Cars That Drive Themselves

Lower gas prices have meant a return to American’s No. 1 motoring complaint: traffic. At $4-plus a gallon, freeways emptied out, and those who could afford to fuel their cars were treated the massive transportation planning as it was meant to be, before the congestion crisis of the past 20 years or so. When the price of gas plummeted, idle vehicles left the garage and returned to the roadways. Rush hour was again not very rushed.

So naturally, the question of automated highways has come back, too. The government was heavily involved with this idea in the 1990s, as this rundown indicates. However, as with many recent attempts to revamp the way we get from A to B, the initiative crashed into the manifold challenges of Very Large Engineering.

However, automakers have begun to take up the problem. Volvo showcased a collision avoidance system at this year’s New York Auto Show, and other car companies have developed various systems that allow vehicles to essentially communicate with one another, exchanging real-time information about traffic conditions.

This is all part of making cars smarter to counteract drivers who, it’s widely believed, are just too dumb to take in all the inputs that operating a vehicle now involves.

In truth, they are too dumb. In the old days, when cars were physically harder to drive, a higher level of concentration was required to operate them. Even now, anyone who drives a stick-shift knows that they have to stay more focused when behind the wheel.

But most modern cars have isolated drivers more and more from their operation and further distracted them with elaborate entertainment systems, navigation options, and, in the case of hybrids, active displays that allow drivers to track their real-time mileage. (We won’t even get into cell phone, texting, etc.) As a result, automakers are pitching their “smart” car features less as a means to evade congestion and more as a way to achieve improved safety. And while cars and highways that drive themselves sound great, safety sells.