While carmakers are racing to develop autonomous cars that do not need drivers, none has paused to ask the drivers if they want to give up driving and sit in cars that transport them like cargo. However, the first signs of revolt against the idea of driverless cars came recently from Jaguar Land Rover research and development chief, Wolfgang Epple.
Epple confirms that JLR will never build driverless cars. He does not believe customers want to buy robots that deliver cargo from A to B. However, the company is working on driverless features including remote control functions that allow drivers to operate the car from outside the vehicle using their smartphones.
Epple is the first car engineer to express the view that drivers want features to assist them rather than take full control. This was demonstrated by the company in an event in the UK in which Range Rover cars were made to navigate rough terrain and multi-point turns remotely using a smartphone. These features could be available on future models as soon as 2020.
This view comes in sharp contrast to that expressed by Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk who predicted that authorities in the future would outlaw cars driven by people.
Epple thinks that the ability to drive a car is part of the emotional appeal that attracts people toward certain brands. Automakers worry that customers' reduced interaction with the vehicle because of the addition of self-driving features will reduce the power of their brands to attract buyers.
Carmakers’ views differ on the issue. Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo, rejects the idea that automakers job is to produce cars designed purely as transport pods. He believes that pods that go from A to B already exist — they are called taxis!
Dieter Zetsche, Daimler’s CEO, sees it differently. He reckons that autonomous cars would continue to appeal to drivers. Earlier this year, Zetsche revealed his company’s autonomous concept model, the F015, at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas. He describes the idea as “a luxury cocoon on wheels.” It remains to be proven if consumers want to be seen in such cocoons.
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*Adel Murad is a senior motoring and business journalist, based in London.
Email: [email protected]
