Robotic Cars Squeezing Humans Out of the Future of Highways

For most of us, driving our cars down Main Street, the Pacific Coast Highway and the interconnected highways and freeways throughout our great country surely stands out as basic aspect of Americana. However, get ready because those glorious days of feeling empowered by driving yourself down the road may be coming to an end. It’s true, as new self-autonomous vehicle (SAV) policies coming from the U.S. Department of Transportation begin to frame rules, regulations and guidance for sharing the roads with robotic cars in the near future and for generations to come.

“Automated vehicles have the potential to save thousands of lives, driving the single biggest leap in road safety that our country has ever taken,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “This policy is an unprecedented step by the federal government to harness the benefits of transformative technology by providing a framework for how to do it safely.”

Proposed Ban On Human Drivers

Recently, proponents of SAV technology proposed banning human drivers from driving a 150-mile stretch of Interstate 5 extending from Seattle to Vancouver. Some analysts believe in only five short years, human drivers will be banned from driving in major cities like New York, London and Rome; universities and college campuses; and at airports. The following are some of the technological steps we’ve taken to make robotic cars ease us out of our driving habitat:1


Robotic Cars Squeezing Humans Out of the
Future of Highways

  • Many new model vehicles are already equipped with auto-breaking technology, and can steers the cars back into your lane.
  • Many car manufacturers already predict SAV-like “transport pods” will soon replace ridesharing services, such as Uber and Lyft.
  • Another prediction is that there will no longer be two cars in every garage.
  • Analysts predict that driverless SAVs will be the choice of transportation to prevent gridlock for workers bustling into cities.

Regulatory Path to Driverless Cars and Roadways

In January, the U.S. proposed a $4 billion budget for research and to study the infrastructure necessary to make driverless cars and thoroughfares happen. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations (NHTSA) has also put a 50-year plan in place to help with policy, monitoring, guidance, and safety for this new innovative technology. The NHTSA sees the use of driverless vehicles and dedicated roadways and highways as a way to do the following:

  • Firstly, the NHTSA hopes to reduce the annual average of 30,000 deaths per year due to car accidents.
  • Assist those with disabilities, elderly populations that can no longer driver, and communities where vehicle ownership is too expensive.
  • Save energy, fossil fuels, and cut down on air pollution.

Contact a St Louis Car Accident Lawyer at Brown & Brown Attorneys at Law

The future of SAVs is still incomplete and the technology being developed is still new, and there are still stories coming out about driverless vehicles crashing. If you are involved in a crash with an SAV and it wasn’t your fault, contact the St Louis Car Accident Lawyers at Brown & Brown Attorneys at Law. We have a long-standing commitment to serving car accident victims, and we are experienced at aggressively defending our clients’ rights whether it’s in a court room or dealing with an insurance company. Our goal is to help our clients seek justice and get the compensation that may be owed to them for damages.

If you would like a free, no obligations initial consultation with a St Louis Car Accident Lawyer at Brown & Brown, call today at 573-333-3333 for our Missouri office or at 618-888-8888 for our Illinois office. You can also reach us by emailing us using the form at the right-hand side of the screen.

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1“Driverless Cars: Robots Are Taking the Wheel” published in Bloomberg News, September 2016.

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