Major tech companies dabble in drones: 2016 is a turning year for unmanned vehicles

Introduction:CNN.com recently wrote that 2016 became an important turning point for driverless cars, laying a good foundation for the future development of this technology.

Below is the full text of the article:

If the U.S. presidential election is the biggest news of the year, I'm sure all Americans won't disagree.

But at the same time, driverless cars are starting to hit their stride. Tech companies and startups are scrambling to develop the technology. Even governments, which usually stand behind the scenes, are getting involved.

The amount of money, talent and time the driverless industry is attracting will dramatically change the way we live. Opinions are not yet united on when driverless cars will go mainstream. But it won't be long before this has the potential to be the biggest news of the year.

The beginning of 2016.General Motors (car company)Uber spent $1 billion to acquire driverless technology startup Cruise Automation, and in August of this year, Uber spent $680 million to acquire Otto, a driverless trucking startup that was just eight months old.

This fall even saw the second largest merger in the history of the tech industry - theQualcommThe $39 billion acquisition of NXP. The logic behind this acquisition is obvious: Qualcomm needs to enter the driverless car chip market.

There have been other exciting developments in the driverless chip space. Shares of NVIDIA, a supplier of key parts for driverless cars, more than tripled in 2016. Industry giant Intel also said in November that it would invest $250 million in the driverless car space, including the development of chips for vehicles and software for vehicles.

Aside from the big money investment, important news related to driverless cars appear almost every week. Many companies have even started inviting ordinary people to test drive driverless cars.

Still, perhaps the boldest move comes from Tesla. The company announced this past October that all of its models would come with the hardware needed for fully autonomous driving, and that it would only need to develop the software going forward.

This strategy has helpedNikola Tesla (1856-1943), Serbian inventor and engineerVehicle data is collected and can later be used to train driverless cars. No other company in the industry can match Tesla in this regard.

Also this year, major automakers have embraced very different business models. In May, General Motors announced it would test driverless cabs with Lyft. Ford has also said it will deploy its own driverless car service in 2021.

Google, which has been at the forefront of the driverless car industry, has increased its test cities to four. In December, the company also spun off its driverless car program into a separate company, Waymo, under parent company Alphabet. The company's cars traveled more than 1 million miles in 2016 on their own.

One of the major questions facing the industry as a whole right now is: will the government allow driverless cars on the road? The U.S. federal government expressed a warm welcome to driverless cars in September this year and introduced a driverless car guidance program. The UAE has gone a step further, calling for local residents of 25% to be driverless by 2030.

It's unclear whether the Trump administration will take driverless cars so seriously; after all, it could potentially threaten the jobs of many working-class Americans.

Uber has erupted into conflict with California authorities over the issue of whether it needs a permit to operate driverless cars in local hospitals. The California Department of Motor Vehicles may take legal action against Uber as a result. Of course, if Uber applies for a permit and shares safety data with the government, it won't run into any trouble.

Despite the occasional conflict, regulators are overall supportive of driverless technology. But the key question remains unanswered: are Americans ready for driverless cars? A survey this spring found that 3/4 of Americans are afraid to ride in a driverless car.

Companies such as Uber have begun giving passengers short-term rides in driverless cars, a move that is expected to gradually ease public anxiety. Just how many people will give up their car keys in the future? It's better to wait and see.