Self-driving Cars are Coming

Elon Musks announcement of a semi-autonomous Tesla Model D this past week is one of many autonomous vehicle announcements coming your way

And the implications of self-driving cars will be staggering.

In this blog, I want to outline and explore those implications, and give you context on the dematerialization, demonetization and democratization of transportation.

The First Real Autonomous Car

During the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. Defense Department spent hundreds of millions of dollars on autonomous vehicles, but it wasnt until the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a $2 million incentive prize, that the first truly autonomous vehicles (AVs) able to navigate long distances (a 150-mile route) at significant speeds (>30 mph) came into existence.

The Stanford University Racing Team, headed by Sebastian Thrun, won the competition with their car named Stanley. In addition to Stanley that year, four other driverless cars successfully completed the challenge.

Since Then

Soon thereafter, Sebastian Thrun joined Google to start a Self-Driving Car initiative, ultimately building a fleet of autonomous Prius vehicles that have logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles.

In late May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car a cute 2-seat vehicle sporting NO steering wheel, NO gas pedal, and NO brakes. 100% autonomous.

And Google isnt the only player in the game.

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Self-driving Cars are Coming