Wikipedia describes an autonomous car as “a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating without human input. ” (Autonomous car, n.d.).
When a person thinks of an automated mode of transportation, they might think of recent developments that they have seen on the news, such as Google’s self-driving car. Automated transport is not a very new idea, however. For decades, automated systems have helped people control urban subway systems, railroads, and even allowed planes to fly automatically without pilots constantly controlling them. These technologies allow humans to operate and maintain large and complex systems. These systems can do anything from locating where subway cars are in their routes, what tracks need to be open on railroads, and adjusting an airplane’s course to avoid air turbulence.
It has long been a dream of humanity to have self-guided transportation. Since the invention of cars, it has been a dream tested over decades that is finally culminating within our fast paced society. Primitive types of autonomous travel included the auto tiller, as device used on sailboats to keep a course in relation to the wind, and autopilot, which used gyroscope technology to maintain altitude and speed, first used in the 1930s (Weber, 2014). Both of these advancements are commonly used today in modern formats. In the 1950s General Motors experimented with the use of cars that guided to a highway with specific construction (Weber, 2014). This proved to work, but was not implemented due to the cost and inconvenience of replacing and building new infrastructure.
On the mission to space, autonomous rovers and robots were a critical part of the success of the missions. With the Mars 2 and 3 missions in 1971, the Prop-M robot was planned to run autonomously and take soil samples (NASA, n.d.). While the mission failed at entry, it was an important step in automation. Additionally, this application was possible, since the danger of a mistake on a barren planet is much lower that that on earth, with human occupants.
With advanced computers, it is now within the realm of possibility to have fully autonomous cars. Many cars already have some functions of autonomous vehicles, such as parallel parking assist as seen in the Mercedes-Benz GL350, which parked in 27.4 seconds (Healey, 2012). Moving forward, car and computer companies alike have been listed as making progress toward production (30 Corporations, 2016).
These forms of automated transportation are a modern development with a rich history. The developments of the past have allowed for the future of automated transport, which involves the newest development in driver less cars and future developments that today would sound like ideas from a science-fiction movie.