Tesla recently activated it self-driving software in a beta version, in America.  In other words, a feature that would allow the car itself to drive the whole way home from say, a nightclub.    That could be really effective in reducing accidents from drinking.  There is obviously a long way to go and no doubt deaths and mistakes that will occur while the software improves.  There is an even longer way to go before those types of cars and software are common in cars in SA, but adaptation of electric cars and self-driving software is way ahead of schedule in America and of course that will spread to SA ultimately.

Self-driving cars are something that has been predicted for a long time and it is one of those cases where technology has actually been slower than forecast. Tesla, by way of example, has been threatening to release that software for years now and even settled some court cases where people said they were misled into paying extra money for certain features when they were not available.  Well, they are now, and the cars use cameras and other technologies to identify pedestrians, cars, stop signs, traffic lights and all the other obstacles that one typically finds on the roads.  There will always be those luddites who will be against those technologies, and perhaps even claim they are dangerous, but at the end of the day, particularly in a country like SA where the death toll on our roads is so high, one can only hope for the day when the majority of cars are being self-driven and not in the hands of some of our taxi drivers and other drivers!