Automatic cars, but what are the advantages?

Cars that are driven automatically will surely provide passengers with comfort on long journeys, but they also guarantee better security for daily use.

Cars that drive themselves, like that demonstrated by Google in 2010 or even BMW‘s recently presented new generation Series 5, will probably become a lot more common over time.

Some believe these cars provide additional comfort for the driver, as they will no longer have to hold the steering wheel for long periods, while it may even become possible to do more interesting things in the same way as in a plane or train. Passengers will no longer have to find their route, as this will be done thanks to the GPS which will guide the car.

Others are hoping that this will lead to a significant reduction of accidents, and therefore deaths, on the road. Complete with the full range of sensors, these autonomous cars will permanently monitor their environment to continually assess the cars performance for the number of kilometres driven, passengers request, radio station change requests, mobile phones that may ring or even how much alcohol has been consumed. This will also reduce the number of dangerous lane changes, will ensure that safe following distances are adhered to and even help avoid pedestrians that come from nowhere. When talking about fewer accidents on the road, this also means lower costs for emergency services while freeing up such people for other emergencies.

This is what is being communicated in the graph below when putting forward the advantages of autonomous vehicles:

The advantages of autonomous vehicles (click to enlarge; credit Mashable)