Most of us have heard about self-driving cars. Google has tested its self-driving car plenty of times, although the cars are likely many years away from being available to consumers.
However, according to a new report, self-driving cars are a lot closer than many people think. Industry experts – including Google’s CEO Sergey Brin, say that self-driving cars will be a reality for “ordinary people” within 5 years. That’s not far away.
Interestingly enough, another report states that the data usage of self-driving cars would be astronomical – approximately 1GB per second of machine-to-machine data would be generated by the myriad of sensors on these self-driving cars.
At that rate, an average self-driving car would produce 2 petabytes of data per year based on 600 hours per year in the car. However, not all of this data would necessarily be stored, and most data would only be used ‘real-time’ by the car for driving purposes.
Today’s cars use data too. Many cars track driver performance and gas mileage, for example, which requires data storage. Other cars track tire pressure and mechanical issues. Self-driving cars, however, would take these advantages to an entirely new level.

As you can see in that demo video, Google has driven its car on public roads without killing anyone or causing serious property damage. The car features a rapidly rotating sensor along the top and, for the extent of the drive, Steve Mahan never even touches the wheel. Meanwhile, the car takes the team from the driveway to the fast food drive through, to a parking lot, and then back home.
Most importantly, Steve Mahan is 90% blind, which means driving is no longer a realistic option for him.
For an even crazier self-driving car video, check this out:

Self-driving cars would come with the following advantages:
-The ability to spot mechanical problems long before they become a real problem
-The ability to schedule repairs well into the future
-The ability to do whatever you want in your car when you don’t want to drive (text, call, sleep, whatever)
-Just like Homer Simpson using autopilot for the first time, you could tell your car to go to the school and then relax as it drives you to pick up your kids
-Allow blind, disabled, or handicapped individuals to have the freedom of mobility
Self-driving cars would undoubtedly be cool. In 20 years, they might even be the norm.