California’s decision to legalize self-driving cars has set off a flurry of articles about what this means for our future. One of the most thoughtful is written by Brad Templeton. Highlights include:

• We may have self-driven “bed-cars” where individuals can sleep as the car takes them to their destination. The car may even calibrate its route to last 8 hours even if a faster route is available.
  • This could lead to people working further away from home as they know they can get some shut-eye during the commute.
• If driver-less cars attain a good safety record then we may allow passengers to get rid of seat belts and even walk and move around as they commonly do in buses and trains.
• Currently car suspensions are designed to let you get a feel of the road so that you can react to it. Driverless cars don’t have to do that and advanced suspension could mean a perfectly smooth and stable ride. A camera may even analyze the road ahead and adjust the car or the route accordingly so that you don’t feel any potholes on the way.
• Such cars could also perfectly sync up with traffic signal schedules meaning that there won’t be constant accelerations and decelerations. This might mean that your vehicle will slowly obtain top speed (or the most fuel efficient speed) on the way to work, and gradually bring you to a gentle stop.

Read more about how our cars might become mobile homes and why our vehicles will become more specialized, as well as much more in an comprehensive look at our future over here.

Source: Templetons

Via: Kottke