Nissan Leaf prototype autonomous vehicle.

0patience

Nissan Autonomous vehicle

Nissan has put their driver-less autonomous prototype Nissan Leaf on Japan's highways.
According to the press, they expect to have driver-less vehicles in production by 2020.

The only questions I have is, when 2 autonomous vehicles get in an accident, who's fault will it be?
And when there are nothing but autonomous vehicles on the road, what do we do with the highway patrol?

New_Boots

I should say "Oh great, one more thing to be taken over by robotics of some sort" ....but then I think how much better road trips will be if I can be asleep the whole time.

dr_frankenstein56

0patience:

what do we do with the highway patrol?

oh i have a wonderful idea!

But really, its very neat to see how far technology has come, yet by now i remember i was supposed to be in a flying spaceship. Almost there!

Aj

90+_Irishman

dr_frankenstein56:

0patience:

what do we do with the highway patrol?

oh i have a wonderful idea!

But really, its very neat to see how far technology has come, yet by now i remember i was supposed to be in a flying spaceship. Almost there!

Aj

Tony to answer your question on what Highway Patrol would do, you need to watch the movie Super Troopers.... Your question would then be answered lol

bearb

While it sounds pretty cool, but it's not like we need more cars on the road...now we are creating ones that dont even need a driver. So would the cars just go out for a sunday drive for something to do? Sheesh!
As per the Highway Patrol's....I think that Eric Estrado's time has passed him anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYq8b0yIYr0

perkinke

I was thinking about this the other day, and it occurred to me that if driverless cars become the norm it would be just like traveling on a train that isn't bound by tracks. And if that occurs, would there be any point to personal ownership of cars? Seems like it would be just mass transit by a different method; variances in luxury would seem to be the only differentiating factors. Or not, I dunno. Even if they proved viability and authorized them tomorrow it would be decades before conventional cars could be reasonably outlawed.

beatnic

The driver-less Google cars are already on the streets.

phobicsquirrel

beatnic:

The driver-less Google cars are already on the streets.

Yup. There was a really cool video out that showed a blind man using one to do shopping and stuff. Pretty cool actually. My only issue is software failure, malware, viruses, and who is at fault during a crash? I'm sure there is an override to take control but still. On the plus side I'm sure there will be less issues on the road.