A driverless, self-driving or robotic car is a vehicle that can sense and navigate its environment without a human operator.
Many such vehicles are being developed, but as of February 2017, robotic cars permitted on public roads were not yet fully self-directed. Companies developing and testing driverless cars include Audi, BMW, Ford, Google, General Motors, Volkswagen and Volvo.
According to Richard Bamujje, marketing executive at Uganda Motor Care, the driverless revolt has begun to reduce the number of accidents, improve production compliance and ease congestion.
He says the driverless technology industry, which is expected to be worth £900bn globally by 2025, is currently growing by 16 per cent annually. To him, self-driving cars are safe with a good structure and technology, including the Global Positioning System (GPS), which they depend on to move.
“However, the GPS data is not accurate enough to keep the car on the road and in the correct lane. Instead, the driverless car uses data from all eight sensors, interpreted by Google’s software, to keep you safe and get you from one place to another,” he says.
He adds self-driving cars are not yet in Uganda because they use high technology that is not yet here.
“Uganda is still far away in acquisition pecking order to use these cars here. They require advanced road infrastructural designs, high-caliber internet prowess and lots of user training in addition to back-end efficiencies. It signals a transformation into a machine-run economy,” he says.
Like Bamujje, Kyambogo Car Showroom’s sales representative Bob Wamono would use a self-driving car because it’s safe since, according to Google, there are no recorded accidents so far.
“Accidents due to drink-driving are not there since it’s driven by computer,” he says. “A self-driving car is cost-saving in terms of insurance and healthcare costs associated with accidents. It would also save me from parking fees on the streets and theft because after dropping me where I want, I can command it to park in a free and safe place.”
Wamono adds that such cars would be advantageous to the physically disabled, and ideal for many since one would not require a driving permit.
RISKY
Susan Namukasa, the sales executive at Japan Yan Motors, says she can’t let a self-driving car control her life.
“If I am always scared in a vehicle driven by a person and can’t trust the driver 100 per cent, what of the vehicle driven by a robot? I can’t trust it,” she says, adding that the operating system might fail and cause an accident at any time.
Businessman Muhammad Lukwago says since about 90 per cent of motor accidents in the world are due to human error, the driverless cars are likely to escalate the problem because computers can get a problem or virus while the car is on the move.
For Mariam Nalukenge, it is uncertain how such cars would drive through roadblocks or other traffic warning signs which can hardly be identified by computers.
“It’s hard to determine its safety in case of bad weather conditions like heavy rain or too much wind which can easily cause accidents,” Nalukenge says.
Ruth Namusoke is worried driverless cars would consequently render drivers jobless, as folks lose their driving skills.
zurah@observer.ug