Imagine a world where you can summon up a car whenever you want one. Imagine a car that can drop you off at work, pick the kids up from school, or take you to the shops any time you want without any of the downsides of ownership.
Sound like science fiction? It’s a world that is getting closer to reality with around 10 million self-driving cars expected to be on our roads by 2020. You can already buy cars that are able to park themselves, brake automatically to avoid a collision, or keep themselves in lane on the motorway, so the completely automatic car is getting closer.
Safer travel
What does this mean for day-to-day motoring? With cars programmed to obey speed limits and stick to the rules of the road, there should be fewer accidents. In the long run, that could lead to a cut in insurance costs. In the short term they’re likely to rise, however, as robot cars share the roads with human-controlled vehicles.
Buying a car on car finance bad credit in Portsmouth that can drive itself could see your running costs cut. Self-driving cars will be programmed to operate economically and therefore cut fuel consumption and wear to things like tyres and brakes.
Car? What car?
Of course, when all cars on the road are self-driving, the savings are potentially much greater as you won’t need to own one at all. You can just call one up via your smartphone when you need it. This means no tax or insurance to pay for and no depreciating asset sitting in your driveway when it’s not in use.
There will undoubtedly be a market for classic cars to be enjoyed on closed tracks at weekends, so you may still need to turn to companies like www.rightdrive.co.uk who offer guaranteed car finance in Portsmouth to buy some dream wheels.
When you only pay for a car as you need it, there is the potential to save quite a lot of money. Even using taxis should cost less as the fare won’t need to cover the driver’s wages. Of course, all of this will take some time. In the early stages, even self-driving cars are likely to need a driver to take control in an emergency.
