If you pay attention to the breakthroughs that frequently occur in the car industry, you have likely already heard a thing or two about self-driving vehicles. This is because just within the past few years there have been a number of big name auto manufacturers who have invested a good portion of their revenue into the purchase or development of state-of-the-art technology that will allow them to create their own self-driving vehicles. To help you better understand why, here is a brief look at the past, present and future of the self-driving vehicle.

PAST
The world’s first fully-operating autonomous car was introduced back in the 1980’s, which has allowed the technology to evolve over the last couple of decades. The first two vehicles were a part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Navlab and ALV projects, while Mercedes Benz was the first major manufacturer to get in the game with the Eureka Prometheus Project.

PRESENT
These days, there are many more companies who are interested in autonomous driving technology. Some of the biggest names in the industry thus far are Google, Tesla, Audi and BMW. There has been much speculation as to which company will be able to sell the first autonomous vehicle to consumers, but whichever one does will have to overcome a great deal of controversy as early testing has shown that there are many problems that have yet to be solved.

FUTURE
While there are still a few kinks to be figured out, most of these companies already have prototypes that they are currently experimenting with. This is why many industry experts believe that autonomous vehicles will become the norm sometime in the next 10-20 years or so.

A self-driving vehicle once seemed impossible, but things are now changing. So, that only leaves one question to ask. Are you ready to hit the road without getting behind the wheel?