It seems that everywhere you drive, regardless of the country, traffic is getting worse and worse on the freeways. With every new driver and car on the road, traffic slows a little more and it takes longer to get to your destination. Some people leave earlier to try and beat the traffic, others carpool. Still others with the possibility of taking mass transit take trains and buses, the best option at this point to actually not have to drive to your destination. At this point, I am sure that more and more people are envisioning the day when we will have driverless cars to ferry us around from destination to destination without the headache of driving in traffic and having to pay attention. We could get much needed work done during the drive or simply relax and watch a movie. Well, completely driverless cars are still a ways off. Google is working on one, but it would be a massive jump from where we are now to where they want us to be. Well, don't worry, there is company in Sweden that is experimenting with "road trains" or "road platoons" as they like to call them that seems to strike a happy medium for now between the two options; driving and driverless. This company is none other than Volvo, which is already experimenting with its new technology on closed circuit driving courses. So what is this new technology?
Simply put, the new technology allows an unspecified amount of cars to follow one lead car that is actually driven by a professional driver. The cars following the lead car would be driven by the computer on board the car, not the actual driver. According to Volvo, a person driving on the highway could search for one of these "road platoons" through their car's computer and upon finding one, pull up to the rear and let the car take over. (Trust me on this, for a better explanation, follow the link to the article above.) Overall, this is projected to reduce congestion on the highways and also improve gas mileage in any given car. Cars would get improved gas mileage due to the fact that they would be following really close to the car in front of them and wind resistance would be reduced. So far, this has been tested with the lead car and only one car following. The next step is to add cars to the "platoon" and eventually do actual road testing on the highways. This technology would not require any changes to be made to current roadways and would be much easier to implement than a fully driverless car right now. There are still many bugs to work through to ensure profer function and safety. One possible issue is the computer itself. There needs to be safety measures in place to ensure that in case of a computer crash that the car does not automoatically fly off the road. Other possible issues are exiting the train, other drivers maneuvering around the train and how it would affect its efficacy.
All in all, this would be a huge step in moving towards driverless cars. If you think about it, a lot of higher end cars already have technology that allow the car to parallel park itself, automatically brake when it gets too close to the car in front, and sensors all around the car that can detect when someone is getting to close. If all of these can be packaged together as Volvo is doing, it would hopefully take a little of the hastle of driving on long trips out of the picture and also increase safety on the roadways. Of course, there is the whole matter of making sure that the lead car is driven by someone responsible and trained properly to have "x" number of cars following it. Regardless of the issues that need to be worked through, I am excited. I am sure the first time that anyone pulls up to the rear of this train and is asked to relinquish control of the vehicle, there will be much trepidation at even the thought of it. Who in their right mind would let go of the wheel of a car and take their feet away from the petals while traveling 65 on the highway; and then on top of that take their eyes off the road and let the car do its thing. I think that as great as this is, it will take a little getting used to by everyone. Regardless, by reducing congestion and improving gas mileage, we are moving in the right direction with this new technology. It is going to be a crazy new world out there in a few decades and it has already started. Some will rebel against it, others will embrace it with open arms. I myself will approach each new invention with neutrality until it proves itself either good or bad. I guess only time will tell.
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