Autopia: The Future of Cars

“It’s time for the car industry to catch up” to the world’s rapid technological advances, advises Bentley, former executive producer of Top Gear, in his uneven debut. He opens with a section on “Why the Car Matters,” in which he declares “the car has been an extraordinary global success story, extending its influence over most of the planet and transforming vast tranches of human life” and explores the “most talked about and most ambitious” prediction for cars’ future—the self-driving (or autonomous) vehicle. This is the focus of his survey, and Bentley highlights the technical challenges of creating artificial intelligence and explains the complexity of AI processes such as deep learning. The chapter “Sparking Innovation” explores alternative power sources, both the familiar (electricity) and obscure (compressed air), and the final chapter, “The Future of the Past,” asks what will happen to collectible cars; Bentley fears they’ll be banned due to inefficiency. While the author’s appreciation of automobiles comes through, the text leans toward the specialist, as with a numbers-heavy review of hybrid efficiencies and a survey of concept car shapes that references a slew of specific models. Car nuts eager for the arrival of autonomous vehicles should give this a look. [em](Jan.) [/em]