Cars are becoming smarter, more autonomous, and therefore one step closer to the total emancipation of the human element — perhaps it's worth visiting an article I wrote in 2012 on this topic. An emancipation that will bring enormous benefits to society (reduction of accidents, reduction of traffic and urban traffic) and, of course, challenges for the car industry in equal measure — will you have a car in the future or will you share a car?
The entire automobile industry is “crawling” with these and other issues.
However, not everything is roses. The pleasure of driving, the freedom that only that road made in that car offers us, that curve and those summer nights driving towards an uncertain destination, things of the past are coming closer and closer. A romanticism. Just as the automobile once drove horses and carriages off the road, soon it will be the modern automobile to take the reins of driving and drive humans off the wheel.
I doubt that in 10 years or 15 years there will be room on the road for the distractions and exaggerations typical of our species. Believe me, autonomous cars will take over the roads and we will change from drivers to passengers.
They are already there...
But if this is bad news for four-wheelers, it is music to motorcyclists' ears. Motorcyclists have been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the evolution of the automobile. Lane change warnings, blind spot detectors, automatic braking in the event of a collision, are all examples of systems that have certainly saved a lot of trouble for motorcyclists and canned goods. And with the democratization of autonomous driving, motorcyclists will say “goodbye” definitively to changes in the trajectory of cars without flashes, to overtaking in inappropriate places, to distractions and collisions because “sorry, I was using my cell phone”.
In short, cars will depend on no one and motorcyclists will only depend on you. The roads will be safer than ever for the leather jacket kids.
A paradise of curves and counter-curves ready to be explored without external variables other than the fearsome potholes that grow like mushrooms on our roads. It is safe to say that a significant proportion of road accidents involving motorcycles are due to distractions on the part of car drivers. So, in this scenario of absolute control of the car by the car , motorcycles are very likely to prove to be the ultimate vehicle to slake the human craving for speed and strong emotions — our opium, remember? Cars as we know them have their days numbered, but motorcycles don't.
Furthermore, motorcycles are also becoming safer. Have you approached any current superbike? They are authentic technological textbooks. Anti-whellie system (aka anti-horse), traction control, ABS and another endless number of accelerometers controlled by complex algorithms that deceive us and leave us with the feeling that we could discuss curves with Miguel Oliveira or Valentino Rossi , such is not the feeling of control that these systems offer in machines that surpass 200 hp.
Horses at the racecourse. Cars on the racecourse. And motorcycles on the roads? Very likely. It's wait and see.