Driverless Cars in Kenya: Dream or Reality?

Auto manufacturers are expanding into the realm of sci-fi with driverless technology, and Toyota are looking to branch out into this field by 2020 with their artificial intelligence (AI) powered driverless cars. They aim to change the game with a fully AI controlled car. Their concept i-cars have been fitted with the AI ‘Yui’ as they’ve called it. Toyota’s multibillion investment has redefined driverless cars. By being able to chat with the drivers and learn their owner’s emotions and habits, ‘Yui’ promises to offer something extra to the customer. This is reminiscent of Kiichiro Toyoda’s vision and innovation of Toyota at its inception. Exciting times ahead! But what does this all mean for Kenya?

With traffic in Nairobi becoming something out of a dystopian future, driverless cars are needed more than ever. They offer a way for the driver to avoid the stresses of travel, optimising their travel time, and offer a safer means of transportation. With driverless cars, matatus and lorries, roads in Kenya could be safer. The immediate benefits through this more disciplined driving could be the ease of congestion on the roads.

So, what about the feasibility of bringing such technology advanced cars to ‘Wild Africa’?

There are obviously negatives with any ambitious project. Fears of hacking, loss of jobs, and expense all provide hurdles in implementation. We also question how these cars will deal with our wildlife, pedestrians, hand carts and road side vendors on our roads. Additionally, another major concern, is how driverless cars would integrate with human driven cars. With the over-enthusiastic aggressive style of driving seen on our roads, will the driverless cars be able to manoeuvre safely or could they be over-cautious and possibly ‘freeze’? The army of technology ranging from motion sensors, infrared cameras, radar-based cruise control, to lane-change warning devices all seem pretty impressive. However, are these safety features sophisticated enough to allow this integration.

One could argue that there are elements of ‘Wild Africa’ that require an experienced driver. Our world-famous game drives would lack the authenticity with this technology and safety could become a real issue with the challenges of off-road driving. Could this technology really predict and manoeuvre away from a charging elephant bull or navigate around a washed bridge? We doubt there will be this level of sophistication any time soon.

With any challenge though the evolving solutions can benefit other areas of our great nation. Google Maps and other companies are already improving the GPS accuracy of our roads, something that will help more than just driverless cars. With all this in mind, one begs to ask the question if the Roads Czar in Kenya will be ready for this partnership with manufacturers to bring this technology to our streets?