Comment Maintenance Problem (Score 0) 222
I’m not sure that we are anywhere near the ability to switch to autonomous cars. The projected cost and maintenance of them seems to me to be prohibitive for the current consumers of cars.
Selling an autonomous car to the general public means that they will have to make sure that required diagnostics are done per the car’s schedule, like cleaning the laser and/or camera lenses as per instructions, besides maintenance of tires, brakes, etc. It’s not unlike selling someone an airplane.
It may be possible to make a car like that available as a lease vehicle, with strict agreements with the dealership regarding the maintenance agreement. In the end, lack of or avoidance of maintenance will be the undoing of any automated system.
I am also concerned about what happens in the event of failure. An engineer may think that they can provide the correct instructions to avoid problems in any situation, but those instructions are only as good as the hardware that they’ll run on. If there is a memory or storage issue that introduces an unforeseen bug, or there is faulty information given to the system by a bad sensor or worse, an almost-working sensor, the human costs could be devastating.
I would assume that if the car fails self-check, either before a journey or during it, it will stop until required repairs are completed. There would be no limping it to the shop. You’re getting it towed on a flatbed.
I don’t know how I feel about paying for what feels like a personal mass transit device controlled by the vendor.
Why not just expand mass transit if the majority of people don’t want to drive?