Part 29 - It's a new world, its a new day - Feeling good

The turn of a new year.
With the advent of a new year comes new things, promises and challenges.
This year, more than ever I am glad I live in Australia.

I think the challenges we face pale in comparison to many other countries and for that I am grateful.

Last week saw CES in Las Vegas happening with quite a bit of emphasis on Autonomous Vehicles.

Ford made a major announcement that its Autonomous Vehicle will be released for on road use for Uber type services in 2021 (less than 4 years from the time of writing) and available in showrooms for public purchase by 2025.
The major difference here is that it won't have steering wheel or pedals for the taxi fleet. It is undecided at this point whether the private owner model will or won't have them.

 They are looking to have 30 vehicles (with safety drivers) on the road shortly and 90 by the end of this year.

This of course is very dependent on how the new US President reacts to computers taking over the current jobs of drivers in the Taxi/Uber industry.

This creates a major conundrum and a huge headache for someone who wants to keep jobs.
The question is, do you move to Automated Vehicles and keep the tech industry at the leading edge or keep the manual jobs and let China and others take the lead in technology which will probably cost the US economy far more in the longer term?

One of the challenges I alluded to earlier and the tip of the iceberg when it comes to automation.

So, what else has come out of CES?

Chrysler has announced a Concept AV called the Portal.
This doesn't physically exist but has a great CGI animation.

According to the blurb it is designed "by millennials for millennials".

The new startup Faraday Future’s FF 91 is supposedly in production soon and has several test vehicles.

Toyota has a concept called the, oddly enough, Concept - i.

 Apart from the concepts, it appears the least reported but most significant things top affect AV's is the underlying technology.

Most of the developers were in the car parks showing off their new tech but this stuff doesn't have the glamour and therefore doesn't rate as highly in the news reports but is the structure that will make or break acceptance of the technology.

Can't wait for the day when a robot at CES steals an autonomous car, hacks it and does burnouts in the carpark. 

On another note, I have mentioned that Navya along with the RAC and the State Government here in Perth Western Australia is trialing an autonomous bus which they refer to as the Intellibus and is taking passengers around South Perth.

I am fortunate enough to have a seat on a test run next week and will record this and will do a blog on the experience.

Something to look forward to for me at least, you, maybe not so much.