I was driving from Manchester to Sheffield via Snake Pass and if anyone who knows this journey then they will know that they have to travel through a town called Glossop where there is always a massive traffic jam snaking through the town and is horrendous at the best of times.
As I was driving back this time I still had my sat nav on from it plotting a route home from an obscure part of Manchester. This time on the out skirts of Glossop the sat nav told me to go a different way round Glossop. Even though I was pressed for time and knowing that I was going to hit a traffic jam I ignored the sat nav and yes I did end up hitting a massive traffic jam and crawling through Glossop slowly taking in the scenic and less scenic attributes of this town.
It did get me wondering what will happen in driverless cars. Will someone always be sitting in the driving seat over ruling the routes that the car is taking because “they know better” or “I’ve always gone this way so not going to change now”.
Whilst the computer in the car might be smart and the programmer may have added in a command ““If owner overrides route 51 times then please announce “I don’t understand why you bought a driverless car when you obviously want to drive yourself so I am handing you over the controls till the journey finishes””
But there may be times when you want to go different routes,
- a different route may have sentimental memories i.e. that’s the bend I wrote off my mini!!.
- There may be a route that is really scenic that you only know about with local knowledge
- You may be making good time and would rather arrive a bit later i.e. no one wants to be the first guest at a party
- You may be playing the in-car pub game where you get points for legs and definitely do not to avoid going past the Cricketers pub.
I did subsequently have to travel through Glossop and again the sat nav pointed me another way and this time I did follow its suggestion and it was quicker, more scenic and will definitely use the route again.
Driverless Cars will never take off 