Sulu

That depends which London you are referring to... London, Ontario, Canada is not a particularly large city and New London, Connecticut is even smaller.

Nissan could easily test autonomous cars in either of the smaller Londons, I would think.

Now, London, England... that is a whole different matter!

Och

iTrader: (3)

Autonomous cars that we have running around today are not autonomous at all. There is a human driver that takes over control when autonomous system deactivates itself when it can't handle the situation, or whenever the driver taps gas/brake or turns the steering wheel. In a city like London, UK the human driver will be doing at least 80% of actual driving.

plex

iTrader: (11)

I also have a degree in Computer Science from UMD and working on Masters in Systems Engineering at UMD also. You want to throw education out let's go. What real world projects have you worked on or are you one of those hipsters you hate with a CS degree working on Excel documents. Watch Sci-Fi shows and marketing who me? I've signed numerous NDA's on government and commercial side specifically in Mountain View, CA that are working numerous AI Technologies far beyond self driving cars. You doubt everything I get it that's your nature but don't try to throw educational credentials and tech savvy here when you think Adaptive Cruise Control or Lane Departure Technology are just a gimmicks GTFO. Go ahead notify a mod about this post.

Och

iTrader: (3)

You're going on ignore. Stay classy.

plex

iTrader: (11)

^^^Of course I am go ahead and tap out.

SW17LS

Look at what they do to control cars in cities in other countries, London (yes England lol) is a great example. The same will eventually happen in cities like NYC.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

plex, exit this thread, thank you.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

aaannd... flying car by end of the year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ai...-idUSKBN1501DM

Trexus

NYC is heavily populated but there are far more populated cities on Earth.

Shanghai is about 3 times more populated that NYC.
Karachi is far more populated than NYC but not more than Shanghai.
Beijing far more populated than NYC.
Delhi as well
Istanbul
Tokyo
Guangzhou
Mumbai
Moscow
São Paulo
Seoul
Mexico City
London
etc.

Don't think for a minute that the world revolves around NYC. There are far more cities in the world that are way more populated than NYC.

Aron9000

I think the main thing is that Manhattan is pretty comparable to the main core of any other major city in the world in terms of population density.

Och

iTrader: (3)

The world does revolve about major cities though.

SW17LS

The fallacy of logic is that because a technology is hard to implement or may not even work in a large city (I think it will work), that it won't have value or won't be implemented. Like I said, I live outside Washington, DC but pretty much everywhere I drive on a regular basis a self driving car would work just fine for me. Highways, suburban roads. So if I have to take over when I get into the city, that's just one portion of my driving area.

A technology doesn't have to solve every solution to be of value.

Also, "autonomous cars" doesn't have to mean that the driver NEVER drives. It may be that in some situations the car can drive itself and the driver can sleep, work, etc. Highway trips, etc. And in some they have to drive. I think that's the short term most likely result. Eventually though, I do think we will have totally autonomous cars within my lifetime.

comotiger

I agree with Steve. As Och himself concedes, the world does not revolve around major cities. In the suburban areas and on interstates, traffic is highly predictable, and autonomous vehicles are already working extremely well. Yeah, I am aware of the Tesla crash, but there were mitigating factors in that case, and these are still early days.

When airplanes first started flying, people were scared of weather conditions and clouds, and planes flew by sight. Now, with all the technology, planes can essentially fly blind and pretty much on autopilot for the entire trip. Sure there are no pesky pedestrians or unruly cabs to run into! Eventually the technology for navigating cars in various weather and road conditions will become available. Consider this, many of us turn into horrible drivers when weather conditions turn sour, and I wouldn't be surprised if autonomous cars (in 2033) drive better than many humans under these conditions.

And returning to the topic of this thread, what this might mean is that in 2033, 16 year olds may not have to learn driving the way we think of it now. Many new cars may have a joystick or other type of controller rather than a steering wheel, although that is hard to imagine...

Many here have cited liability and litigation as reasons for not having autonomous cars become more prevalent. Sure, that is possible, but I believe laws will be enacted to deal with these critical issues. But IMO, there are no technological barriers to having fully autonomous cars in large numbers on our roads in a few years.

Aron9000

We will see what happens, as cars in the next 16 years are going to change A LOT compared to the slow rate of change we've seen since 2001. If you compare something like a 2001 Avalon to a 2017 Avalon, other than the infotainment tech and screen in the middle of the dash(thank you smart phones), not much has changed. Both cars have ABS, torque converter automatic transmissions, front wheel drive, fuel injected double overhead cam V6 engines with variable valve timing, ABS, stability control, heated leather seats, acres of space, tomb like quiet and a soft ride. Even going back another 16 years, 32 years ago and comparing a 2017 Avalon to a 1986 Buick Electra, under the skin the layout and design is the same, front wheel drive, fuel injected V6, automatic transmission with torque converter and overdrive.

Just saying you have to go WAY WAY WAY back to see a fundamental design change on how we built our bread and butter sedans. The future should be interesting, as I don't see us building cars that are remotely near this same FWD transverse engine format we've been on for 30+ years now.

Now will the cars drive themselves completely 16 years from now???? I doubt it, but I'd imagine something like Tesla's autopilot where its semi-autonomous in certain situations will have been perfected and be standard equipment on a Nissan Versa.

Och

iTrader: (3)

I hope you right, but this cookie cutter design is getting more and more popular and even encroaching on luxury cars such as BMW and MB.