b'thepastfewyears,asthecostofmaterialsandby a driverless car owned by Uberthe car failed laborincrease,whileendconsumersarebuyingto stop and continued to drop its passenger off to its new cars less than they have in the past. With andestination. The general publics response to this, increasedconsumerfocusontheenvironmentaland other accidents, has created a distrust of the damage caused by automobiles, affordability andproduct,therebycreatinganadditionalmountain theoverallsafetyofnewvehicles,automobilefor the industry to climb. salesareexpectedtocontinuetodropoverthe next few years. In driverless cars, the automobileAdditionally, manufacturers may have a legislation industry has found their next big thing to markethurdle when trying to get driverless vehicles on the to consumers. road. Each year, the number of states considering legislationrelatedtoautonomousvehicleshas Throughdriverlesscars,theindustryhopesthatgradually increased. Since 2012, at least 41 states automobilecrasheswilldecreaseexponentially,and Washington, D.C., have considered legislation. as the car will not be affected by the state of theEventually,all50states,Washington,D.C.,and driver and can scan the environment around themterritories will need to pass legislation, and federal in multiple directions and react based on the dataguidance may be necessary in order to ensure the theyreceive.AstheNationalHighwayTrafficsafetyandutilizationprotocolsareuniversally SafetyAdministrationhasrecentlyreported,accepted and enforced.approximately 94 percent of accidents are caused byhumanerror.ByremovingthepotentialforThe general publics perception of the vehicles has human error, the road immediately becomes safer,not slowed down the development of autonomous positively impacting everyone on the road. vehicles ready for the consumer market. Waymo, Googles self-driving car project, hopes its vehicles Autonomousvehiclesarenotwithouttheirwill be available for purchase beginning this year. problems.Overthepastfewyears,thegeneral publicsconfidencehasdecreased,andforgoodHow far can autonomous travel go? As we know, reason. Manufacturers have continuously discussedthe military already uses or has plans to use self-the exciting new cars coming to the market, anddriving supply trucks, armored vehicles and planes. yet,havebeenunabletodeliverfullyfunctionalCould that be next for the consumer market? Self-vehicles. This, coupled with the self-driving car thatdriving 18-wheelers, transporting goods from one struck and killed a pedestrian last year, has taken acoast to the other? Pilotless commercial aircrafts? toll on the public perception of the vehicles. In theWithallnewtechnologicaladvances,themotto 2019 accident in Tempe, AZ, a pedestrian was hittends to be, they skys the limit. But are we ready?21'