What will autonomous vehicles be named in the future?

On August 5th, 1888, a 39-year-old woman named Bertha left her house with her two teenage sons, ages thirteen and fifteen. She left her husband a note on the kitchen table that she was going to her mother for a few days. What he didn’t know at the time is that she had gone into his workshop and taken his new invention — the Benz Patent-Motorwagen model III.

Bertha’s husband, Karl Benz, finished work on his first horseless carriage in December 1885 and filed for a patent in 1886. He had great engineering skills but lacked the business skills to leverage his invention. He wasn’t sure who would want to buy his invention and had difficulty proving its efficiency and reliability. Bertha bravely and enthusiastically stood by his side: she supported her husband in many ways, recognized the importance of his invention, and firmly believed that it would be a success. The only thing lacking was the definite proof that the vehicle was reliable and could also master long-distance routes.

The Benz Patent-Motorwagen Number 3 of 1886, used by Bertha Benz

Bertha Benz decided to go on a lengthy test drive to encourage her husband and to prove to him the capability and sustainability of his invention — albeit without telling him about it beforehand. She already had a destination: Pforzheim, Germany, her hometown.

The journey was a complete success. Not only did they complete the 106 km drive in just under 12 hours, Bertha also invented some improvements along the way like the world’s first pair of brake pads, and suggested adding an additional gear for climbing hills. But the main purpose of her trip was to show that her husband’s work can be made useful to the general public and that even a woman with two young children can complete this never-done-before journey. She returned home to Mannheim a few days later, followed by a crowd of amazed reporters and curious people.

The novel trip received a great deal of publicity, as she had sought. The drive was a key event in the technical development of the automobile. The pioneering couple introduced several improvements after Bertha’s experiences. Her trip proved to the burgeoning automotive industry that test drives were essential to their business.

Fast forward 130 years later: the automotive industry is on a breach of a new era, the autonomous vehicles, or self-driving cars. Not many know, but what we call today a “car” went through many different names along its history. In the beginning, they were called horseless wagons or horseless carriages, just because all carriages until then were pulled by horses. As like other new technologies, such as wireless phone that are at first compared to the old one by describing what the new one does not have. The lack of need of horses to travel caused a mind shift and new names were given to this incredible motor car. Automobile is the term still used in Germany and other places around the world, while other countries used to call it auto car or motor car.

This will be the same for self-driving cars. The lack of a person driving the car will become redundant soon enough. Thus, a new name will arise, and it won’t refer to a human driver.

What do you think it will be?

Write your suggestions in the comments below!