Question

Read the text and answer the questions.


When cars fly Baby steps toward autonomy:

Google, Tesla and Uber − companies that didn’t even exist when Toyota introduced the Prius, in 1997 − have become major players in the auto industry. Both Google and Tesla aim to introduce fully autonomous cars − that is, cars that drive themselves − within the next several years, and Uber recently founded an R&D center (Research and Development) in Pittsburgh with an eye leading to our driverless future. Self-driving cars are expected to be much safer than human-driven ones. But even if the first robot cars hit the roads in the next few years, most of us probably won’t give up driving entirely for at least another 15 or 20 years. In the meantime, traditional cars will gradually take over certain aspects of driving. Companies have been adding semiautonomous features to cars since the 1990s − things like adaptive cruise control, which uses sensors to adjust a car’s speed based on the traffic in front of it, and automated parallel parking. Some cars automatically stop − or at least slow down − if a driver doesn’t step on the brake in time to avoid a collision, and in certain Mercedes-Benz models, the driver will be able to change lanes simply by hitting the turn signal for two seconds (the car will take care of the rest). Within a few years, cars may be able to determine when an accident is likely and make adjustments to the cabin − moving seats, closing windows, retracting the steering wheel.


a) What do Google and Tesla plan to do in the next years?


b) Are autonomous cars safer than human-driving cars?


c) Will we give up driving as soon as self-driving cars become popular?


d) What have manufacturers been doing to traditional cars?


e) What will cars be in the coming years?


f) Read the infographic, what is the prediction for the future of cars?

Answer 1

a) total self-driving cars

b) they are much safer than human-driven

c) we probably won't give up driving for the next 15-20 years

d) semiautonomous features such aa adaptive cruise control and other things

e) cars are turning into a high-tech box full with features and eventually be fully automated

f) in the future cars alone will be able to predict accidents and try as much as it can to avoid it saving thousands of lives