Re: Robocar--a decade away?

Ken from Chicago wrote:
> "Sea Wasp" <seawaspObvious@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:4784CCD3.8050805@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Ken from Chicago wrote:
>>> Hi, I'm Ken. I'm from Chicago. You may know me from such memes as
>>> "Magic = science we don't understand yet" and "Experience has no
>>> relevance to accuracy (tho it does affect trustworthiness)" and, of
>>> course, "Robocar", the robot car, the self-driving car, the
>>> automated automobile. I suggested robocars could be on the road in
>>> 20 years, back in 2005, around 2025:
>>
>> Maybe. Though given current art (and I work in the area of smart
>> sensors, autonomous systems, etc.), I really would have a hard time
>> believing it. More im****tantly, it's not just the tech you need to 
>> consider. If I
>> had KITT itself today, I couldn't take him out on the road. Laws
>> have to be modified, and regulatory hurdles are sometimes almost as
>> hard as the entire tech development path.
>
> Aside from the legal hurdles, they are likely to be reluctance by some
> people to choose em, but they are balanced out by early adopters.
>
>> And if any of your robocar's needs include additions to
>> infrastructure, you can forget about it.
>
> That's the point, that's what differentiates 21st century conceptions
> of robocars versus 20th century conceptions of "automated highways".
> The latter requires infrastructure changes while the former simply
> modifies the cars.
Actually, of the various automated vehicle plans that I've heard of as
being 
seriously considered, the one that seems to be the "front runner" requires

some sensors be implanted in the road bed.  But its "only" some relatively

inexpensive electronics in holes drilled in to the road every hundred (?)
or 
so feet and the on-board electronics can be retro-fitted to existing 
vehicles, which is why its the likely winner.

-- 
"Reading by the light of a lost Christmas day
It begins...."