The Air Force just ran a test on autonomous drones. That comes only 103 years after the first autopilot in an aircraft was demonstrated.
The workable, sane solution for automobiles is to abandon the notion of complete autonomy and instead work toward developing the technology that is commonplace in aviation today. The "boring" parts of driving (Interstate and highway travel) should be done with the autopilot engaged. Pulling out of a parking space (the equivalent of taxiing) and Parking (the equivalent of taxiing to the ramp) should be done by human hands. If this is about safety (which it isn't) that's the approach we should pursue. For instance, ...
https://www.esurance.com/info/car/where-car-accidents-happen-most
But, like everything else in this country, this has nothing to do with safety. It's about increasing the acceleration of the polarization of wealth. Why share wealth with taxi drivers when we can (1) Get Uber to perform the same duty for a lot less and (2) eliminate the need for humans entirely and funnel the saved dollars to people who contribute nothing to the process - like we do with our health care system. So, we really won't need to solve that 1% of the "problem" of autonomous cars after all. What's a few dead precariats in the face of increasing profit?
Edit: The *real* solution, of course, is mass transit. But, there's not enough money in that for the shareholders.
The workable, sane solution for automobiles is to abandon the notion of complete autonomy and instead work toward developing the technology that is commonplace in aviation today. The "boring" parts of driving (Interstate and highway travel) should be done with the autopilot engaged. Pulling out of a parking space (the equivalent of taxiing) and Parking (the equivalent of taxiing to the ramp) should be done by human hands. If this is about safety (which it isn't) that's the approach we should pursue. For instance, ...
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that, in 2013, nearly 3,000 more fatal car accidents happened on rural roads than on busy urban streets.
https://www.esurance.com/info/car/where-car-accidents-happen-most
But, like everything else in this country, this has nothing to do with safety. It's about increasing the acceleration of the polarization of wealth. Why share wealth with taxi drivers when we can (1) Get Uber to perform the same duty for a lot less and (2) eliminate the need for humans entirely and funnel the saved dollars to people who contribute nothing to the process - like we do with our health care system. So, we really won't need to solve that 1% of the "problem" of autonomous cars after all. What's a few dead precariats in the face of increasing profit?
Edit: The *real* solution, of course, is mass transit. But, there's not enough money in that for the shareholders.