Forget Driver's Ed—Here's a Car That Will Teach You How to Drive

GM’s self-driving patent will take a few years at a minimum to come to fruition but is a promising step towards the company’s goals of becoming autonomous.
Written by Serena Aburahma
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
GM is serious about developing a fully
self-driving car
, possibly becoming the first one to do so. To help get working software up and running and installed into one of the brand's vehicles, GM has
offered millions to a company
based out of Oregon called Oculii. 
It also applied for a patent to produce a driver's training vehicle that runs on self-driving technology. How would this work, where are we at with autonomous driving, and what does that mean for
insurance
when it comes to this kind of vehicle?

How would this GM patent work?

The vehicle is geared toward student drivers who are just learning to drive. GM patented this idea for an autonomous car to train people to operate the vehicle without an actual trainer. 
The car will judge the driver's actions instead and offer feedback as needed depending on the steps the driver took. 
GM plans to have one or more sensors installed to measure the situations the vehicle comes across and take in the driver's reaction to it. It would then compare the data with information stored within its memory to determine whether the driver performed correctly or not. 
It can then let the students know what steps they should've taken instead.
According to
MotorTrend
, the brand proposes that the instructor-less training will help alleviate some of the biases the real-life trainer would otherwise introduce into the training; plus, it could make scheduling much easier for the trainees. 
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How soon will GM's patent become a reality?

The patent is definitely intriguing, but you're not likely to see it come out into the marketplace for quite some time. As MotorTrend reported, we're far off from seeing any truly autonomous vehicles, which makes a self-driving trainer that much further away.
However, that doesn't stop GM from working hard to implement their design as quickly as possible. The brand plans to produce a self-driver vehicle by 2025
Once that car is available, and the wrinkles get ironed out, you can bet that it'll begin building its instructor-less training vehicle. So, be prepared to wait a few years, but keep in mind that it could possibly show up in less than a decade. 

Self-driving technology isn't so far off, so it seems

Where are we at with self-driving tech? Tesla's Model S can handle quite a few driving tasks well, but people often wonder why automakers like Tesla haven't mastered self-driving technology. 
Thanks to technology, companies like Aeva are developing software that can handle many aspects of daily driving. We already have features on vehicles that allow the car to brake automatically when it detects a collision and even to stay in the right lane. 
GM has partnered with Cruise to develop a ride-sharing program that would encompass self-driving tech. So, it looks like we're not as far away as we once thought to travel in a vehicle that drives on its own. 

Insuring a self-driving vehicle

New technology like autonomous driving means expensive repairs, which in turn means higher insurance premiums. However, shopping around for the right company could help you save quite a bit of money without sacrificing coverage. 
Finding the right agency to take your vehicle on will take a lot of searching. It's a good thing that
Jerry
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