It's Time To Swallow Our Pride And Accept Autonomous Cars

Automation is one of the hot topics right now. CTzens aren’t generally keen on the idea if half the comments you read on the subject are anything to go by. But I think that’s a knee-jerk reaction to a solution that could take a lot of the stress and danger out of one specific type of driving.

Motorways, freeways, autobahn: whatever your road network’s largest corridors are called, they are in isolation things of grace and beauty, crossing hills, valleys, rivers and train tracks to make driving between two places much quicker than it otherwise would be. The drivers who use them, though, have ruined them beyond all recognition.

Traffic jams sometimes happen because people can’t cope with traffic volumes, slowing down too much and getting too close to each other. Traffic can form because someone wasn’t paying attention and had an accident. Jams spring out of nothing just because someone has broken down and everyone wants to take a look.

Even when things are moving, idiots can’t keep their car in one lane, can’t read the road markings and can’t read the traffic ahead. They brake constantly, swerve from lane to lane without indicating, block the middle and outer lanes, sit half a car’s length off the bumper in front, drive on main beam, drive at 45mph, drive at 145mph, cut into small gaps right in front of you, do the same to trucks as they’re slowing down and even cross multiple lanes to swerve off down an exit slip road at the last minute.

This has got to stop. Too many people are either aggressively or pathetically ignorant of the rules of the road, especially when it comes to motorways. For example, traffic on the main carriageway in the UK has the right of way. That’s defined by law. No one has to clear the inside lane for you when you’re coming down a slip road to join it; it’s your job to match your speed and find a safe gap. But the amount of people who in various ways can’t understand or simply can’t manage it is infuriating. These morons are accidents waiting to happen.

The problem, of course, is a combination of a lack of official instruction and a lack of interest. The system simply assumes you’ll read the Highway Code properly, which, of course, almost no one does, and no one who does remembers it anyway (or cares). Everyone simply wants to get where they’re going and to hell with everyone else. There’s just the desire to get in front of as many people as possible regardless of the risk. Mind you, plenty of people don’t even seem to register danger, like the teens you see tearing down the outside lane in their 1.1-litre superminis, foot pinned to the floor and two tyres half-flat. Young or old, eating a burger or falling asleep, far too many people just don’t give a damn.

And you can forget about enforcement of the current laws. There aren’t the numbers of police to do it, in this country at least. Almost everyone will continue to get away with their stupid actions.

That’s why we need automation on motorways. It’s time. The technology is almost, almost ready. Tesla’s Autopilot needs a few more tweaks but it’ll be good enough soon. The likes of Mercedes and Volvo aren’t far behind. Even the latest Golf update brings new autonomous features.

Motorways will be the easiest roads upon which to introduce full computer control, and for all our sakes they need to be cleared of the idiots that have ruined them. Once that happens we can all get where we’re going faster, with less traffic, less stress and no near-misses. Maybe the outside-lane asshats in the Audis will calm down when control is taken away. Maybe people will finally see that it’s not hard to merge from slip roads. Maybe fewer people will die. It can’t come soon enough.