Autonomous vehicles are here. Let’s embrace them

Highly autonomous vehicles are coming to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport.

“Called Glydcars and made by a company called Glydways,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported “the podcars are coming as part of a long-planned pilot involving the ATL Airport Community Improvement Districts and MARTA to explore alternative and innovative transportation options at the airport.”

The Glydcars are self-driving and will shuttle jetsetters from the airport to the Georgia International Convention Center—in a manner similar to ridesharing apps. “Riders use an app to request a Glydcar,” according to the Journal-Constitution. “The pod, which can fit four adults or a family of six, then comes to [the] loading bay to pick up passengers.” This represents a technological leap forward, but it is just one humble step toward transforming transportation in the Peach State for the better—a future we should embrace.

Numerous companies have been working to perfect driverless vehicles for several years, and various kinds are rolling out across the country. Alphabet-owned Waymo is one such company. Using complex computing, artificial intelligence, a host of censors, cameras, radar and light detection and ranging (LiDAR), Waymo operates fleets of driverless cars that serve as robot taxis in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Come 2025, consumers will be able to hail self-driving Waymo vehicles in Atlanta too.

Waymo isn’t the only pioneer in this field. “Other autonomous vehicle companies like General Motors’ Cruise and Amazon’s Zoox are vying for a share of a market that could one day be worth as much as $5 trillion, some analysts estimate,” reads the New York Times. Meanwhile, Tesla offers an autopilot function as well, although it relies on different technology than Waymo.

AVs may seem like a curiosity, but they are the future. Like the internal combustion engines that largely replaced the horse-drawn carriage, driverless vehicles will eventually become ubiquitous. If you keep an eye out, you may even see them in Atlanta where Waymo has been testing its robot taxis, and they have previously tested highly autonomous semi-trucks in Georgia too. Like with any technology, there are sure to be some skeptics, but the promise AVs hold is immeasurable.

Roughly 94 percent of vehicular accidents are caused by human error or negligence. People drive drunk, while texting, while sleepy, and make honest mistakes behind the wheel. The results are catastrophic. In 2022, there were nearly 1,800 traffic fatalities in Georgia, and many more accidents that resulted in injuries. But do you know what doesn’t drink, get sleepy or distracted with texting? AVs. They can remove the human element that leads to many accidents—saving lives and improving traffic.

As anyone who has ever attempted to drive through Atlanta during rush hour knows, it’s unbearably bad. Atlanta has 6 of the nation’s 20 worst traffic bottlenecks, and a 2022 study found that Atlanta has the 10th worst traffic in the country. There are plenty of reasons for traffic congestion. Accidents bring traffic to a halt or drivers engage in rubber-necking. Again, increased numbers of driverless vehicles could reduce accidents and driver rubber-necking, which will improve traffic.

Sometimes construction impedes traffic and road usage approaches capacity, which can cause slow-downs called phantom traffic jams. This leads to ever-annoying stop-and-go traffic patterns, but they are caused by human nature. A 2017 study discovered that replacing around 5 percent of vehicles with driverless cars noticeably alleviates the nuisances associated with phantom traffic jams.

Perhaps one of the most overlooked benefits of autonomous vehicles is what they can do for the elderly and disabled. “Because no human is needed behind the wheel to drive or operate the vehicle, [autonomous vehicles] will provide greater freedom for people with disabilities, those without driver’s licenses, and older adults who can no longer drive to commute and move about the community,” the U.S. Department of Labor wrote.

Like any technology, driverless vehicles aren’t perfect, but they are rapidly improving and have already demonstrated their public safety and societal benefits. While some may not be entirely comfortable with them yet, as Waymo, Glydcars, Amazon, General Motors and others increasingly operate autonomous vehicles in Georgia, those sentiments will change. A colleague recently took a Waymo ride in Phoenix and was stunned by the ease and comfort of the experience. “The robots seem like better drivers than humans,” he mused.

Remember that newer technologies generally alarm a portion of the population. There was a time when trains, televisions and telephones scared some people to no end, but we no longer give these technologies a second thought. They are central to our lives and have enriched society in so many ways. The same will happen with driverless cars, and when they are launched here in greater numbers, we should embrace them.