The Future of Driverless Cars

What is the future of driverless cars? There has been much talk about the topic, but we wanted to compile a list of what companies are involved in the movement, and when we can expect to see driverless cars on the road.

One of the major company duos in the driverless car industry are General Motors Co. and Lyft Inc.. In the next year GM and Lyft plan to begin testing on a fleet of self-driving taxis on public roads. These Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis may be in competition with other Silicon Valley companies also trying to enter into the driverless world. Today, the Lyft CEO John Zimmer announced that within the next 5 years the majority of their rides will be through driverless cars. Zimmer also predicts that within the next 10 ears, car ownership in major cities will be nonexistent.

Google is also another large company who we can expect to see a lot of regarding the future of driverless cars. Google has been one of the main companies currently testing driverless models, and they even partnered with automaker Ford to advocate federal approval of driverless cars. However, the two companies have not formally stated plans to create a driverless car together-- at least not yet. 

Another automaker fearful of technolgy companies taking over the autonomous vehicle industry is Toyota, who recently announced their participation in the movement. Toyota said it would invest in Silicon Valley talent and give more than $1 billion towards the resesarch and development of the autonomous vehicle. They plan to make driverless cars and have them fully operating by 2020.

So, what is the future of driverless cars? We are not sure exactly what it will mean for major cities and personal ownership of vehicles, but these innovative companies will definitely be in the forefront of the movement, which we predict will likely occur within the next 5 years. Leave us your comments below!

Felicia is an intern at Ride.Guru. She is from upstate NY, and is currently pursuing a Marketing degree at Bentley University. One day she hopes to travel the world and visit every continent.