24A — September 16 - 29, 2016 — DelMarVa — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
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By Wes Guckert, PTP, The Traffic Group Driverless cars increase safety, decrease accidents
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to arrive, he would never have lived. As more individuals have access to these types of vehicles, we will begin to see more ex- amples of driverless cars not only preventing accidents but also saving people’s lives! While it still seems space-aged to think of a car driving itself, the reality is that this technol- ogy is coming to a town near you – like it or not. There are many positive changes that will come with this technology – such as freeing up time to sleep or work – but the best change of all may be that it will have the ability to prevent accidents, thus saving lives – maybe even yours! Wes Guckert, PTP, is president/CEO of The Traf- fic Group. Contact him at: wguckert@trafficgroup.com n DRE’s Virginia Beach office inks 20,618 s/f of leases VIRGINIA BEACH, VA — Gerald Divaris , chairman/ CEO of Divaris Real Estate, Inc. (DRE) , announced the completion of five leases total- ing 20,618 s/f. RAI Care Centers leased 7,776 s/f of retail space at 6726 Mooretown Rd. in Williams- burg. DRE’s Vivian Turok and Elizabeth Greer repre- sented the tenant in the lease negotiations with Brown De- velopment Company, LLC . Ann Taylor LOFT renewed its lease for 5,305 s/f of retail space in the Divaris-leased and -managed Town Center of Vir- ginia Beach at 221 Central Park Ave. Divaris, Erica Meekins Rorrer and Sezin Cortinas handled the lease on behalf of the landlord, Armada Hoffler Block 8 Associates, LLC . CosmoProf renewed its lease for 2,800 s/f of retail space in the Divaris-leased Academy Crossing Shopping Center at 3266 Academy Ave. in Ports- mouth, VA. DRE’s DavidBick- ford represented the landlord, Academy Crossing Associates. That Game Store leased 2,620 s/f of retail space in the Divaris-leased Pleasant Valley Marketplace at 4221 Pleasant Valley Rd. in Virginia Beach. DRE’s Eric Hammond worked on behalf of the landlord, Pleas- ant Valley Associates. Virginia Beach Exotics leased 2,117 s/f of retail space in Timberlake Shoppes at 4291 Holland Rd. in Virginia Beach. Greer represented the tenant in negotiations with Timberlake Shoppes Associates, LLC. n
hockingly, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHT-
hicles becoming more main- stream in the years to come, experts believe U.S accidents involving both pedestrians and other vehicles could fall from second to ninth place in associ- ated deaths. U.S. consulting firm, McKinsey & Company conducted a study, which found that by using driverless cars, deaths on the road could be reduced by 90%, saving nearly 300,000 lives each year and $190 billion in accident-related healthcare costs. How? By sim- ply removing human error that is inherent when any person gets behind the wheel. But what about those widely-
publicized accidents – including a recent fatality in a Tesla - with driverless cars? In the May Tesla accident, Autopilot technology was not at fault. And when Google conducted test drives with 48 self-driving cars, the three ac- cidents that occurred were due to human error in each case. Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident, according to the former direc- tor of Google’s self-driving car project, Chris Urmson. As Tesla recently wrote, “Au- topilot is getting better all the time, but it is not perfect…” It is important to remember that,
like any technology in its infan- cy, it will continue to develop and improve with time. Think of the first TV or cell phone. How far we have come from the days of black and white TVs or the gigantic brick-looking cell phones that were first to hit the streets. Driverless cars will continue to evolve and change for the better as well. In fact, we have already seen an example of a driverless car saving a man’s life. In August, a Missouri man used the Tesla Autopilot feature to drive him to the hospital during a life- threatening emergency. Had he waited for the ambulance
SA) has re- ported that a pedestrian i s i n j u r e d every seven m i n u t e s s omewhe r e in the Coun- t r y wh i l e , tragically, a
Wes Guckert
pedestrian is killed every two hours. In 2013, there were 4,735 pedestrians killed and an estimated 66,000 injured in the United States alone. But, with autonomous ve-
There are many positive changes that will come with this technology, but the best change of all may be that it will have the ability to prevent accidents, thus saving lives!
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