Earlier today, the Japanese government announced a master plan for the nation’s automotive hub. In a bid to remain competitive in the global market, Japan has called upon Toyota, Nissan, Honda, University of Tokyo, Nagoya University, Panasonic and Hitachi to come and develop self-driving technologies together.
Each company will have to comply with the request and send a team to gather with that of other manufacturers to develop self-driving car technologies later this year. The move is personally funded by the Japanese government and there is an estimated budget of about $84 million.
This is worrying for the car enthusiasts in Japan and the rest of the world too. It seems that every country is determined to get cars to drive on their own and the move was sparked after Apple was linked to developing its own car.
I don’t hate the idea of self-driving cars but there is no doubt that this trend will blossom further and lead to traditional driving into extinction. I hope that my car loan is already settled by the time self-driving cars arrive as I fear that the fully automated cars might be forced upon me. Of course, I also speak for the other car enthusiasts as well.
