Driverless cars are coming! That is the reality.
Corporations and investors are injecting tons of money into those projects and are competing against each other who will create the first safe driverless car that will change the future of how people go from point A to point B.
Such cars we have seen in the movies from the past. And every sci fi movie has some truth in it. The first autonomous vehicle was shown in the movie The Automatic Motorist in 1911. Then came Logan’s Run in 1976. Then Timecop, Total Recall, and many others.
Big Change in the Economy
Self-driving cars will definitely change our world. There will be no DUIs, accidents will decrease, people will utilize their time better. Of course, it will take decades till they get fully implemented in our lives. Why decades? Because it requires not only the car, but the building of a whole new infrastructure of roads and sensors. Have you noticed that governments are not involved into the development of those autonomous vehicles? They are afraid it will backfire on their revenue from tickets, DUIs, driving licenses, red light cameras, speeding tickets etc. Insurance companies will go broke as well when there are no accidents. Despite that, those cars will come- no argue about that.
It will change the economy and increase the unemployment rate in many industries. However, we at Chief Chicago Limo believe that chauffeurs will prevail and continue to drive cars, or at least be present in them. Many would disagree with us, but here are some of our thoughts.
Human Touch & Convenience of Automation
When you book your driverless car, you will have to pay a premium for it. New inventions are always expensive in the beginning. Look at Tesla or even the hybrid vehicles. They are still expensive to buy only thinking that you will save from the gas. Tesla has been on the block for a few years and still do not offer a long range mileage for its owners.
If you are the first passenger in the vehicle, you have to be happy. The next one may find a used tissue on the floor or on the next seat, empty bottle of water, coffee cup, dirty mats from the snow or rain, fingerprints on the window from a kid, torn newspaper etc. Chauffeurs clean the cars after every ride and prepare it for the next. Look at Uber/Lyft and the rest of the ride share companies. They cannot guarantee the car will be for the next ride if the request is right after the first one. Their drivers pick up on demand and do not have time to offer a perfectly clean vehicle to the next client.
Ok… doors may open and close automatically when you get in and get out. But…. who will put your bags in the trunk? Who will assist an elderly person with the luggage or help him/her get in and out of the car. Who will give a hand to a lady when she is about to get off the autonomous vehicle? Who will meet you with an umbrella on a rainy day? No one! And you will still pay a premium for that! a professional chauffeur will do all these things for you… and more. You will be pampered very well for the money spent.
Providing the expected quality of service is our main reason to think that driverless cars will not affect the professional chauffeured services. Of course there are a few more like chauffeurs know the area better than the GPS, sometimes they can push a bit when time is tight for the client, they will communicate better with the client than a robot voice operator who will need time to read the question and find the proper answer…. We can go on for ever.
Technology has become a huge chunk of our lives, but there will be jobs and activities that are better executed by humans. Its like the winning in a video game vs the winning the Olympic Games.
