Autonomous Cars Will Usher in Things We Never Saw Coming

Despite all the hysteria around the recent Tesla Autopilot crash, there's no doubt that full self-driving cars are coming. We just have no idea what a future world of autonomous vehicles will look like.

We know that they'll reduce car accidents, time wasted in traffic, parking hassles, and probably road rage. But there are also big unknowns, and not just about mundane aspects of self-driving technology such as insurance, liability, and vehicle ownership. It will be things we never saw coming.

To help people—at least those my age, give or take a decade—understand the unforseen impact of self-driving cars, I ask you to think back 20 years, to when the Internet was still in its dial-up infancy.

Just think if, in 1996, you told someone that in 20 years we would use the Internet to post pictures of food online so that our family and friends could view and comment on them. That people would post their observations and thoughts on the Web 140 characters at a time—and it would help overthrow governments. Or that you would be able to view cute cat videos 24/7.

Of course, no one can predict the future or exactly how self-driving cars will remake our means of moving around in metal containers with wheels. But I recently ran across a blog post by Jan Chipchase, the founder of the research and design consultancy firm Studio D Radiodurans, which is an interesting—and at time scary—take on what to expect.

Whether Chipchase's forecasts, which are "inspired by a session with an automotive client," are accurate or not, his insights further confirm that we have no idea what's down the road.

Carbaiting, ConvoyAds, and Dringers
I'm sure that some of Chipchase's predictions are already occurring as Google's autonomous vehicles (AV) are tested in California. Car baiting, for example, is "an action by a human to trigger a response from an autonomous vehicle."

Chipchase adds that "motivations include … the very human enjoyment of being mischievous," such as stopping suddenly in front of an AV or seeking "financial rewards from an insurance claim."

I can also see ConvoyAds, or self-driving cars plastered with ads driving around a city, occurring sooner than later. Modesty windows, which "will sense when the vehicle's occupants are asleep and/or engaged in a highly personal activity," are also totally foreseeable.

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But others give us a glimpse of what an autonomous vehicle future may hold. Closely related to car baiting, "drone-car baiting" employs "UAVs to trigger a response from an autonomous vehicle, from the annoyance of setting off a car alarm by landing on its roof to flying close to its sensors to force [a] non-avoidable accident event." Chipchase foresees this leading to autonomous vehicles "adopting anti-drone defenses."

For various reasons (to deter ConvoyAds, for example), Chipcase suggests municipalities may restrict self-driving cars in certain areas, like requiring that someone be in the vehicle at all times. That where a "dringer" comes in, or someone hired to function as the car's babysitter. "The legal boundaries between jurisdictions will be marked by clusters of hired-on-demand humans waiting to dring," Chipcase writes.

Perhaps most disturbing (and unfortunately not farfetched) is AVBIED, or "autonomous vehicle borne improvised explosive devices." Chipchase notes that "as anyone who has spent time in a city where VBIEDs are common will attest, you'll never look the same at a vehicle again."

Luddite hardcore car enthusiasts who fear that the pleasure of human driving will be taken away will be forced to "go vinyl" and drive "Full manual." But let's hope that in 20 years that won't be illegal.