Gearhead Book Club Week?
[ Editor’s Note: By sheer chance, Andrew and I were both writing book reviews at the same time. He was done first! – BD ]
“Robot Take The Wheel” is an interesting and light hearted look at what the future of autonomous vehicles might be like.
Author Jason Torchinsky makes several interesting observations and points. All in a way that’s not as a luddite or alarmist, but is truly curious about what the future holds. If you’re not familiar with the 5 Autonomous Driving Levels, Torchinsky explains them in detail and also explains the hype away. If you’re keeping an eye toward future tech, you’ll hear a lot about these levels in the coming years.
The basics are, Level 1 is almost like a normal everyday car, think a system like “Subaru Eyesight”, where the car will warn you and do some emergency braking. It’s really just an advanced driver assist. Even with the system, you wouldn’t ignore braking all the time. (Technically level 0 is a regular car.) Level 1 still requires the meat popsicle behind the wheel.
Level 5 is full on Johnny Cab. (“We hope you enjoyed the ride! HAHA!“) I personally find myself in general agreement with the author about how far out autonomous vehicles are; how they might be the most useful, and share some of the same fears about losing my ability to drive a car if I wanted to.
It’s important gearheads like us have some knowledge about everything automotive past, present and future.
There is a lot of misinformation about self-driving cars, especially from a certain manufacturer’s marketing department. This book will give you the knowledge to kindly remind those who think a self driving car is as close as 2020 that a whole bunch of stuff still needs to be figured out.
Gearheads should be interested in the topic, because a lot of the people pushing for self-driving cars don’t want people driving anymore.
This is a problem, and if we are educated and can be part of the process in implementing this technology, it’s more likely it will work out better for everyone.
In short “Robot Take the Wheel” is quick, informative—and even has some funny parts.This is recommended gearhead reading. You can find it on Amazon,
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