Autonomous cars will dominate the streets by 2022, according to Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
The firm, which has an established autonomous car program, wants to give drivers control of their cars; their autonomous cars are not driverless cars — instead, drivers can decide when they want to drive and when they want the car to drive for them.
Ghosn says that autonomous cars provide a “huge advantage” for drivers, and as a result, the industry will have “massive growth” in the coming years. Instead of focusing on the road for hours at a time, people can “rest … relax … see a movie” while the car does its work for them.
See also: Renault and Powervault partner to power home battery units
With autonomous cars featured heavily in news reports — and even spotted in several testing-ground locations in the United States — the hype surrounding autonomous cars begs the question: when will we see autonomous cars on the road?
Ghosn believes that most cars will have autonomous technology, as well as some kind of connectivity, by 2022.
In much of the developed world, people spend a lot of time in their cars. The United States and Australia feature at the low end of the spectrum, with people averaging about one hour per day in their car, while in parts of Europe and China, people spend an average of two hours per day driving.
Self-driving race is on
Autonomous cars will free up that time so that people can be more productive; those hours can be used to work on reports or presentations, or even increase the amount of time people can spend with friends and family. This increased leisure time, Ghosn says, will improve people’s quality of life.
Competition for the quickest development and launch of autonomous cars is on the rise, especially between technology behemoths Google, Uber and Apple, who have all started and are developing autonomous and driverless car programs. Still, Ghosn says that Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Alliance is well-poised to dominate the autonomous car market.
While Google, Uber and Apple all look to electric cars as the future, Ghosn claims, the Alliance has already dominated the electric car market with the Nissan Leaf, and the Alliance as a whole has sold more than 420,000 electric vehicles around the world.
Ghosn believes that the Alliance’s historically successful development of electric cars will give them the upper hand in the race to create the best-selling autonomous car of our time.
