Bill Gates has always been a “car guy”. The tech billionaire and co-founder of Microsoft is also someone who has a clear vision for the future. And according to him, the future of driving is autonomous vehicles (AV). In his latest blog, Bill Gates has stated that the “day is coming sooner rather than later” when we would be handing over the control of our vehicles to machines. Given this view, the American business magnate was only more than happy to sit for a drive through the streets of London in a self-driving car.
The result? “One of the most difficult driving environments imaginable,” Mr Gates said in a blog post titled Hands Off The Wheel: The Rules Of The Road Are About To Change, on Wednesday. Despite having a safety driver who intervened on multiple occasions, Mr Gates deemed the ride in the car developed by British tech start-up Wayve "memorable" and was impressed with the car's ability to navigate through traffic.
During his autonomous car ride in London, Mr Gates was accompanied by Wayve's CEO and founder, Alex Kendall. Wayve is a tech start-up that's currently working on a novel approach to autonomous driving. Speaking about the vehicle in his blog, Mr Gates said, “While a lot of AVs can only navigate on streets that have been loaded into their system, the Wayve vehicle operates more like a person. It can drive anywhere a human can drive.”
You can watch the video of Bill Gates in the car here:
When driving a car, we rely on our accumulated knowledge from all of our past driving experiences to make decisions. This is why we instinctively know what to do at a stop sign, even if we haven't encountered that particular sign on that specific road before. Wayve, Mr Gates explained, utilises deep learning techniques to achieve the same outcome. The algorithm learns through examples, utilising knowledge gained from extensive real-world driving and simulations to analyse its surroundings and react in real-time.
“The result was a memorable ride. The car drove us around downtown London, which is one of the most challenging driving environments imaginable, and it was a bit surreal to be in the car as it dodged all the traffic. (Since the car is still in development, we had a safety driver in the car just in case, and she assumed control several times)," Mr Gates wrote, describing his ride in the AV through downtown London in pursuit of fish and chips.
Speaking about the eventual transition to AVs, Mr Gates said that several automobile manufacturers, including GM, Honda, and Tesla, are already developing vehicles with autonomous features that resemble traditional cars. What remains to be seen, as per the tech giant, is how the transition to AVs will actually look like. There is a lot of ground to cover, Mr Gates said, explaining that factors such as scope of coverage of car insurance, and the current state of vehicular laws as well as roadway networks may have to be recalibrated to include AVs.
“That type of shift is likely decades away, if it happens at all. Even once the technology is perfected, people might not feel comfortable riding in a car without a steering wheel at first. But I believe the benefits will convince them,” Mr Gates added, making a case for AVs.
“Humanity has adapted to new modes of transportation before. I believe we will do it again. For most of our existence, we relied on natural ways of getting around: We walked, or rode on horseback, or travelled in a boat pushed by wind. Then, in the 1700s, we entered the locomotion age when mobility was powered by steam engines and internal combustion. Now, we find ourselves in the early days of the autonomous age. It's an exciting time, and I can't wait to see what new possibilities it unlocks,” he wrote.
