Last year, the German gov’t gave the transport ministry three years to come up with the draft for allowing unmanned vehicles on the German autobahn system. Note the word “draft”. They’ve been given enough indication by Mercedes that their vehicle will be ready around 2020 to sell to the public (no guesses on the price but it’ll probably over $75k). I saw a demo of the car last week on German news, it’s routinely test-driven now on the autobahn with a guy in the seat but the computer handles everything).
What I see happening is that Germany will likely be the first country to approve this business, and the first country to note someone’s untimely death due to the autonomous vehicles. But about a year into approval there...there’s going to be significant pressure on US car makers to produce and for the fifty states to approve some kind of standard.
In Germany, on the immaculate Autobahn, yes it can work and work well. As I said, a self steering cruise control.
But on surface streets, door-to-door? No, the Merc will not be able to navigate city streets or rural two lanes without driver intervention.
This article sums up some of the almost insurmountable problems with door-to-door autonomy in automobiles, and it is door-to-door that I am talking about.
Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways