[lbsnake7]

I always wondered if it was possible to have a dedicated autonomous car lane on the highway, similar to a HOV lane. To get on, you would park your car at a designated area. The computer would start to sync with all the other cars traveling in the lane, and it would take off and just add itself to the caravan of cars. You could go to sleep or do whatever else you wanted. When you reached your destination exit, the car would park itself again and wait for you to resume control of the car for the local streets.

You still have to deal with things mentioned in the article: random objects on the road, rain, sunlight, human driven cars crashing into your lane. But I think that's more manageable then having to deal with humans crossing the street, stop signs and traffic signals, random road changes in the middle of the night.

[ghaff]

Something in this vein--or some other variant of autonomous cars driving on (relatively) predictable limited access highways--seems a much more achievable goal for, say, the next decade than general purpose autonomy. As you say, there are still obstacles to overcome to which I'd add legal and regulatory concerns. I sure don't want a car for which I'm liable if it makes a "mistake."

The general purpose robo-taxi will almost certainly happen someday but I'd be more likely to bet on fifty years than ten.

[FranOntanaya]

A lot of toll highways in Spain are severely underused and basically bankrupt. They definitely could devote a whole lane to autonomous cars.

[agumonkey]

What a nice testbed too. Google should leverage this kind of failed states.

[pikachu_is_cool]

This in itself is revolutionary. If we could rid ourselves of just manual freeway driving, that's a huge step forward.

Park your car, put the seats down and go to sleep. Wake up in the morning and find yourself halfway across the United States.