Originally Posted by noisebeam
1) NO, but who cares... one does not have to be "attentive" to be a passenger.
2) No, all technology fails at one point or another... the real question is will this generally be better than merely relying on humans. (they also fail quite frequently)
3) It has to or it cannot be permitted to "be on the streets." It also has to watch for pedestrians...
Now as a side note, every time I have mentioned the approach of such technology, there are cyclists here on BF that wail "you can have my steering wheel when you pry it from my cold dead hands." They refuse to believe that technology is moving their way and that they will roll over for it. Strange response for cyclists, eh?
I just read the NTSB report on the accident in the farmers market (different thread) and buried deep in that report was this tidbit:
"To the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
Once standards for event data recorders are developed, require their installation in all newly manufactured light-duty vehicles. (H-04-26)"
This is the first step in going "all electronic" on vehicle control. Monitoring of vehicles and the reaction of motorists via a "black box" will allow the gathering of data to better design autonomous vehicles.
These EDRs exist already in a number of vehicles and have been used in court cases to verify witness accounts.
Anybody that doesn't believe that technology is going to evolve and modify "transportation," has not been paying attention for the last 100 years or so.