Isn't cost a problem? I think that these cars have hundreds of thousands of dollars of hardware. Surely mass production can bring costs down, but how far? Are there any solid estimates out there?
There was an article recently (one version at http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/04/27/self_driv...) that talked about a study asking folks if they wanted a self-driving vehicle if it cost $3K more - which supposedly was based on Ford and GM estimates of what it would add to the cost of a mass-produced model. Personally I'd pay twice as much to have it today, but I appear to be in the minority...
I think it would be fairly sizeable minority. There are so many benefits to this:
- Safety. CPUs don't get distracted.
- Far less stress. You wont worry about being cut off when you're reading.
- Imaging able to go to sleep and wake up in a new city. Your ride is extremely smooth.
- More time. Your trips are much quicker, because each path around each of the corners is perfectly optimized.
