To paraphrase the sci-fi writer William Gibson, “The future is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed.” The fact is, the technology for self-driving cars exists today. So why doesn’t everyone have one?

“Cost,” says Justyna Zander. For the past 12 years, Zander has been working on self-driving cars in various capacities, at various companies. As Zander explains, just because a technology exists, doesn’t mean it can be mass-produced at high volumes. Before technology can become ubiquitous, it has to be economical.
But there’s also the question of how you define “self-driving.”

Technically, when you activate cruise control in your car, you’re delegating a certain task to automation. By degrees—even by small degrees—self-driving cars are already on our roads. Today. So the better question is, “To what degree are cars already self-driving?” The answer varies, explains Zander. Complete automation is still mostly theoretical, especially in busy, complex urban environments.

Tune in to hear Justyna Zander’s full take on the issue, including the role NVIDIA might play. Subscribe, review, and if you like what we’re doing, consider donating a few BitCoins to the cause. Every little bit helps us continue producing and sharing great content with listeners like you.

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