The last few years, I have seen and heard stories on social media and news channels about self driving or driverless cars which as the same suggests is a vehicle that function independently without the need of the physical presence of a driver.

This is not exactly a new concept, although the technology was not available at the time there was a popular TV show in the 1980s called Knight Rider which was about a car that could drive on its own and it was voice activated, in fact, the knight rider car known as Kitt was very famous and became more popular than the stars of the show.

That was then, coming back to the present day, the question is what happened to the driverless car after all these years of being told that cars would not be needing a human at the wheel.

Here are some reasons why driverless cars have yet to change the way we travel by road:

A) The transportation industry worldwide is a source of employment for thousands of people who work and earn a living by driving, cars, buses, taxis, auto rickshaws and trucks. 

In India, the introduction of driverless cars would have an adverse effect on the growing Indian economy as millions of people who earn a living as drivers would be out of a job all of a sudden with no alternative means of employment.

B) Driverless cars are automated which means that it can be operated from anywhere without any physical contact with the use of a computer, laptop or smartphone which makes it vulnerable to hackers who are experts at finding such flaws and taking control of your car.

The problem of security is something that has not been resolved satisfactorily and people still have doubts about the safety of a vehicle which can be controlled by anyone who is tech savvy.

C) We know that technology companies such as Google are technology companies that are making self driving cars which is not their primary area of business, this has created problems for the automobile industry car manufacturers such as Ford, Mercedes, Audi and Toyota to name a few, as they are automobile manufacturers and technology is not their main focus when manufacturing cars.

The focus on driverless cars is proving to be a problem for automobile manufacturers as technology companies are making cars based on automation without listening to the needs of the customer.

D) It is ironic that driverless cars which are supposed to make us hands free and allow us to do other things while traveling can affect our health as the constant movement can make us feel giddy and suffer from anxiety because you feel that you are not in control.

We are used to seeing a driver and travelling in a driverless car makes us nervous and fear for our safety despite the assurance by automobile companies that we have nothing to fear and self driving vehicles are safe to use.

In the end, like all new advancements in technology, driverless cars will take some to get accepted around the world, a lot needs to be done to convince people that driverless cars are the vehicles of the future.