By 2035, cars will have no steering wheels, gas or brake pedals

By 2035, cars will have no steering wheels, gas or brake pedals

By 2030, cars will not have rearview mirrors, horns or emergency brakes, according to a survey of members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Steering wheels and pedals for braking and gas will disappear by 2035. More than 75 percent of respondents said that all 50 states would pass legislation permitting use of driverless vehicles by that time.

Asked to rank the biggest roadblocks to mass adoption of driverless cars, the engineers chose legal liability, policymakers and consumer acceptance as the biggest obstacles, followed by, to a point, cost, infrastructure and technology.

–Any time you have a technology that has the potential to fundamentally change our daily lives, laws and policies need to be established to ensure the technology is going to be used properly,” said Yaobin Chen, IEEE senior member and professor and chair of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue School of Engineering and Technology. –This is especially true with intelligent vehicles.”