After a short sighted week, the idea of autonomous cars interested me.
In an article titled Preparing a Nation for Autonomous Cars, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856415000804, Autonomous vehicles are able to provide independence to those who are unable to drive, such as the elderly and young children. They also can lessen the amount of vehicles on the road due to increased usage of a single vehicle compared to limited usage of multiples vehicles.
Possible ideas cited by Euromonitor International included renting out your car while you’re at work to let them drive other people around. http://blog.euromonitor.com/2016/11/maximising-value-autonomous-vehicle.html
In Singapore, a company named nuTonomy is already testing their platform for autonomous cars.
But being a new upcoming technology, the autonomous car is polarizing. By asking around, the fact that it drives itself leads to distrust, and the lack of control creates fear. Thus it became clear that there’s a gap between fantasy and reality. Peer suggested that my project should include keeping passengers assured throughout their journey, and such I should imagine about the situations that will arise when an autonomous car drives around the streets of today, and also the minimum amount of information to show passengers to assure them. Besides the vehicle itself, Peer also suggested the different kinds of signage to implement in a world with autonomous cars. By determining these, I can narrow down the most important issues.