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For a time, why not allow the cars in fully-autonomous mode on a restricted set of roads, even particular lanes on particular roads, at particular max speeds, m

For a time, why not allow the cars in fully-autonomous mode on a restricted set of roads, even particular lanes on particular roads, at particular max speeds, marked as such so everyone, including the cars, knows what to expect? In the case of unusual construction particular routes could be temporarily disabled. This would severely curtail the number of outlier cases the software has to be ready for, be actually safe, and allow for awesome quality of life improvement for commuters on those routes who can do something else while commuting. And in the meantime, gain huge number of hours driving experience for the software, enabling the fully autonomous routes to be slowly expanded over time.

jcrawfordor 11y ago
The large part of the complexity of implementing self-driving cars comes from the fact that the roadway is not a fully protected space. You can find a number of examples of fully unattended automated vehicles that have been around for a while (for example, AGT people-movers that are common at airports), but they are dependent on a fully protected pathway so that they do not require very much intelligence. So what about roadways? Freeways have a certain degree of protection, but it's still not comparable with an elevated train ROW. It is certainly possible to develop roadways with a sufficient degree of protection for less sophisticated automation to be reliable, but it would be very expensive: they would need much more intensive maintenance, traffic density would have to be quite a bit more limited, they would need careful physical protection with at least fencing. In the end, I don't think that the infrastructure investment would be worth it considering that the period of time for which this infrastructure is needed will probably be quite short (in infrastructure terms).

jcrawfordor 11y ago

The large part of the complexity of implementing self-driving cars comes from the fact that the roadway is not a fully protected space. You can find a number of examples of fully unattended automated vehicles that have been around for a while (for example, AGT people-movers that are common at airports), but they are dependent on a fully protected pathway so that they do not require very much intelligence. So what about roadways? Freeways have a certain degree of protection, but it's still not comparable with an elevated train ROW. It is certainly possible to develop roadways with a sufficient degree of protection for less sophisticated automation to be reliable, but it would be very expensive: they would need much more intensive maintenance, traffic density would have to be quite a bit more limited, they would need careful physical protection with at least fencing. In the end, I don't think that the infrastructure investment would be worth it considering that the period of time for which this infrastructure is needed will probably be quite short (in infrastructure terms).