Rick and I have been talking about driverless transportation for over a year now, and we started getting into it seriously about 6 months ago.  In that time, I have been to shows across the country, sat in on webinars, watched dozens of videos, talked with hundreds of people and read multiple books, hundreds (perhaps thousands) of articles and dozens of papers, all on the subject of driverless transportation. But yesterday was the first time that I got to ride in a driverless car.

I can tell you, believe all the hype, because it is very very cool.  The revolution has started and in the not too distant future the world will be a much changed place.

My first ride was in a Navio by Induct.  It is designed for controlled environments like campuses, airports and city centers.  The current model will hold 8 people and can go up to about 12 miles per hour.  They have tested other vehicles at highway speeds so I expect we’ll see a series of different models from them in the future.  Their vehicles are currently in use in both France (Induct is a French company) and Singapore.

The ride was very smooth and the vehicle seemed very well designed.  I didn’t get a complete feel for its capabilities, though, as we were on a very small test track.

Unlike much of the other Driverless technology that is at CES in 2014, you can buy this now for only $250,000.  That may at first seem like a lot but it should be able to pay for itself in around 18 months because a driver isn’t needed.

If I had only brought my checkbook, I could have bought one and had it drive me home.  (Might have been a bit chilly driving through the Midwest though.)

Based upon what I saw today, I think we’ll be hearing a lot from Induct in the not too distant future.

John