Seeing as driverless cars are looking more and more likely for the near future, it’s easy to see why technology developers and manufacturers are looking to get in on the climb to the top.
Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, believes that these new cars are opportunities for software developers. With things like self-parking, Wi-Fi, and self-steering, software plays a huge role in the success and innovation of these cars in the present, and looking to the future.
People probably still see cars the way they used to. Mechanical, gas-burning combustion-powered machines. This is no longer the case, as modern cars are currently powered by up to 70 tiny computers. These control locks, engine functions, entertainment systems, along with an array of other things.
Self-driving cars require even more software, such as radar systems, cameras, various sensors, and memory to process data.
Cars are getting quite intelligent.
To put this into better perspective, vehicles now have 1,000 times the amount of code that Apollo 11 had… and that ship took people to the moon.
Apple is hiring high-profile engineers from other car companies, and Uber has already opened a robotics center in Pittsburgh, which has employed a good number of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, and is building mapping tech with the University of Arizona.
The thing is, autonomous driving tech has existed for quite a long time now, just not in cars — it exists in satellites and airplanes.
The difference with cars is that they are in a noticeably more volatile environment. Human error is a major problem.
Of course, drivers of semi-autonomous cars still need to stay alert through the entire driving process.
Many car manufacturers have announced that they plan on testing driverless cars relatively soon, and some have even partnered with technology companies in Silicon Valley.
According to some, competition is just what the auto industry needs to stimulate creativity and tech advancements.
To continue reading…
Click here to read the Telegraph article.
Christian DeHaemer
Check us out on YouTube!Christian is the founder of Bull and Bust Report and an editor at Energy and Capital. For more on Christian, see his editor’s page.
