By 2040, huh? Well, that’s going to be a long way as there are still four Olympics happening, including one in 2040, if there’s not going to be a new pandemic, okay. A long wait, but the point is, robots may be replacing human drivers for Uber, according to the latest revelation of Uber’s CEO.
Speaking at an economic event in Washington, D.C. recently, the chief executive officer, Dara Khosrowshahi is saying robots will take over the wheel in 15 to 20 years.
“If you fast-forward 15, 20 years, I think eventually the cars are going to be autonomous…,” Khosrowshahi said during a session at the Semafor World Economy Summit in the capital.
But are those only autonomous cars?
Robots are different from autonomous cars. Autonomous cars are not robotic, per se. These cars are self-driving vehicles that can sense their environment and operate without human involvement.
Technologies like radar, cameras, and lidar are at work here, creating a digital map of their surroundings, letting these cars navigate and independently make decisions.
In other words, these cars are never completely robots. However, Khosrowshahi is firm in his prediction that robots could take over in 2040.
“There’s very strong evidence to believe that robot drivers are going to be safer than human drivers,” he stated. “They’re not going to get distracted. … This software is learning, is getting retrained every single day based on the world as it is, so they will be safer.”
Are robot drivers safe?
Research and studies do not agree with Khosrowshahi’s assertion that robot drivers are safer. Car crashes with autonomous vehicles exist, and data about whether they are safer than those driven by humans is mixed.
A paper in Nature says that autonomous vehicles are not 100 percent safe.
Those who have interpreted Khosrowshahi’s statements added that a supporting system should be in place before autonomous vehicles become ubiquitous.
3 proposals
Those aspirations cannot just happen in one click.
“There’s a lot more to autonomous that needs to happen … at scale,” Khosrowshahi stated.
His first action plan is to make a consistent regulatory environment nationwide, together with ground operations, depots for cleaning and maintenance, and recharging stations. Recharging is a big problem that self-driving cars encounter.
The second concerns the cost of autonomous cars. Before they can be everywhere on the road, their purchase costs must come down so operators can profit.
“Right now, these cars cost hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said. “You’ve got to bring them down to tens of thousands of dollars.”
The third proposal is that consumers should be willing to ride these cars in sufficient numbers so operators can survive and thrive.
“This is incredibly expensive technology and incredibly expensive vehicles that you’ve got to make profitable over a period of time,” Khosrowshahi admitted.