The thought of self-driving cars seems like a futuristic fever dream you imagined during your early childhood. Though we may still be eons away from flying cars brought to life on The Jetsons, Blade Runner, and Harry Potter, the reality of autonomous vehicles is nearer than ever before. While the vast majority of car manufacturers working on driverless tech development have yet to release a foolproof, functional model, there are a number of cars on the market that feature self-driving technology.
Even if you’re not quite prepared to dish out the dough for a brand new near-driverless vehicle, you can take a trip down to your local car dealership to see what the hype is about. Whether you’re checking out new Audi vehicles for sale in the greater Phoenix area or the latest Tesla innovations on showcase at a San Francisco dealership, you can witness the future of automated driving as close as your nearest car dealer.
Let’s take a look at 6 cars pioneering the way toward an automated driving future.
1. 2020 Volvo XC90
The Price: Starting at $48,350
The Tech: Volvo has been one of the car industry’s most reliable leaders in safety technology, so it should come as no surprise that they’re paving their own path to a driverless future. Like many other pioneering car manufacturers, Volvo’s Pilot Assistant II employs the Mobileye EyeQ 3 platform and uses a front-facing camera and radar (Delphi’s Radar and Camera Sensor Fusion System).
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane centering
- Navigate-on-autopilot
- Attentiveness monitoring
2. 2019 Audi A8
The Price: Starting at $83,800
The Tech: Audi is the first car manufacturer to integrate a Lidar unit inside of a consumer-available vehicle. The A8 also employs a zFAS controller designed to integrate sensor inputs into a single computing unit. Furnished with Mobileye’s EyeQ® technology, Audi’s effort toward pioneering automated driving has been nothing short of impressive. The 2019 Audi A8 comes with integrated Active Assist with Stop & Go and Traffic Jam Assist.
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane centering
- Attentiveness monitoring
- Remote-controlled parking
- Parking assistance
3. 2019 Tesla Model 3
The Price: Starting at $75,000
The Tech: Tesla uses eight built-in cameras around the vehicle for an omniscient 360-degree view. With the help of a front-facing radar and multiple long-range ultrasonic sensors, Tesla’s Autopilot mode utilizes machine learning, known as Hardware 3, to better enhance the already-intelligent technology.
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane centering
- Navigate-on-Autopilot
- Attentiveness monitoring
- Automatic lane changing
- Parking assistance
4. 2019 Toyota Prius
The Price: Starting at $23,770
The Tech: All Toyotas with driverless features use Toyota’s Safety Sense (TSS) system. TSS uses a feature called “Lane Tracing Assist” to allow the vehicle to center itself in a lane, but is not as nearly as mechanically robust as similar technologies produced by Tesla, Cadillac or BMW.
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane centering
- Attentiveness monitoring
- Parking assistance
5. 2019 Honda Fit
The Price: Starting at $16,190
The Tech: The 2019 Honda Fit comes equipped with Honda’s Sensing Suite. The Sensing Suite comes with Adaptive Cruise Control and a Lane Keeping Assist System. LKAS allows the vehicle to center itself in the lane but isn’t particularly high-level compared to similar automated technologies.
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control
- Lane centering
- Attentiveness monitoring
- Parking assistance
6. 2019 Nissan Leaf
The Price: Starting at $29,990
The Tech: Nissan has come an impressively long way in their journey toward bringing practical safety and self-driving technology to the consumer market. Nissan’s ProPilot uses the Mobileye EyeQ platform, employing a forward camera and radar inputs that allow the vehicle to grasp its surroundings.
The Features:
- Adaptive Cruise Control (Must press accelerator if stopped for more than three seconds.)
- Lane centering
- Attentiveness monitoring
- Parking assistance
Behold—we’re living on the cusp of a transportation revolution, where driverless cars not only become a reality, but a mobility option available to the everyday consumer. No, this revolution won’t happen overnight, but the leaps and bounds of progress being made each and every year only proves how close we are to an existence previously only feasible in our dreams. What’s your opinion on the future of driverless vehicles? Let us know in the comments below!
