While autonomous cars still have a way to
go in a range of areas, they have no problem in continuing to grab headlines.
Another Tesla car crashed in China while in ‘autopilot’ mode, with the driver saying that he was sold
on the idea of the car being self-driving by salespeople.
Tesla confirmed the car was in autopilot mode, which gives control of steering and breaking in certain conditions. Tesla says that the
driver’s hands are supposed to stay on the steering wheel when in this mode.
This Beijing accident, in which the Tesla hit a vehicle parked off the road, with no one hurt, follows a
widely reported recent fatal accident by a Tesla driver using the car’s autopilot system. In that accident, neither autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against
a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied, according to Tesla.
The impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the
Model S, killing the driver.
As more self-driving or semi-self-driving cars take to the roads, a flood of issues is coming along for the ride.
These issue will have to be resolved
before marketing and advertising is allowed to play any kind of significant role inside vehicles, in terms of interacting with a driver who isn’t driving.
There ultimately may be
multiple ways for marketers to interact with those in cars down the road.
At the MediaPost IoT Marketing Forum last week, one agency exec noted that he is working with an automotive company
that is devising a vehicle with 20 screens.
Japan last month became one of the first markets to allow vehicles to use cameras instead of mirrors.
Cameras can capture wider view than
traditional mirrors and can see blind spots, sending images to screens in the car.
So you can see where this is going.
There still is the liability issue, as in who can be blamed in an
accident if no one is technically driving the car.
In yet another development, Volvo’s CEO just announced the car company would take full liability whenever one of its cars is in
autonomous mode.
The marketing of self-driving cars is barely around the corner, but some of the paths forward are attracting some serious focus.