota) announces a significant Partnership with Google.

John

1. A driverless car will have an accident.
2. A bill to allow driverless cars will be initiated in Virginia (and 3 other states).
3. Tesla and Google will announce that they are working together.
4. I will ride in a driverless car.

Manuel

1. Major players in driverless technologies will turn to military contractors to harden and protect their systems from cyber attacks.
2. Government legislation will step in again and fund the automotive industry supporting driverless transportation citing employment (job development) as its primary goal.
3. One of the major computing hardware companies will develop a new system of systems backplane allowing the automotive industry to standardize how driverless technologies will be implemented.
4. Legislation will be passed that endorses and legalizes only one of the driverless technologies.

 Shawn

1. Two driverless cars will crash and the occupants will want to sue. This will spark a public legal issue of who is liable when no one is driving.
2.  An article on Driverless Transportation will make the front page of the Washington Post and/or a segment on 60 Minutes.
3. I will see someone riding in a driverless car at Stanford.