Mainstream Self-Driving Cars

In 2014, California joined Nevada in issuing permits for self-driving vehicles—a big step, to be sure, but automated cars like Google’s and Volvo’s remain novelties for the time being. So when can we expect robot carriages for the masses to begin hitting the roadways? Davide Santo, the head of Freescale’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems microcontroller business, says mainstream, semi-autonomous vehicles should arrive around 2017. Over the next decade, we’ll begin sharing the road with fully automated cars, trucks, and buses. And eventually, Santo believes, the self-driving versions will likely crowd out driver-operated vehicles in all but a few designated areas, to the point that human-controlled driving goes the way of the horse-drawn buggy.

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