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A few years ago, autonomous vehicles were as much a wild idea as anything, even though automakers were promising fully autonomous vehicles (AV) by 2020.

Here it is, 2019, and while fully autonomous vehicles may not hit the streets next year, they are not far off.

The slideshow above includes details regarding major global advances in the adoption of autonomous vehicles.

Driverless vehicle technology update

Autonomous auto developers are now acknowledge the fact that as autonomous technology takes hold, drivers will be freed up to engage in other activities behind the wheel. To that end, Tesla has announced that it is expanding its in-car gaming services. Model X, S, and 3 owners can update their car software to play Atari's Missile Command, Asteroids, Lunar Lander and Centipede, and newly added 2048 and Atari's Super Breakout games (added to vehicles last week). Mercedes-Benz has issued a challenge looking for individuals to create games for vehicles of the future.

Earlier this year, Tesla announced that it would have full autonomous capabilities to vehicles during 2019. At first, monitoring will still be necessary, but estimates are that by the end of 2020 the vehicles could be totally autonomous, although regulators may step in and not allow fully autonomous vehicles to operate. This presents a number of problems. First, the vehicle should be totally autonomous before in-cab games should be able to be activated.

Inviting distractions

While there are many who look forward to having the vehicle drive them to work while they read a book, play games or engage in other activities, a recent survey conducted by AAA shows that 75% of people are afraid to ride in a fully autonomous vehicle. However, respondents who had experience with existing semi-autonomous features such as lane departure warnings were 70% more likely to say they were willing to ride in a fully autonomous vehicle. This is significant, because data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows that 94% of serious auto accidents are due to human error. This is one of the main factors driving the interest and development of AVs.