That older link looks outdated based on this newer information.
Google admitted now that it will take 5-30 years to achieve the full goals here. Also, that this technology will show up in pieces - cars will become more and more autonomous. And that makes sense, we already have cars from multiple manufacturers that can drive autonomously on highways, for example.
The new information Google provided is that the full "no gas pedal, no brake pedal, can drive anywhere" dream of a fully autonomous car will take up to 30 years to arrive.
> The new information Google provided is that the full "no gas pedal, no brake pedal, can drive anywhere" dream of a fully autonomous car will take up to 30 years to arrive.
The thing is, it doesn't really matter what Google thinks. There are six billion people on the planet, and it only takes one governor or president to decide that some local company's autonomous cars are "good enough" to serve as driverless cabs and they decide they want to reap the economic benefit of being a first mover and all of the sudden it's a geopolitical arms race.
We're already past the point where autonomous cars can drive many routes more safely than a typical human. That's just a fact of the universe. You can speculate that the entire world's political forces will form a perfect coalition to prevent the removal of steering wheels from those cars for 30 years, but I don't think that's how politics works.
What economic benefits? Seriously, I don't see any. I mean, I see some for the producers of said cars, but not for a city that mandates only self-driving taxis.
Google admitted now that it will take 5-30 years to achieve the full goals here. Also, that this technology will show up in pieces - cars will become more and more autonomous. And that makes sense, we already have cars from multiple manufacturers that can drive autonomously on highways, for example.
The new information Google provided is that the full "no gas pedal, no brake pedal, can drive anywhere" dream of a fully autonomous car will take up to 30 years to arrive.