It's not trivial when we don't even know what sort of regulation will be required to maintain these vehicles' road legal status, let alone banking on future economies of scale. Would it be a simple license fee? Perhaps an inspection? An age requirement on the vehicle? Or perhaps the worst (and very possible) outcome, mandating that an undistracted driver be sitting behind the wheel at all times, ready to take control.
It would take one trivial piece of legislation to turn this technology into a souped up cruise control rather than the world changing technology that its backers insist that it is. How could you even fight that sort of regulation without your argument boiling down to 'we promise we don't need human oversight.' One lazy 'think of the children!' retort later, and it's banned faster than mango juul pods.
I don't understand the investor confidence here. To me this seems like basic research, critical for future technological developments, but a cash sink with no guarantee for profitability. Is this just a rat race between the giants throwing cash at this?
The likelihood of such a legislation on a national level is unlikely. Instead, you will have cities that refuse to adopt self-driving, maybe because they were burned with a tragedy (with no regard to statistics), maybe to protect human jobs.
Large companies can adopt in other cities, or if need be, other countries eager to change their quality of lives.
It would take one trivial piece of legislation to turn this technology into a souped up cruise control rather than the world changing technology that its backers insist that it is. How could you even fight that sort of regulation without your argument boiling down to 'we promise we don't need human oversight.' One lazy 'think of the children!' retort later, and it's banned faster than mango juul pods.
I don't understand the investor confidence here. To me this seems like basic research, critical for future technological developments, but a cash sink with no guarantee for profitability. Is this just a rat race between the giants throwing cash at this?