Apple's CEO sat down for a revealing interview earlier this month. In the piece, he discusses the company's newest products, his relationship with Donald Trump, and disappointment about the Paris accord, and about Apples new technology plans for the years ahead.

Apple  

Tim Cook, Apple's Chief Executive Officer recently spoke about his company’s plans with self driving cars and more with Bloomberg Television. (See the interview below.)  Apple has not been so open about the company's plans before the interview, although public filings and leaks have abounded over the years. Apple has been sitting on billions of dollars of cash over this time, with many suggesting that internal R&D is an obvious way to channel excess capital.

The interview began (after the obligatory questions about Steve Jobs' legacy) on the subject of Apple's entry into the smart speaker market, the HomePod.  The device, which will take on Amazon's Echo and Google's Home with Apple's characteristic late entry, better and more expensive than the rest strategy, was recently unveiled at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC).

The next subject was Apple's moves into the augmented reality market. "I think it is profound. I am so excited about it, I just want to yell out and scream," stated Cook. "The first step in making it a mainstream kind of experience is to put it in the operating system."

"I think it is profound. I am so excited about it, I just want to yell out and scream."

Don't expect any new VR/AR headsets from Apple in the near future though. According to Cook, "The technology’s not complete yet. But that’s the beauty to a certain degree. This has a runway. And it’s an incredible runway. It’s time to put the seat belt on and go. When people begin to see what’s possible, it’s going to get them very excited—like we are, like we’ve been.".

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It is widely rumored that Apple had been planning to build its own car, as was Google. But is now expected that both companies are instead focusing on the self driving technology behind the wheel, rather than the wheels themselves.  Apple has now hired more than 1,000 engineers to work on Project Titan, as the car team is known internally.

“We’re focusing on autonomous systems,” Cook said. “It’s a core technology that we view as very important.” He likened the effort to “the mother of all AI projects,” saying it’s “probably one of the most difficult AI projects to work on.”

Outwardly Cook is bullish about the market for electric vehicles. Recently Tesla Inc. become the world’s fourth-biggest car maker by market capitalization, due chiefly to the market optimism over the company's electric vehicle technology.

“There is a major disruption looming there,” Cook continued, citing self-driving technology, electric vehicles and ride-hailing. “You’ve got kind of three vectors of change happening generally in the same time frame.”

Apple invested $1 billion last year in Didi Chuxing, the biggest Chinese ride-hailing service.

In the interview, Cook was hesitant to disclose whether Apple will ultimately manufacture its own car. "We’ll see where it takes us," Cook said. "We’re not really saying from a product point of view what we will do." Exclusive insights on technology around the world.

SOURCE  Bloomberg

By  33rd Square	Embed

Technology  

Every day it seems that yet another technological innovation is developed. The past five years have brought an incredible advancement in technology, but when it is all said and done, which innovations will be the most revolutionary?

There have been many great technological advancements in recent years. Some say that we are currently experiencing a third industrial revolution due to recent successes with innovations in AI technologies. It may very well be true; today we are seeing technologies come to life, ones that we never even thought possible. In this article we will be taking a look at some of the five greatest tech innovations of the past five years years.

1.Home automation

First on our list are home automation systems, which have recently seen a surge in popularity. As with other great technological feats, these AI systems make life a bit more convenient. Amazon’s Alexa has the capabilities to assist you at home via voice command; allowing one to perform a myriad of automated tasks such as: Making phone calls, sending messages, playing music, forecasting the weather and even ordering things off of the Amazon website itself. These home automation devices are even able to control the temperature of the room and perform tasks when you aren’t at home. Being able to control your home from a single home automation system interface is simply amazing.

2. Drones

Arguably one of the most fun new toys out there for many; we have drones. Drones are an innovation that is rapidly taking over airspace, capturing high definition video footage and even making deliveries now. Users of drones are able to record videos from places they never would have been able to before now, thanks to this technology. There are even plans to make drones capable of carrying WiFi over wherever they are flying; truly bringing internet to the entire world.

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3. Self driving cars

Third on our list and surely a controversial, rising star in the technology world are self driving cars. Many were in disbelief back when big companies such as Google and Uber announced their plans to put self driving cars on the road, but they’re finally out there now and making headlines. This innovation is sure to revolutionize motoring by making roads safer. While this technology is not yet perfected, the automated vehicles are predicted to become a common sight by the year 2020.

4. 3D Printing

From figures to food, 3D printing is an amazing new innovation that is revolutionizing the tech world today. Using laser technology, these machines are able to build things out of basic materials. Scientists have even managed to recreate food that is edible and artificial organs that work perfectly fine, using this innovation. 3D printing has truly revolutionized the tech world with these feats. This innovation may one day be the answer to solving world hunger.

5. Virtual Reality

Finally we have something that was dreamed about for years by many sci-fi fans: Virtual reality. Last year the famed virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift was finally released after years of development. The headset allows for full immersion into virtual worlds; allowing users to feel as if they are actually a part of the world. This was an innovation not only to the gaming world, but also to the medical world. Virtual reality can assist patients in rehab, train doctors in performing surgery, and even aid in counseling. This technology is expected to be improved even further and branch out to many other fields where it can be useful.

And there we have it; five of the greatest tech innovations of the past five years. Be sure to look out for new technologies are rapidly coming along. These are just the beginning of what’s in store for the future of the technical world. What are your recent favorite tech innovations? Please feel free to comment about them below.

By  Jamison Hutton	Embed
Jamison Hutton is a business and real estate enthusiast. He's a freelance journalist and loves writing about trends in the tech industry. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and son.

Self Driving Cars  

It will be possible in the near future for a person to work on the computer, send texts and talk on the phone while driving to work. This won't happen because a person is on a bus or being driven by a driving service. It will occur because people will be able to use driverless cars.

Self driving cars are on the verge of becoming a reality. This development will lead to transportation methods we have not dealt with in many new ways. For example, it is anticipated individuals will be able to get out and use their smartphone to send their driverless car to park itself and then come back and pick them up later.

Engineering

Driverless cars are able to function because they are designed to react to what is around them using a variety of different technologies. This includes GPS, camera-enabled computer vision, odometry as well as lidar and more. LIDAR is the combination of laser and radar. It measures the distance of an object by pointing a laser beam onto an object and using the return signal to determine distance. Odometry is collecting data from motion sensors. This enables vehicles to estimate an object's position. Computer vision makes visual images into descriptions. This data can interact with other elements of the driverless vehicle to cause necessary actions.

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Calibration

One of the challenges for the successful development of a driverless vehicle is its calibration. This is a way to make certain all systems in a driverless vehicle are working together. Sensors associated with laser beams currently take quite a bit of work to properly calibrate with a driverless vehicle’s other systems. Calibrations are currently done manually. New equipment and programs are being designed to develop a uniform calibration systems for mechanics. In the future, they will be repairing a self-driving vehicle.

Driverless Cars and Semi Trucks

The technology necessary to make driverless cars and semi-trucks possible is currently available and being developed. Lyft flash as well as Google are making their driverless car schemes become a reality in Pittsburgh. There is a driverless semi-truck called, “Freightliner Inspiration” currently in development. It is able to operate driverless until the semi-truck identifies something it isn't programmed to handle. It then notifies the driver they should take control.

Legal Issues

Everyone involved with the development of driverless vehicles accepts they will crash. This will affect the legal and insurance industries. It's a new technology that will cause new product liability issues to occur. Many states do not currently have laws addressing driverless vehicles. Technological safety requirements, insurance, law, data security and more will eventually need to be addressed by state governments.

The time when driverless vehicles will be common is fast approaching. It will create new transportation methods for individuals who are handicapped or unable to drive. This emerging technology will also change how society thinks of driving and transportation.

By  Rachelle Wilber	Embed

Self Driving Cars  

Once seen as purely science fiction, self driving cars are becoming more than a vision for the future; they are becoming a reality. But with this new technology comes concerns about safety. Premiering at the Red Hat Summit, the “Road to A.I.” is a documentary film that asks some of the most crucial questions facing the transportation and technology.

Premiering at Red Hat Summit, the “Road to A.I.” documentary film asks some of the most crucial questions facing the transportation and technology industries as we shift to a more autonomous future. How is artificial intelligence being programmed to make decisions we can live with? Can sharing data make self-driving cars more safe?

Part of Red Hat’s Open Source Stories film series, “Road to A.I.” is the latest installment from Red Hat to highlight and share stories about how openness is a catalyst for change.

Open source is changing the world in many different ways - from technology innovation and management advancements to innovations across sectors. Red Hat has long understood the power of collaboration to produce amazing results. With Open Source Stories, the team is showing what people can do when they make things in the open.

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The film features luminaries from the world of artificial intelligence including: Chris Nicholson, CEO of Skymind; Liam Paull, founder of Duckietown; Karl Iagnemma, CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy; Mary “Missy” Cummings, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Duke University; and Francois Chollet, A.I. researcher and author of Keras, a deep learning library for Python development.

"What is going to happen is that AI is going to become increasingly integral to our lives, to society. It will become basically part of the infrastructure of society," states Chollet. "It will become our interface to the world. To a world that will become increasingly information-rich and complex. AI is going to change what it means to be human."

From Tesla, to Uber, to Google, to BMW, to Toyota and more, businesses are betting and investing billions on self-driving cars, making them more than just a vision of the future (U.S. proposed $4B in 2016 to support movement). They are here now, and could make up 15% of all new cars bought by 2030 according to McKinsey, making it a timely conversation to dissect the open collaboration and data-driven approach behind the movement’s development.

"The application of AI to self-driving cars is the living-edge of AI," comments Nicholson. "It is really a great test of whether AI is really ready for the real world."

"We're kind of sewing the parachute on the way down."

Iagnemma states, "The self driving car industry is really at an interesting moment. We're kind of sewing the parachute on the way down, if you will. There is immense promise in this technology, because you could argue that it's a moral imperative that we should move quickly. We have within our grasp a technology, that once we get it right, we can put on the road and reduce or eliminate the tens of thousands of lives that are lost in the U.S. alone from motor vehicle accidents. So we have to move fast."

The technology though, for a large part, and despite the hype, is still in a research phase.

"When we talk about autonomous vehicles, and how they work, they all kind of work the same way regardless of whether or not we are talking about a drone or an automated car, or an automated train," says Cummings. "Any automated transportation device has to develop something we call the 'world model.' If you understand what the world around you is, then you then make decisions based on your world model."

The video presents how collaborative work on large amounts of data will lead to better algorithms for self driving technology. This includes computer vision, and the translation of data from the numerous sensors that are being used to develop automated driving, from motion sensors to LIDAR, to interpreting the behavior and intent of other road users.

SOURCE  Red Hat Open Source Stories

By  33rd Square	Embed

Self Driving Cars  

People everywhere are encouraged with the prospect of self-driving cars. The technology has the potential to virtually eliminate drunk driving and other distracted driving problems. It also may make enjoying our journeys possible, taking away our worries about the road and traffic.

A couple of decades ago, government regulators in Washington were interested in creating rules for software that could help disabled people. They sought help from all sectors of the industry. Eventually, they noticed that one company, Microsoft, contributed a lot more time and energy to the process than other companies did. After this dynamic continued for a while, the net result was that Microsoft ended up creating the lion's share of the requirements and explanation for people who were disabled and need to access software.

Because they did a good job, there were no complaints. In fact it has often been held up as a model of government cooperation with industry that works. Which is certainly something to think about as the US government turns to looking at creating federal standards for self-driving cars. According to some analysts, there is a very real chance that interference at too many levels of government could create problems for the industry- which is why they feel that the industry has lined up behind creating federal standards for self-driving cars. The federal government should save manufacturers money if they get involved as a benign presence.

Another thing about federal standards:

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When it comes to implementation of cars that have self-driving systems, the underlying radar and other systems that are used have been a question in the past. The problem isn't so much whether they work or not, because testing on existing models has shown that the major manufacturers systems are close to being perfect. Instead the concern is that someone will take the technology out of the car and modify it to do things like create virtual prisons in neighborhoods. The same radar that can look through the car ahead of you and tell you whether the car in front of that is stopping dangerously can also be used to look through walls of homes and detect motion. That capability allows criminals to pull the sensors from cars and use them to 'keep an eye' upon your home. They will know specifically when you come and go and where you are.

The answer for manufacturers is to rely on federal standards even more. Michigan state law already outlaws the use of electronics as weapons, making it easy for federal regulators to look to it as a model to curtail the use of car toys and features as prison wardens. With the stroke of a pen, liability for manufacturers could go away nationwide, making federal rules a pretty strong ally.

Uber is just one of many companies shaking up the future of transportation with self driving cars

Insurance questions will be answered

Another area that is in turmoil with regard to self-driving cars is how insurance rates will be handled. Switching to self driving cars should lower insurance rates to the point where they will allow customers to save quite a bit of money each year. Although there will likely be a challenge brought by insurance companies, there is a good opportunity for those in Washington DC to save automobile owners some money. According to iii.org, not only will prices on insurance likely move downward as cars integrate more self-driving technology into them, there will also be a trend away from car ownership because it will be easier to use a car that is community owned when you need it. So, according to people that compile information regarding future trends, there will likely be less insurance coverage necessary in the future.

So far, most people seemed pleased with the prospect of adding self-driving cars to the road. One positive is that they will do away with drunk driving and driving under the influence problems. Another benefit is the notion that people can enjoy their journey more because they are not watching the road.

By  Lindsey Patterson	Embed
Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

Self Driving Cars  

Ride sharing companies and others are using off-the-shelf technology to accelerate the development of self driving cars. Will autonomous vehicles be able to overcome regulatory capture, and push the technology into mass adoption? States like Arizona might point the way forward.

The reason for the rapid progression of autonomous vehicles is in general, probably due to the lack of regulation. Uber has been able to use off-the-shelf technology innovatively and forced regulators, and everybody else, to take notice.

Is Anyone To Blame?

There is no reason why existing taxi and limo services could not have built a similar platform. In fact, they were and arguably still are in a good position to compete with Uber and other ride-sharing companies. However, their response to this disruption seems counterproductive so far. At the same time, the economic landscape has provided strong incentives for these services to behave this way.

Larry Downes, best-selling author on technology, strategy, and policy wrote about this problem in 2013 in a Forbes magazine article titled "Lessons From Uber: Why Innovation and Regulation Don't Mix." Over time, regulators and the industries they oversee can both develop vested interests in maintaining the status quo. This effect is what political scientists call regulatory capture.

San Francisco has been relatively accommodating and have even promised to rethink any existing regulation. But Uber, which is providing substantial social value, thrives on flexibility; this is why states like Florida and Arizona, which are much less restrictive, are looking like better locations to develop this technology.

Moving Forward

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In Arizona, Governor Doug Ducey has helped ensure that Uber will not need a permit or license to drive their autonomous vehicles on public roads like they would in San Francisco. The executive order Ducey signed last year establishes a Self-Driving Vehicle Oversight Committee to help officials advance this new technology. While this has encouraged other companies to test their self-driving car projects in Arizona, many services are focusing on San Francisco and California in general. According to Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor and scholar associated with the University of South Carolina and Stanford Law School, California issued Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permits to 20 companies in 2016. Some of the entities that received permits include Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, and Google.

There is no doubt that some regulation is necessary to ensure public safety, predictable prices, and adequate insurance. These are imperative public interest goals that regulators and innovators alike cannot ignore. Therefore, some level of government oversight is expected and should even receive encouragement by companies interested in autonomous vehicles; a technology that will undoubtedly have an enormous impact on our economy and society. But since it is such a new technology, with so many uncertainties, regulators would be smart to allow for plenty of innovation by leaving as much as possible up to those who know the most about AVs. Otherwise, they run the risk of losing out on all the potential benefits these changes can bring. Michael J. Coren of Quartz magazine emphasizes, "For now, governments are walking a line between public safety, and stifling a technology with huge potential benefits for society."

The Pros & Cons of Regulation

For Uber, it is probably less about the autonomous vehicle testing permit and its cost and more about the additional restrictions that are likely to follow. For example, in addition to accident reports, the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Regulations require every manufacturer authorized to test autonomous vehicles on public roads to submit an annual report summarizing the disengagements of the technology during testing. In a recent article written for Government Technology magazine, Ryan McCauley notes that California's draft regulations contain language that would "require manufacturers to equip the vehicles with data recorders and release the data within 24 hours to law enforcement agencies."

California officials claim that they are minimizing errors by encouraging the exchange of information between manufacturers and developers. States and municipalities insist that they are primarily interested in collecting crash and disengagement data. But AV companies feel that collecting and making all this information public record will eliminate any competitive advantages they may currently have as a result of extensive development.

Arizona, on the other hand, is being much more lenient on ride-sharing services like Uber. Although Arizona insurance rates are some of the lowest in the country, if Uber can secure strategic partnerships, they may also be able to get a significant discount for themselves and their drivers like they are doing in India. Regardless, I think we can expect Uber will be continuing to seek favorable circumstances that allow them to innovate.

Top Image by Foo Conner

By  Lindsey Patterson	Embed
Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

Self Driving Cars  

American safety regulators have issued long-awaited guidelines for self driving cars. This initiative clarifies that the US government considers automated vehicles safer than human drivers on the nation's highways. The move promises to open the door for rapid adoption of the technology.

Federal auto safety regulators have issued long-awaited guidelines on driverless cars, making it clear that they consider automated vehicles safer than human drivers on the nation's highways. Promising strong safety oversight while opening the door wide for driverless cars, Jeffrey Zients, director of the National Economic Council, said "We envision in the future, you can take your hands off the wheel, and your commute becomes restful or productive instead of frustrating and exhausting."

Guidelines for Regulating Autonomous Vehicles

The newly released first guidelines are designed to balance concerns over public safety with the commercial interests of companies like Google, Tesla, Ford, Volvo, and Uber. Four main areas were covered by the Department of Transportation guidelines. A 15-point safety standard for the design and development of driverless vehicles was announced, including how driverless cars should react in case their technology fails, how to protect passenger privacy, how to protect occupants in crashes, digital security of driverless cars, and communication between cars, passengers and others users of the road. Anthony Foxx, DOT secretary said that the DOT would have authority to recall semi autonomous and fully autonomous cars found to be unsafe.

Uniform Oversight

In addition, the DOT called on states to develop uniform policies for driverless cars, the application of current regulations to driverless cars was clarified, and the door was opened for new regulations on the autonomous vehicle technology. In order to avoid a patchwork of state laws, the DOT would have oversight of the software technology used in autonomous vehicles while the states would continue to regulate driver licensing and insurance.

President Obama, in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial, pointed out the potential of automated vehicles to save tens of thousands of lives each year while calling on innovation to develop and deploy responsibly the technologies of tomorrow using flexible policies that evolve with new advances.

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Driverless Vehicle Insurance

Although several states where automakers are testing self-driving cars have already enacted specific regulations involving autonomous vehicles, insurance coverage for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles is still handled the same as insurance for traditional automobiles. Although there may be potential questions whether the driver or the software would be at fault in an accident, the insurer would still pay the claim, since auto policies carry no exclusions for software defects. Hartwig of the Insurance Institute believes it is too early for insurance rates to be affected by self-driving systems since there is little actuarial date so far to indicate whether the frequency of severity of accidents is significantly affected by technology this new.

Evolving Liability

The question of liability itself may evolve in cases involving driverless cars. Liability coverage is a large part of automobile insurance premiums for most drivers, reflecting the insignificant cost of their vehicle's physical damage repair compared to paying hospital bills or court fees when another driver is injured. For example, California insurance rates require a minimum of $15,000 in bodily injury coverage per person and $30,000 per accident, and $5,000 in property damage. Self-driving vehicles on the other hand would theoretically not create negligence liability for passengers, non-drivers and vehicle owners.

As more driverless vehicles enter the public highways and mix with human-driven cars, there will be an intermediate transition period where humans will accustom themselves to the new technology. Infrastructure may change as smooth roads and clean, well-marked lane divisions needed by driverless cars may become more uniformly available. Insurance costs may drop with better roads and safer autonomous driving. What changes will enable autonomous cars to recognize snow-covered roads or react optimally in adverse weather conditions? New risks of damage to sensors or satellite malfunction may arise. If autonomous vehicle ownership evolves into a shared ownership model, how will risks be evaluated for drivers in different households. Insurance may also evolve into a no-fault form with each party responsible for their own repair costs, or a premium based on usage or mileage may be employed, or still other models as driverless car usage matures.

By  Lindsey Patterson	Embed
Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

Social Media  

With 2016 coming to an end, internet analysts tend to dust off their prediction caps and start making predictions about how technology will shape the future of human interaction.

Judging by what transpired across social media channels in 2016, it is easy to predict that major changes will come about between now and 2020. Big social networks such as Facebook became so influential in daily life that they may have helped Donald Trump gain a substantial edge in his unlikely election to succeed President Barack Obama. To be sure, Trump showed the world how he could influence the financial markets and popular sentiment with a single Twitter update.

According to Data Never Sleeps, a report by Domo, there are now more mobile devices than humans in our world, which speaks volumes about how our communications are being transformed. The following are four incredible, game-changing trends we are likely to see in terms of the way we choose to exchange information with each other.

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Social Media Babies

Do newborn human creatures really need social media accounts? For celebrity parents such as Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna, creating various accounts across social networks for their baby daughter was as important as entering her into the civil registry and scheduling her pediatric medical checkups.

So now we can log into our Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter accounts to look for Dream Kardashian, who happens to be adorable. Naturally, her reality television parents are posting updates for her, but we are free to ponder just how long it will take for little Dream to start posting on her own. Will Twitter confirm her account and issue a blue check mark to verify that she is not an impostor? Will she later rebel against her parents and delete her social media presence? This is not a celebrity gimmick; according to research conducted by baby brand Gerber, as many as 40 percent of young mothers are setting up social media accounts for their babies.

Going Fully Visual

We can thank the internet for making us a nation of readers, but we may blame social media for replacing the reading trend with images and video, particularly live streaming.

According to studies conducted by market research firms such as Focus Vision, social networks such as Periscope that specialize in live streaming are attracting more attention than live television. Video conferencing on WhatsApp, Skype and Facebook Messenger is also a trend that is catching up with text messages.

E-Commerce Goes Social

In China, the versatile app WeChat is quickly becoming an employment and retail marketplace. This trend is expected to arrive in North America by 2018, and it is bound to switch the process of looking for jobs on LinkedIn to WhatsApp.

A similar transformation is expected to take place within social messaging apps such as Skype, which the enterprise world has truly embraced. Now that LinkedIn and Skype are owned by Microsoft, we can safely ponder that a merger of sorts may take place very soon.

Social Apps within Autonomous Cars

In 2016, the Obama administration was enthusiastic about the future of self-driving cars. Insurance companies certainly love the fact that autonomous vehicles are better at avoiding accidents than humans, and this could mean the end of texting and driving as a societal problem.

The infotainment systems of autonomous cars will become saturated with apps, and many of them will likely allow people to connect via social networks as they zip down the highway on full autopilot mode. Dating apps such as Tinder may update with new features that allow flirting while riding on self-driving cars.

If you think that a Brave New World of communications awaits us from now until the end of the decade, wait until the four trends above become the new social media standards.

By  Dixie Somers	Embed
Author Bio - Dixie is a freelance writer who loves to write about business, finance and self improvement. She lives in Arizona with her husband and three beautiful daughters.

Automotive  

We may not have flying cars yet, but at least self-driving cars are on the horizon. There are many innovations and technologies that have appeared in the automobile industry. Many of these ideas are still in the experimental stages and have not reached the mainstream market yet.

Although the automotive industry has not released many potential ground-breaking technology, it is important to know about current trends that have transformed the auto industry for good.

Smart Cars

Think of the smartphone that you use regularly. There is no reason why the text messages, videos and Internet access that appears in your phone should not appear in your car, too. Some car models have smart dashboards that perform the same tasks as smartphones. Make calls, send and receive text messages and look up GPS navigation all from the dashboard. Also, play music, watch videos and perform voice commands via the interactive touch screen. Using voice controls is the hands-off approach to keep your eyes focused on the road.

Autonomous Cars

Also known as self-driving cars, autonomous cars are getting more people interested in the future of the auto industry. Owning a fully robotic car is not possible yet, but more independent-thinking features are being included in vehicles.

An example is the active parking assist feature that acts as a parking assistant and beeps if you get too close to other cars. Some cars can drive and park themselves without drivers inside. The cars are equipped with cameras and motion sensors to guide movements.

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For now, autonomous features are found in a few select makes and models, but more models will be included in the future. Your car’s value depends on its model and condition. If you are truly interested in staying relaxed behind the wheel, be wary of all the models that will be marketed in the next few years. You are also going to want to make sure that you find a car that you know you can sell or get parts for from places like U Pull & Pay. That way you can make sure that your car is always properly maintained.

GPS Tracking

Have someone driving your car who you do not trust? Now, letting other people borrow your car is less of a concern with GPS tracking technology. Within minutes, install a device that gives you real-time data on any and every location of your car’s driver.

Thousands of innovative ideas have hit the auto industry in recent decades. The main idea is that cars are becoming more independent. Cars are using autopilot systems to drive themselves and using sensors to prevent you from getting into accidents. Cars were invented a little over 100 years ago, so expect to see more changes unfold in the next 100 years.

By  Kara Masterson

Embed

Self Driving Cars  

With the imminent transition from regular automobiles to self driving cars, many New Yorkers are wondering how this technological development will change their cultural landscape. The question is on the minds of many city dwellers around the world too.

Self driving cars, also known as robotic or autonomous cars, are built to navigate the streets with expert precision without any human input. Using computer vision, odometry, GPS, lidar and radar, self driving cars are able to plot the route to any given destination choosing the most practical navigation path.

No Longer a Question of If, but When?

The self driving car will be on the market by 2019. New York City is renowned for its complicated driving scenarios. The transition from regular automobiles to driverless cars appears imminent, and many New Yorkers are wondering how this technological development will change their cultural landscape.

Compared to the rest of the country, individual car ownership is uncommon in New York City. In other areas of the United States, 92 percent of households own a car, but in certain areas of NYC, like Manhattan, the percentage is as low as 23 percent (with a high of 84 percent in Staten Island). There is even an urban legend that you can't own a car in NYC, thanks to the extreme parking difficulties. This is untrue, of course, but parking is tricky and can cost up to 500 dollars per month.

Life is a Highway, I want my Car to Drive it

It is also notoriously difficult to drive in the snarls of traffic commonly found in New York City. Only the most experienced drivers stand a chance of holding their own in these situations, and more often than not citizens choose to catch a cab to their destinations instead. Considering these difficulties, driverless cars may produce positive results, eliminating the stress of driving and parking in the city.

Safety issues that arise from the self driving car range from the interesting to the outright bizarre. Driverless cars need to decide whether it's more important to protect pedestrians or its own passengers. For example, if the automatic car is on a collision course with a passel of pedestrians, should it sacrifice the driver by veering into a pole or plow into the pedestrians? This creates a social dilemma, where the owner of the car might be sacrificed to benefit the greater good.

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• How Self-Driving Cars Are About to Change Everything 

Cars are Out Performing People

Statistics so far seem to favor the driverless car's ability to maintain a high safety standard. The few examples we have paint a positive picture, assuring that self driving cars are responsible for very few accidents. In one point eight million miles, Google's self driving car was only in 13 crashes, all of them harmless fender benders and none of them the fault of the driverless car. Heightened vehicular safety would save lives and save money in property damage. The GPS in self driving cars, using VSAT technology, is more than capable of getting passengers home safe.

While the absence of a driver may create obstacles in determining liability in car accidents, the driverless automobile would greatly increase the comfort and convenience for elderly drivers who have difficulty manually operating a motor vehicle. Robotic cars would also be ideal for intoxicated drivers, who can simply hit the "home" button and relax while they are driven to their domicile, eliminating the danger of alcohol related casualties. Driverless cars could also cause a massive reduction in New York insurance premiums.

The Same New York, Different View

Self driving cars will likely be beneficial to New York City, making the streets safer and providing an extra level of convenience for passengers. There is no evidence that self driving cars will ruin NYC culture. From an aesthetic viewpoint, the city streets may appear a bit more orderly, but that's not a bad thing. New York City culture resides in the architecture of the city, and in the indomitable spirits of the residents. Individual car owners may prefer to navigate their automobiles the old fashioned way, but this preference will likely need to be abandoned to make way for self driving cars, which will be with us in a few short years.

By  Lindsey Patterson

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Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

Self Driving Cars  

Self driving car technology could eliminate the distracted driving-related statistic that has over 1000 people being injured everyday, and over eight being killed. As Elon Musk's latest news shows, the technology may be a lot closer than we think.

To some Americans, a driverless car society is a scary one. But to others, particularly of the younger generation, owning a self-driving car would be a futuristic dream come true, straight from the movie set. But, the two major ride-hailing companies, along with car manufacturers are already competing to enter this unknown market. Autonomous vehicles might not be too far off into the future.

An Autonomous Fleet of the Future

While owning self-driving vehicles might still be decades away, companies like Lyft and Uber are researching and testing this technology right now in the rental arena. In January Lyft announced its partnership with General Motors to create an autonomous fleet. In the current system, many drivers using their cars for these on-demand driving services are not fully covered by commercial liability insurance. John Zimmer, Lyft’s CEO, set a goal to improve their driver's experience and to invest in their drivers.

Though GM will still invest in privately owned car sales since this is a major portion of their business, they have partnered with Lyft to also grow in a different direction; renting instead of selling cars to drivers. GM won’t stop selling personal cars anytime soon, but this move will put GM at the forefront of driverless technology and the car rental, on-demand subscription service. “Our view is the change is going to happen. We want to be driving it and leading it," says Dan Ammann, General Motors President.

Consumers like this on-demand service, especially in urban areas where people are less likely to own their own vehicles. While GM is trying to maintain its foreground, other car companies aren’t far behind and Ford is promising to deliver this same technology in commercial fleets within five years.

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Vehicle and Liability

Today when insuring your vehicle, driver risk is taken into consideration. Insurance covers us in the event of an accident. But who’s fault is it in an autonomous vehicle? And who will be liable? The insurance industry will need to follow new laws and regulations created with the rise of autonomous vehicles. Investigations will include looking at the technology. Insurance agents will guide you on what to expect when picking insurance. But it’s still unclear who is considered at fault if there is an accident.

Accidents on the Road

Distracted driving kills eight people everyday, and injures over 1000 more, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Instead of paying attention to the road, we are reading billboards, searching out the best music, eating or drinking coffee, checking themselves in the mirror, and using technology while driving.

Driving and cell phone use is increasing over time and it’s estimated that over 600,000 drivers are on the road at all times using technology. Younger generations use technology more than older generations. Kids are using smartphones and tablets younger than ever before. So it’s no surprise the incidents of distracted driving is increasing over time.

While laws are there in the event of injury or death caused by a distracted driver, that hasn’t stopped people from texting and driving. Autonomous self-driving vehicles could eliminate the distracted driving statistic. Does this mean less accidents on the road?

Accidents are still a major concern among consumers when considering driverless technology. The idea promises safety, but not everyone is convinced. Tesla’s first auto-pilot fatal car crash showed the world that technology isn’t perfect, and often can’t be controlled. And the questions, who is responsible is at the top of everyone’s mind. Driverless technology is no longer the dream of science fiction movie buffs. In the very near future driverless cars will be a reality. Urban centers and commercial fleets will set the stage and reinvent the rental subscription service in the car industry, and could be a way to help make us all safer.

By  Lindsey Patterson

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Author Bio - Lindsey is a freelance writer specializing in business and consumer technology.

Self Driving Cars  

Self-driving cars might not be as far off in the future as you would think. This infographic has the statistics. It might take some time for us to adjust to it, but this technology is well on its way.

As we have extensively covered, self driving cars, or autonomous vehicles are the wave of the future. Already on the road and being developed by nearly every major car maker now, in just a few years from now, we may have access to this technology, which will likely make roads safer and make getting around easier than ever.

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SOURCE  Visualistan

By  33rd Square

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Self Driving Cars  

Self driving cars promise a future with fewer accidents, fewer traffic violations, and more time for people to do what they want. On the other hand, self-driving cars will make many of our tasks and jobs obsolete. Here are a few examples.

New technology is always replacing old technology. This is a good thing, for the most part. Both experts and the general public are looking forward to self-driving cars replacing cars driven by humans. There should be fewer accidents, fewer traffic violations, and more time for people to do what they want. However, it is important to note that self-driving cars will make many things obsolete. This will be positive overall, but will inevitably have some negative impact.

Will Traffic Officers Be Obsolete?

 

The vast majority of traffic violations are caused by human decisions. For example, a person may choose to go over the speed limit, which can result in them getting pulled over. A self-driving car, however, will not have this problem. It can easily be programmed to follow speed limits precisely. While this will certainly make driving safer, it will also put a lot of traffic officers out of work due to the reduced number of traffic violations. There are around 900,000 police officers in the United States, and many of them will lose their jobs. As with many of the dynamics sure to be caused by self-driving cars, it will make the world a better place, but not without casualties.

Valets and Parking Lot Attendants May Lose Their Jobs

 

Self-driving cars will also be able to self-park. In fact, some cars on the market today can already self-park. These cars will eventually put valets and parking lot attendants out of a job. While this demographic may sound inconsequential, there are over 140,000 people in this line of work throughout the country. These people are out of luck, but those with self-parking cars can save time and money.

Possibly the Hardest-hit Segment: Delivery Drivers

 

 

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While thousands of people work as valets and parking lot attendants, over 1.3 million work as delivery drivers in some capacity. Postal workers, those working for private package delivery services, pizza delivery workers, and many more will likely lose their jobs. These companies will not have to pay their workers, so they should be able to lower prices. Also, those receiving the deliveries will not be obligated to tip a self-driving car as they would a human. This will save them up to 15 or 20 percent of the cost of the delivery. There will still likely be a few delivery drivers for specialized packages, but this occupation will largely become a thing of the past.

Self-Driving Cars May Finish off the Railway Industry

 

The railroads were instrumental in the development of America. They provided fast, safe travel in a time before cars. Once cars became commonplace, railway travel started to decline. After being in declines for decades, it is has experienced a slight resurgence as of late with the advent of high-speed rail. These trains are very safe and can go nearly 200 miles an hour. However, they are still confined to railways, which self-driving cars are not. Also, with automotive travel being made much safer, speed limits may be raised as self-driving cars can drive almost flawlessly at any speed. This will further reduce any advantage trains may have over cars.

The timing is bad for the railway industry as well. The federal government has spent $11 billion dollars on high-tech trains and rails. Self-driving cars may mean all of their efforts are for nothing.

Car Insurance

 

The auto insurance industry is massive, with gross revenues of over $50 billion dollars a year for the biggest companies. However, the number of accidents would be greatly reduced with self-driving cars. This would, in turn, lower insurance premiums massively. It's not out of the question that state governments could stop requiring insurance altogether. While many people would still have limited policies, the bottom lines of car insurance companies would suffer greatly.

Mobile Provider Internet

Many people lucky enough to have self-driving cars would want to browse the Internet while waiting to get to their destination. It stands to reason that self-driving cars would have their own mobile dedicated Internet. This may come in the form of satellite Internet, Internet provided by cell phone companies like Sprint and Verizon, or some other form of wi-fi not yet commonplace.

57% of people browse the Internet on their phones. If people can use faster and cheaper Internet on their mobile devices than the Internet provided by their phone company, this could make the service obsolete. While Internet usage takes up a great deal of bandwidth, phone companies are able to make money from it. Self-driving cars may end up hurting their bottom lines, as well.

SOURCE  - Top Image via Vimeo

By Lindsey Patterson

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