The autonomous company car is coming – with 43 percent of businesses predicting they’ll soon have driverless cars on their fleet once the technology is ready for use on public roads.
TITLE
Why your next company car could drive itself
BULLET POINTS
• Autonomous cars are coming in next five years
• Nearly half of firms predict they’ll have driverless cars on fleet
• Self-driving company cars will soon be a reality
The autonomous company car is coming – with 43 percent of businesses predicting they’ll soon have driverless cars on their fleet once the technology is ready for use on public roads.
New research by leasing giant Arval found that nearly half of companies polled believe their drivers will accept self-driving technology.
Manufacturers are furiously readying autonomous technologies which will let cars drive themselves, spurred on by fresh competition from the likes of Google, which has already shown a prototype of its autonomous pod.
***H2*** When will autonomous company cars become a reality?
We’re already well on the road to fully self-driving cars, as many existing camera and radar-based safety systems are networked to provide driver assistance.
So that radar-based cruise control which keeps a predetermined gap to the car in front is, in reality, just a stepping stone technology to full autonomous driving.
Most experts predict that fully driverless cars should be viable on public roads by around 2020.
***H2*** Fleet drivers’ attitudes to self-driving cars
Shaun Sadlier, head of consultancy at Arval which undertook the research, said: “Autonomous cars will represent a huge change in how vehicles are used, and bearing in mind that virtually no fleet managers will have had the chance to examine one yet, a 43% acceptance rate is already quite high.
“It is likely that, if autonomous cars are shown to operate effectively on UK roads in a real-world environment, this figure could rise quickly – although we also expect that there will remain a core of employees who will always want to drive themselves.”
New research by leasing giant Arval found that nearly half of companies polled believe their drivers will accept self-driving technology.
Manufacturers are furiously readying autonomous technologies which will let cars drive themselves, spurred on by fresh competition from the likes of Google, which has already shown a prototype of its autonomous pod.
When will autonomous company cars become a reality?
We’re already well on the road to fully self-driving cars, as many existing camera and radar-based safety systems are networked to provide driver assistance.
So that radar-based cruise control which keeps a predetermined gap to the car in front is, in reality, just a stepping stone technology to full autonomous driving.
Most experts predict that fully driverless cars should be viable on public roads by around 2020.
Fleet drivers’ attitudes to self-driving cars
Shaun Sadlier, head of consultancy at Arval which undertook the research, said: “Autonomous cars will represent a huge change in how vehicles are used, and bearing in mind that virtually no fleet managers will have had the chance to examine one yet, a 43 percent acceptance rate is already quite high.
“It is likely that, if autonomous cars are shown to operate effectively on UK roads in a real-world environment, this figure could rise quickly – although we also expect that there will remain a core of employees who will always want to drive themselves.”
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