"Surprisingly few people, even within the transportation planning world, are talking about this pending revolution."
The statement above was made in an online article by Freakonomics in December 2012:
http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/12/11/from-horse-power-to-horsepower-to-processing-power/
In my opinion this is a very good point - what are we as a Transportation Profession doing about preparing for the biggest revolution that we will have seen on our road network since the invention of the car some 120 years ago? Why have we not already started planning for this inevitable paradigm shift that will transform not just our roads, but society as well? What should we do to prepare?
The unfortunate fact is that a significant proportion of readers of this blog may have been unaware of what this impending revolution is.
To aid research I have posted up the following document which is a sort of "Autonomous Vehicles 101" and this should help bring you up to speed if that is necessary. If you are interested in this subject then you may also find the LinkedIn forum on 'Self Driving Cars' of interest, or the Facebook page 'DriverlessCarHQ'. This technology is developing rapidly and even my presentation of October 2012 now needs updating.
If there is any interest in this subject I will happily blog further to aid discussion and keep folks abreast of latest developments. So please register that interest and let me know what aspect of this fascinating subject that you would like to know more about.
Cheers! Paul Godsmark, 2 Jan 2013
(tags: autonomous vehicle, self driving car, autonome, driverless, Google)