9 Facts You Didn t Know About Driverless Cars – The Motley Loser

9 Facts You Didn’t Know About Driverless Cars

Picture source: Getty Pics.

Technology and automotive companies are presently in a sprint to bring the best (and the safest) self-driving technologies to market. The companies have been spurred on by high traffic fatalities, enhancing support by governments, and of course, fresh revenue potential.

The rhythm at which driverless car technology advances is astounding, which means most of us have most likely missed a few key developments if we haven’t been keeping up lately. Check out these nine facts to help bring your driverless car skill back up to speed:

  • Google’s Waymo just cut the cost of LIDAR by 90%. Alphabet‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google recently spun out its self-driving business into its own company, called Waymo, and this month it announced that it has diminished the cost of the LIDAR technology, which is used to help self-driving cars see what’s around them. According to ArsTechnica, Waymo may have diminished the price from $75,000 down to $7,500.

Driverless cars will make you a better driver. Chipmaker and driverless car tech leader NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) recently announced its fresh artificial intelligence (AI) Co-Pilot system that uses outward cameras and radar to tell you what’s around (such as a bicyclist), and internal cameras that keep track of where you’re looking. The AI Co-Pilot will drive the car by itself most of the time, but will use its data to also help humans learn how to drive better when they’re controlling the wheel.

  • Self-driving vehicles will be big business. Boston Consulting Group estimates that the driverless car market will be worth $77 billion by 2035. Not all of that will come from sales of the vehicles themselves, however. Many companies, like Waymo, plan on making money from self-driving ride-hailing services.

    • Final thoughts

    While there are certainly concerns around self-driving cars, there’s virtually no stopping this technology now. Automakers, tech companies, and governments are all anxious to bring autonomous driving to the masses, and we’re likely to see the tempo of innovation pick up over the coming years.

    Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Loser’s board of directors. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Idiot wields shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Nvidia, and Tesla Motors. The Motley Loser has a disclosure policy.

    Related movie:

    Leave a Reply