Google’s Autonomous car is the future of public transport – NOT a replacement for the car

Car lovers may feel that autonomous cars herald the end of individual car ownership, but Google’s Autonomous car is clearly a replacement for Public Transport.

Car makers around the world are working hard to build cars capable of autonomous driving (here, here and here for example), with a future that seems to be one where car lovers lose the joy of driving and hand over control to a computer and sensors. But Google see it differently.

Google has been criticised for developing an autonomous car that looks like a transport pod, making room for two with no way for either of the occupants to take control. But that is clearly the point.

Rather than seeking to offer users a car that can drive itself, Google seem intent on creating a transport pod that will take the place of public transport.

In Google’s vision, their autonomous car will be summoned by a Smartphone App, turn up, take you where you want to go and then be available for the next potential user.

Google’s vision may still be some way off – despite 700,000 miles of testing on California’s roads it will still be at least five years before they are commercially viable – but if all goes to plan we could see Google’s Autonomous transport pods rolling out in cities around the world and replacing taxis as the favoured means of transport for owners away from their own cars, and even replacing buses too.

And having small, cheap electric pods running people round our cities must make more sense than endless taxis spewing forth, with autonomous capabilities in regular cars providing relief for drivers on boring drives.

Which all seems like an ideal future – something to embrace, not rail against.