Why should cars of the future be open source?

The coming years portend a true revolution in the automotive industry. More and more projects of both flying and autonomous vehicles are being created. As it turns out, an important role in the development of autonomous vehicles could be played by open source systems as well as open data. The cars of the future are expected to be genuine computers on wheels. At least this the expectation expressed by Tin Hang Liu – the CEO of Open Motors. In the auto-industry already a good number of companies have made their sources open. Open source could facilitate not just the development of software used by new vehicles, but of those very vehicles in general.

What is, therefore, the exact argument for making newly designed cars, particularly the autonomous ones, open source?

Many companies which until now have been engaged with high technologies, currently intend to move on towards the automobile industry. Opening the sources will enable such companies to develop themselves in another industry without a detailed know-how in the new field. Vehicle manufacturers will now have access to state-of-the-software while designing prototypes of new cars. By the same token, software developers will be given access to prospective business partners. This way, also the development costs associated with AI-commanded vehicles will fall.

The prospect of opening the sources of systems to be used by future autonomous cars also means granting access to the relevant source codes to a wider group of persons. Thanks to this hurdles stumbled upon by such vehicles could be eliminated more quickly. Would this make the passengers of autonomous cars 100 % safe? That level safety is unattainable. We can get close to it by using technologies of the appropriate level of sophistication, however there could always arise unforeseen scenarios. But open source will in fact allow for a faster development of safety measures in many types of vehicles that will be commanded by AI.

Closed and limited access to technologies made open only to companies impedes the necessary repairs.

Aware of precisely this fact are the particular enterprises following the rule that creating in open source mode is a better way to go. Many of the risky situations that have taken place so far occurred mainly due to the companies behind the autonomous vehicles not taking the necessary precautions and not having enough regard for the safety of future clients. This is why at many occasions we have learned news of accidents involving autonomous vehicles. Open source environments guarantee a significantly quicker access and attainment of the kinds of technology needed to protect the passengers of cars driven by Artificial Intelligence.

The public opinion attaches great importance to the safety aspect when it comes to vehicles with”AI”.

If the autonomous vehicles in question are not safe enough, then for a long time still people will not show any more interest in them than so far. Car manufacturers are interested in making their entrance into the autonomous car market as quickly as necessary. This concerns not only vehicles used for carrying passengers, but trucks as well. For a company it is best to secure a market position for itself right at the outset. Exactly this goal could be assisted by open source environments.

With it the designers of autonomous cars can gain access to a lot more sophisticated technology and software. The cars of the future will be able to remain active for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Despite the fact they are still facing some limitations. Already multiple companies are engaged in designing cars of such type. Unfortunately only few of them choose to open and share the technologies used in making new autonomous vehicle projects.