Your Next Car May Be a Robot

Are we really embracing the era of the self-driving car? According to Volkswagen/Audi and Toyota/Lexus, the answer to that is yes! As the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas gets underway with a record number of auto manufacturers presenting, high tech auto choices are becoming more and more the norm.

Audi’s self-parking feature was demonstrated at CES to awed crowds. With the push of a button, the car (with the driver outside of it) parks itself by using a series of sensors to navigate its space. Audi sees the human driver as a “co-pilot” and envisions a time when the car itself will handle the mundane aspects of driving like stop and go traffic. The manufacturer also has a permit to test autonomous vehicles on the road, something only Google so far has attempted.

Meanwhile, Lexus is also exploring the further realms of tech assist with a car that scans objects around it, identifies traffic signals, and a radar that measures the speed and location of objects near it.

Many high-end vehicles already include such driver assist tech as lane-departure warnings, blind-spot warnings, and adaptive cruise control, not to mention the parallel parking assist.

Auto makers see this technology as helping to increase safety on the roads, less an elimination of driving skills than a partner in making good decisions. That may be the case, but it still feels to us like we’re building our cars to be smarter than we are.

Watch the LEXUS research in action: