The reality of driverlesscars may be further away that many in the real estate industrythink. There have been predictions that there will be widespreadadoption of self-driving cars in as soon as a decade. In reality,however, self-driving cars need an intelligent infrastructure,especially in areas without GPS data. Parking garages and parkinglots are particularly challenging for autonomous driving. Whileself-driving cars seem to be inevitable, adoption will likely comethrough slow adoption and private and public investment inintelligent infrastructure over several decades.

“Intelligent infrastructure is what will enable the driverlesscars. To get a vehicle to drive itself into a parking garage withno GPS data, it would need maps of the internals of the structureto know where to go, and that is near impossible today,”Lester Mascon, EVP of Sentry ControlSystems, tells GlobeSt.com. “Driverless cars don't havethe data or satellite information, and likely, it won't have a cellconnection in a current parking garage.”

Real estate owners interested in supporting the adoption ofautonomous vehicles should first look to creating a connectedparking garage. Parking garages already outfitted with technologysupport are good candidates. “In order for a parking facility tosupport a driverless vehicle, it needs to be connected to thefacility,” explains Mascon. “In facilities with parking guidanceinformation, we are working on sharing that information withdriverless cars to create it a driverless car-friendly area. Thatis one of the first steps, and that will likely extend to the wholegarage in the future.”