Selbstfahrende Autos

Brad Templeton über die Presseberichte, ein „Winter“ sei gekommen für die Entwicklung selbstfahrender Autos, welche nur zu gern von den etablierten Automarken der Presse gegenüber unterfüttert werden, um den kommenden Wandel vielleicht doch noch etwas hinauszögern zu können:

We continue to see lots of reports of a „pull back“ on robocars, a „winter“ of sorts. It is often presented as „the problem was harder than people expected“ […]

There is one factor not being talked about in the idea of a pull-back. Namely that the big car companies would not mind a slowdown at all, and so will happily confirm this narrative, whether it is true or not. The reality is these companies were dragged into this. No industry relishes the arrival of a new technology which will turn it upside down.

The Economist über die plausibelste Entwicklung selbstfahrender Autos. Zuerst ergibt nur ein Sharing-Modell Sinn:

Although today’s experimental vehicles are modified versions of ordinary cars, with steering wheels that eerily turn by themselves, future AVs will have no steering wheel or pedals and will come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; pods capable of carrying six or eight people may prove to be the most efficient design. Rather than work everywhere, these pods will initially operate within geographically limited and well-mapped urban areas. And they will be shared “robotaxis”, summoned when needed using a ride-hailing app. The first self-driving vehicle you ride in will be shared, not owned, for a combination of technological and economic reasons. […]

The initial deployment of self-driving vehicles as robotaxis makes sense because they are limited to a particular area—and because the sensors needed for a fully autonomous AV to sense its surroundings and figure out how to respond currently cost more than the vehicle itself.