Imagine waking up to a new day. A smart alarm clock nudges you awake at the optimal time, as you check your smartwatch to see how the quality of your sleep was. As you ready yourself for work, the virtual assistant on your smart speaker reads you the news, and weather and traffic conditions as you brush your teeth.
Freshly brewed coffee from the automated coffee machine awaits you as you grab a cup before work. Just as you are about to head out of the door, a drone from the logistics company drops off a package just in time. You are scheduled to reach the office at 9am and you get some work done on the commute, thanks to your self-driving car.
All this sounds like science fiction, but the foundation for this scenario to happen is here today. Here are some tech trends from 2018 that are making the above a reality.
SELF-DRIVING CARS
The idea of self-driving cars sounded preposterous a few years ago but it is, in fact, becoming a reality sooner than we think. Self-driving cars could potentially make our commute to work less stressful as it frees us from concentrating in rush hour traffic. It is a combination of machine learning algorithms working together with car sensors and software to navigate a variety of real-world settings.
Self-driving cars, built by companies like Uber, Tesla and Waymo, are already being tested on a number of highways in the United States. The technology, however, is far from perfect as, in March 2018, a self-driving Uber car fatally struck a pedestrian. This calls into question the readiness of these machines for real-life situations. It also raises concerns about the ethics that these machines rely on – whether it should prioritise the safety of its passengers or the pedestrians around it.
That being said, it may be a long while before we can call up one of these self-driving vehicles to take us through busy traffic without any hands on the steering wheel.
