Self-Driving cars were nothing more than a humongous idea that was discussed decades ago. But now, with the unstoppable growth of technology and visionaries, autonomous and electric cars are going to be the vehicles that take up the face of the earth. The Consumer Electronics Show which was held on 9th January in Las Vegas gave us all we need by making driverless and tech-assisted vehicles as the leading trend of this year.
Experts say that the year 2024 is going to be etched in the history as it is the year where automation reaches its maximum (i.e. level 5).The renowned car makers Renault, Nissan, Mitsubishi have come together to launch 40 autonomous vehicles and 12 electric vehicles within 2024. Stats point out that a total of 579,000 electric cars were sold in China during the year 2017. Here are a few important developments that are about to happen around the globe with respect to self-driving cars.
The huge car maker Audi is to introduce a driverless car by the year 2020.
The company Nu Tonomy has initially started its self-driving taxis and has planned to expand it in 10 cities around the world by 2020.
Ford’s CEO has announced that the company has planned to introduce self-driving vehicles by the year 2021.
BMW’s CEO said that they are about to launch a self-driving vehicle named BMW iNext by 2021.
Uber has planned to make its fleet driverless by 2030.
Nissan’s CEO has said that driverless cars might hit showrooms by end of 2020.
Members of IEEE predict that up to 75% of vehicles will be autonomous by 2040.
Though most of the companies bring forward the idea of electricity as the chief source of propulsion, Hyundai introduced hydrogen fuel cells. The fact that hydrogen fuel cells have a higher efficiency than diesel engines made Hyundai opt this method. Hyundai’s Nexo – a small SUV proves to be a worthy competitor in the market.
It is no wonder that UAE has come up with the hydrogen-charging idea owing to the fact that hydrogen resources are abundant. The first hydrogen fuel station was launched by Toyota and few others are on its way. Though no hydrogen-run vehicles are sold currently, Toyota Mirai is being tested on the UAE roads and will soon be available to the consumers. This type of technology proves to be an excellent solution in UAE where hydrogen is weather – independent energy solution and is renewable using natural energy resources.
Apart from all this, Google and Alexa have been making efforts to push its way inside Toyota and Lexus’s cars. It can be seen available in some vehicles later this year. The world is making efforts to build a sustainable environment in all possible ways and automation of vehicles is just one phase of the whole betterment plan!