Member-only story
Grand Convergence Sparks Advent of AI Driverless Cars, Mystery Revealed
Dr. Lance B. Eliot, AI Insider
When I speak at industry events about the advent of AI self-driving driverless cars, I almost always get this question: Why now?
Why are we now seeing such a widespread interest and advancement in self-driving cars, you might also wonder. Some inquirers feel that this is like suddenly discovering a new movie star and wonder what sparked that person to vault into stardom. Tagging onto that analogy, I explain that just like the proverbial small-time actor that starved and took on any off-Broadway acting roles they could find, it has taken many years of toiling in research labs and universities that has preceded the now more visible appearance of self-driving cars.
Since the invention of the horseless carriage, there have been dreams of someday having a car that can drive itself. During the pre-computers era, attempts to develop a self-driving car were pretty much DOA (Dead on Arrival), since the kind of technological capability to achieve self-driving cars did not yet exist.
During the early days of the introduction of computers, researchers realized that the potential for a self-driving car reasonably now existed, doing so by harnessing computers to act on behalf of a human driver. If you take a look at the body of…