Microsoft founder Bill Gates recently took a self-driving car ride in London and described his experience as a bit strange. He now believes that autonomous vehicles are going to be a big change in the transportation sector.
Bill Gates has shared his thoughts on autonomous vehicles in a blog in which he has written that he has described this technology as a huge change, comparing it to the way PCs have changed the work of the office.
During this car ride, he was accompanied by a safety driver who also intervened several times. Bill Gates has experienced a self-driving car ride made by UK tech start-up Wavye and described it as memorable.
He was quite impressed with the way the car was navigating through the traffic. “Many autonomous vehicles can navigate the street with what’s loaded into their systems, but Wavy’s vehicles act like a person,” he said.
When we drive a car, we make decisions using knowledge from our past driving experience. So we know what to do when we see a stop sign even if we have never passed that sign on that road.
Bill Gates pointed out that Wave achieves similar results with the help of deep learning technology. Its algorithm learns from examples, reacting in real-time using knowledge gained from real world driving and the environment around you.
He further added that the result was a ride to remember. This car took us through downtown London, one of the most challenging driving environments around, and it was incredible to be in this car when it left all the traffic behind.
Regarding autonomous vehicles, he said that several automobile companies, including GM, Honda and Tesla, are already producing vehicles with autonomous features that look similar to conventional vehicles.
However, the full transition to a fully autonomous vehicle will take decades. He says that people will not like to drive a car which does not have a steering wheel. Tesla’s cars have also come in the market with this technology.
