Ford Issues Patent For Autonomous Cars to Teach How to Drive Without an Instructor

Everyone remembers how it felt when they first began learning how to drive. Some take to it like a duck to water, while others have their anxiety amplified with the driving instructor breathing down your neck. But a patent by General Motors could be an alternative solution to teaching first-time drivers. The catch is, that it’s an autonomous instructor-free car.

In the patent, the car would be in full control with its autonomous system on standby. The students’ scores would be recorded through multiple sensors, teaching them safe and correct driving procedures that they will find themselves using in the real world. The car would be able to provide drivers feedback in real-time during their lessons on when to accelerate, brake, turn, use turn signals, etc. At the end of the lesson, the car would give drivers a score telling them whether or not they passed the course.

According to the patent, “the one or more manual inputs from the trainee with the one or more recommended actions for the autonomous vehicle, generating a comparison; and determining, via the processor, a score for the trainee based on the comparison between the one or more manual inputs from the trainee with the one or more recommended actions for the autonomous vehicle.”

Whether or not this would be an effective learning tool for future drivers remains to be seen. Will the lack of stress be an improvement, or will it work against its students? We shall see.