GM's CEO Says They Are A Leader In Self-Driving Vehicles

Uh... yay?

So this is where all the development money is going to go.

As an enthusiast I see the self driving car is the Anti Christ of the automobile. To me this is the end of the car enthusiast and it will render automobiles as just pods to move us from place to place.

I know "have you ever driven the 405 at rush hour?" The answer is yes but have you ever driven The Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee?

I just hope this all drags out long enough I will be too old to drive by then.

^ You will always have the choice to drive whatever you want… tho one day that may limit you to vintage iron.

Me; I'm perfectly fine with that.

I too agree with Hyper with self-driving automobiles as the Anti-Christ.

Ill go further still and borrow hatred for anything remotely robotic in such movies as Terminator and iRobot.

Im not however down with vintage iron being my sole choice though...

No...not because I dont like vintage iron...au contraire...I LOVE vintage iron....its just that the cold cold winters of Quebec....my home...creates havoc for the metal through an insane amount of corrosion in a relatively short amount of time...

You know...the stupid salt that we use to melt that stupid snow. And the thawing and freezing that goes on...is not that much better for the cars themselves...

On the upside...when one is 70 years old, in Quebec, they make you take a practical driving test again, to see if your fit to drive...then and only then will the apocalypse be fine with me, if and when the Quebec government deems me too old to drive...but then again, I might be living in Greece by that time...spending all my time on a beach...who needs gas, or electricity or hydrogen? A couple of watermelons to feed the horse and she takes you back home...come to think of it...THAT would be the ORIGINAL self-driving automobile...and I presume much much safer...horses dont make a habit of getting hacked or crashing into one another...and I dont seem to recall horses rebelling against us humans ever in history...

Add me at 48 years old as saying self driving auto's are for those that should never have been allowed to drive anyway as their facebook and twitter is more important to them than enjoying the thrill of driving. 

I have to wonder just how many new auto's are in my future as I am not a fan of all the safety crap that takes control of your auto and would rather enjoy driving a true auto with no self braking, self driving, etc.

Amen to that DFELT...to both your points about dummies that use their electronic device while driving...yeah...those a-holes are the reason for this mania over self driving cars...

I too, hate most safety features in most cars...the absolute most I want in my car is airbags, seatbelts, ABS brakes and traction control for certain situations. Not all...And that is it....No...No back-up cameras, no beep beep beeps, no lane departure warning systems, no nothing.

No smart cruise control, no radar/camera interventions of any kind....

If humans were more conscience in their driving, most of these features would not even be needed...

The real wall will be at some point they will have to remove the free radical here the person with the non self driving car. This is the one thing they have no control over and it will have to be removed. I wonder how they are going to deal with that.

Also my other concern is you are turning your vehicle over to the system. This means if someone out there says there is too much traffic on the 405 at 5 PM you can not go that way even if you want to at that time. They may like a bus route assign times you can travel which means you may take longer getting home or you may not even be able to stop at a store on the way home if the traffic control division says you can't.

Also if they would like to restrict movement of people from one region to another they can do that too.

While this may be a Utopian dream for some it could prove to be a major factor in taking away your liberty to travel as you see fit today. In the hands of the wrong people it could really be a problem.

If you do not think it could happen the government now is thinking about making you put a smart thermostat in your home. They already are putting smart appliances that control the output of appliances in some areas now. Same with electric meters.

The Big Brother thing was set for 1999 but it was just a little bit late.

Not saying this will happen but the tools will be in place to make it happen if someone thinks they can live your life better for you. I think the government now is a little too far on that now.

The real wall will be at some point they will have to remove the free radical here the person with the non self driving car. This is the one thing they have no control over and it will have to be removed. I wonder how they are going to deal with that.

Also my other concern is you are turning your vehicle over to the system. This means if someone out there says there is too much traffic on the 405 at 5 PM you can not go that way even if you want to at that time. They may like a bus route assign times you can travel which means you may take longer getting home or you may not even be able to stop at a store on the way home if the traffic control division says you can't.

Also if they would like to restrict movement of people from one region to another they can do that too.

While this may be a Utopian dream for some it could prove to be a major factor in taking away your liberty to travel as you see fit today. In the hands of the wrong people it could really be a problem.

If you do not think it could happen the government now is thinking about making you put a smart thermostat in your home. They already are putting smart appliances that control the output of appliances in some areas now. Same with electric meters.

The Big Brother thing was set for 1999 but it was just a little bit late.

Not saying this will happen but the tools will be in place to make it happen if someone thinks they can live your life better for you. I think the government now is a little too far on that now.

My thoughts on GM being a leader: well, in order for them to be competitive, they have to be. It's something that no automaker can ignore. And I think no automaker can really pinpoint why they're going down this road; but I'm happy that Tesla and GM are leaders here, and I guess Ford couldn't be that far behind in that realm either. Heck, Toyota, Audi from VW Group, Volvo. Every well known company for sure is pursuing this tech. But I don't think any company that does it first has a lasting advantage either. This is more of just taking components for the most part already available and tuning the hardware and developing the software to enable these features. Not much invention as much just minor innovations that add up to these systems. 

Other thoughts -

Yeah, smart thermostats and kwh meters are just junk. It's all a cash grab. Turning off the lights when you leave a room and setting the thermostat at 65 or 18 Celsius are just plain common sense. And the loss of privacy. In order to 'serve' us you better they track usage and package customer information for sale to the highest bidder.

I think mandating self-driving cars.... while certainly possible; at the rate these technologies are coming down in price; and just the salivation of politicians and lobbyists of the potential benefits; no, no. 

Honestly, I'd rather we supersede driving with something kickass like hoverboards, teleportation, jetpacks, mini Jetsons; Capsule Corp flying thingermajiggers, or the hyperloop.... or something so simple and ridiculously cheap like bicycles of all things. Walking even... 

And the leave the roads empty for those who choose to drive with passion.

Also if they would like to restrict movement of people from one region to another they can do that too.

I have no doubt that some are already daydreaming about this, but implementation would require a Consitutional Amendment.

Not at all happy about the prospect of losing control of my own vehicle.  May as well not own my means of transport, but take public transportation... then the automakers eventually go out of business.

We all are looking at this from one direction the question is outside the metro areas like LA etc. just how popular will this technology be?

I can see many areas where this will not play well.

Just exactly how will the public take this all in.

Here's my take. Hybrids / electrics, after 15 years on the market, are still under 5% of the market IIRC. SDCs still have numerous, tall hurdles to clear, not the least of which is legalities. 15 years from now, are they going to be doing any better than hybrid/EVs?? 

It seems SO often people are willing to speak on the concept meanwhile ignoring the numbers. It's like CUVs- they've only gained a whopping 5% in share over the last 6 years, but people sometimes talk about them as if it were a landslide shift.

SuperCruise is not the only tech that GM is working on at the moment.

GM is funding some large self driving initiatives that may not directly have their name on it, but they get rights to the tech as it is developed.  Pittsburgh is a major hub for such development. Uber, Google, and Carnegie Mellon University are all working on it here.

It's not coincidence that all of the CMU self driving cars happen to be Cadillacs. 

I think self driving is a good idea, 60 minutes had a good story on this a couple weeks ago.  They said 33,000 people die in car accidents every year, the same as if a fully loaded 747 crashed every week.  If the airline industry had a 747 crash weekly, no one would fly, yet people hop in a car and do distracted driving, or fall asleep, or drive drunk etc.  Self driving cars will save lives.

Secondly, stop and go traffic can be stressful, letting the car take over in driving like that keeps the driver calm, relaxed, makes the drive more pleasurable.  I like driving, I don't like sitting in stop and go traffic doing nothing, and wasting time.   The Self driving car could create time, the ultimate luxury.  Doesn't mean you still can't drive for thrills.

And GM is not the leader, this car is, 20,000 miles driven by the computer on public streets without an accident.

I'm curious how many miles the self driving SRXes in Pittsburgh have racked up.... without that datapoint, you can't make that assertion.

That's the thing really. These self-driving systems do not have to be perfect as we think. They just have to be better than humans. Which is highly likely. Add to that, there's just an untapped amount of information governments and automakers and third parties like insurance companies would just love to snack on... that can be provided from a self-driving vehicle connected to the cloud.

Now, I think for any SDC to gain traction, you need more than just the automaker accounting for liability, like already companies are declaring. They need to demonstrate system reliability. And how their self-driving cars...could actually prevent accidents from happening with non self-driving cars.

I think self driving is a good idea, 60 minutes had a good story on this a couple weeks ago.  They said 33,000 people die in car accidents every year, the same as if a fully loaded 747 crashed every week.  If the airline industry had a 747 crash weekly, no one would fly, yet people hop in a car and do distracted driving, or fall asleep, or drive drunk etc.  Self driving cars will save lives.

 

Secondly, stop and go traffic can be stressful, letting the car take over in driving like that keeps the driver calm, relaxed, makes the drive more pleasurable.  I like driving, I don't like sitting in stop and go traffic doing nothing, and wasting time.   The Self driving car could create time, the ultimate luxury.  Doesn't mean you still can't drive for thrills.

 

And GM is not the leader, this car is, 20,000 miles driven by the computer on public streets without an accident.

I think the article's title and body do not really imply GM as the overall leader as much as GM is among the big leaders in this emering automotive field.

And autonomous tech is kind of like any technology, really. Which means easily* reproducible and substitutable in many cases. GM is among the leaders, while companies like Mercedes and Tesla (they've already brought it to market) in production vehicles, I am very sure all the technology demonstrators by all cars are very alike in capabilities.

It's also just a part of the big autonomous 'auto's movement. So things from warehouse carts to mining dump trucks to huge freighliners all being able to demonstrate in daily use autonomous navigation ability.

*As in easily I mean in the context of academic settings like MIT, Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, and/or private enterprises with the resources to dedicated to this emerging technology.

I think self driving is a good idea, 60 minutes had a good story on this a couple weeks ago.  They said 33,000 people die in car accidents every year, the same as if a fully loaded 747 crashed every week.  If the airline industry had a 747 crash weekly, no one would fly, yet people hop in a car and do distracted driving, or fall asleep, or drive drunk etc.  Self driving cars will save lives.

 

Secondly, stop and go traffic can be stressful, letting the car take over in driving like that keeps the driver calm, relaxed, makes the drive more pleasurable.  I like driving, I don't like sitting in stop and go traffic doing nothing, and wasting time.   The Self driving car could create time, the ultimate luxury.  Doesn't mean you still can't drive for thrills.

 

And GM is not the leader, this car is, 20,000 miles driven by the computer on public streets without an accident.

 

I think the article's title and body do not really imply GM as the overall leader as much as GM is among the big leaders in this emering automotive field.

 

And autonomous tech is kind of like any technology, really. Which means easily* reproducible and substitutable in many cases. GM is among the leaders, while companies like Mercedes and Tesla (they've already brought it to market) in production vehicles, I am very sure all the technology demonstrators by all cars are very alike in capabilities.

 

It's also just a part of the big autonomous 'auto's movement. So things from warehouse carts to mining dump trucks to huge freighliners all being able to demonstrate in daily use autonomous navigation ability.

 

*As in easily I mean in the context of academic settings like MIT, Silicon Valley, Pittsburgh, and/or private enterprises with the resources to dedicated to this emerging technology.

Indeed, Volvo Truck has been working on self driving rigs for years now.

Another Pittsburgh plug. The optical tech that allows a car to see like a human in order to judge distance and relative speed for self driving cars was largely conceptualized and developed here. This is different from the laser/radar based cruise control systems and is a crucial piece to the SDC puzzle.

I think a car maker will crack this before Google, Apple, CMU, MIT or whoever does.  Because those firms are outfitting stuff to an existing car from another company, vs the car company expanding upon their own tech and building from the ground up.  What is shocking is a Mercedes engineer said the self driving tech would only add a few thousand dollars to the price of the car.   And rumor is the 2017 E-class will have it.  $3k on the price of an E-class is nothing, so $65,000 vs $62,000 and it drives itself, amazing.

So the company that charges $3K for a pair of replacement headlights is going to offer self driving for the same price??

I think a car maker will crack this before Google, Apple, CMU, MIT or whoever does.  Because those firms are outfitting stuff to an existing car from another company, vs the car company expanding upon their own tech and building from the ground up.  What is shocking is a Mercedes engineer said the self driving tech would only add a few thousand dollars to the price of the car.   And rumor is the 2017 E-class will have it.  $3k on the price of an E-class is nothing, so $65,000 vs $62,000 and it drives itself, amazing.

German/English translation error? It may only cost Benz that much to add to the car, but you better believe they're going to extract a bunch of profit from you at the dealership.

Besides, Drivers Assist and Parktronic is priced at $3,500 today and requires $4,000 of other packages as well.

Self driving is only going to be seen on really expensive cars for a good while. Self-driving on a $65k car?

Not likely in the least. You probably have to buy every option to enable the purchase of their special self-driving version of Distronic.

Or worse, in order to get even basic distronic adaptive cruise control, you have to buy self-driving.

In either case, the leaders in this field are going to be the ones who can bring it to a price point for the masses. GM, Honda, Ford, and Toyota, Volvo and Subaru seem like the only car companies that could achieve this relatively soon.

The Driver Assistance package which has Distronic plus with steer assist, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise, etc is a $2,800 option on the  S550, and a $2,800 option on a C300.  Perhaps they charge another $2,800 on top of that package.  It is just what the engineer said, he expects a few thousand dollars will be added to the price of the car.

The E-class is going to be more autonomous than the current S-class, Mercedes has already stated that it will have more technology than the S-class has right now.  We'l find out in January.

Just watched a vid of a Tesla 'self driving', IE: it steered itself and (after the driver flicked the lever), it executed a lane change- all on a major highway. 

My observation; the driver said he was 35 yrs old, and he was 'still checking his surroundings, making sure everything was going OK', and of course he was still stuck there sitting upright behind the wheel…. only now he had NO WHERE to place his hands. They fluttered in mid-air, briefly crossed on his chest, and repeatedly 'air grabbed' the wheel because seventeen years of driving conditioning had made it very hard to 'let go'. So I ask you all; of what benefit is this to the average driver? Are only the youngest of drivers going to be able to acclimate to 'hands-off' driving? And, perhaps more importantly; WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PUT OUR HANDS??

I just do not see a considerable take rate for this feature, despite how the media is hyping it as Sliced Bread 2.0.  

The Driver Assistance package which has Distronic plus with steer assist, lane keep assist, adaptive cruise, etc is a $2,800 option on the  S550, and a $2,800 option on a C300.  Perhaps they charge another $2,800 on top of that package.  It is just what the engineer said, he expects a few thousand dollars will be added to the price of the car.

 

The E-class is going to be more autonomous than the current S-class, Mercedes has already stated that it will have more technology than the S-class has right now.  We'l find out in January.

Ah, but the Parktronic, which will certainly be required for DriveTronic,  is another $950 and also requires a $4,000 navigation package. 

Just watched a vid of a Tesla 'self driving', IE: it steered itself and (after the driver flicked the lever), it executed a lane change- all on a major highway. 

 

My observation; the driver said he was 35 yrs old, and he was 'still checking his surroundings, making sure everything was going OK', and of course he was still stuck there sitting upright behind the wheel…. only now he had NO WHERE to place his hands. They fluttered in mid-air, briefly crossed on his chest, and repeatedly 'air grabbed' the wheel because seventeen years of driving conditioning had made it very hard to 'let go'. So I ask you all; of what benefit is this to the average driver? Are only the youngest of drivers going to be able to acclimate to 'hands-off' driving? And, perhaps more importantly; WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PUT OUR HANDS??

 

I just do not see a considerable take rate for this feature, despite how the media is hyping it as Sliced Bread 2.0.  

Like with active cruise control, I'm sure it will take getting used to.  I like Adaptive Cruise Control now that I'm used to it... and in at least one bad weather situation, it was safer to use the ACC than for me to try to drive.  I just locked on to the F-150 in front of me that I could barely see and let the ACC do the work.

^ IMO, that's COMPLETELY different than continually having your hands off the wheel. 

RE MB's rumored pricing : if 2 all-plastic headlight assemblies are "worth" $3000, AD had better be every bit of $15000, relatively speaking. Either that, or drop the headlight cost to what it should be: $200 each. I can tell you this- if it's priced the same as 2 headlights, I'm not going to start off feeling very confident in the system's engineering….

^ IMO, that's COMPLETELY different than continually having your hands off the wheel. 

No, not completely different at all, in fact it is quite similar.  It is a bit unnerving at first to have the car accelerate and decelerate in response to traffic.  If a car pulls into your lane and slows down, your natural reaction is to go for the brake, but that's no longer needed, the ACC has got it for you... and when that jack-ass gets back into the slow lane, your car automatically gets back up to the proper speed.   It takes a good many miles to get used to.

I think self driving is a good idea, 60 minutes had a good story on this a couple weeks ago.  They said 33,000 people die in car accidents every year, the same as if a fully loaded 747 crashed every week.  If the airline industry had a 747 crash weekly, no one would fly, yet people hop in a car and do distracted driving, or fall asleep, or drive drunk etc.  Self driving cars will save lives.

 

Secondly, stop and go traffic can be stressful, letting the car take over in driving like that keeps the driver calm, relaxed, makes the drive more pleasurable.  I like driving, I don't like sitting in stop and go traffic doing nothing, and wasting time.   The Self driving car could create time, the ultimate luxury.  Doesn't mean you still can't drive for thrills.

 

And GM is not the leader, this car is, 20,000 miles driven by the computer on public streets without an accident.

Delphi has self driving auto's doing cross country trips in the US racking up more miles than the MB, so how is MB considered the leader and what about Google and their 700,000 miles driven so far over the last 5 years? MB is NOT the Leader in Self Driving auto's.

Just watched a vid of a Tesla 'self driving', IE: it steered itself and (after the driver flicked the lever), it executed a lane change- all on a major highway. 

 

My observation; the driver said he was 35 yrs old, and he was 'still checking his surroundings, making sure everything was going OK', and of course he was still stuck there sitting upright behind the wheel…. only now he had NO WHERE to place his hands. They fluttered in mid-air, briefly crossed on his chest, and repeatedly 'air grabbed' the wheel because seventeen years of driving conditioning had made it very hard to 'let go'. So I ask you all; of what benefit is this to the average driver? Are only the youngest of drivers going to be able to acclimate to 'hands-off' driving? And, perhaps more importantly; WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO PUT OUR HANDS??

 

I just do not see a considerable take rate for this feature, despite how the media is hyping it as Sliced Bread 2.0.  

Maybe like in the Movie Demolition man. The steering wheel will get folded into the dash when in self driving mode. So you just have to relax your hands in your lap or play with your phone or what ever else you want to do.

Google has the 25 mph pod things, and some converted Lexus SUVs.  And will Google be selling a self driving car in the next 5 years?

All Google is going to be able to do is develop equipment to sell to a car maker.  But here is the 60 minutes story to see these cars in action.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/self-driving-cars-google-mercedes-benz-60-minutes/

Google has the 25 mph pod things, and some converted Lexus SUVs.  And will Google be selling a self driving car in the next 5 years?

All Google is going to be able to do is develop equipment to sell to a car maker.  But here is the 60 minutes story to see these cars in action.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/self-driving-cars-google-mercedes-benz-60-minutes/

The dude in charge of Highway Safety said something about if consumers dont trust the computer on wheels to drive them, the consumer will simply not buy them and simply wont get into one, and that future will simply evaporate...

DAMN RIGHT! That screwed up future SHOULD evaporate!

Before that sentence was made...the interviewer mentioned something about computer glitzes and how computers...well, they have glitzes sometimes...and that highway safety dude simply just glanced over that question mentioning that people today are comfortable with computers...and then he made that statement about if consumers wont feel comfortable the future of autonomous driving will evaporate...

HE GLANCED OVER that question...

Yo buddy!!!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING COMPUTER FREEZES?

Even in airplanes, MANUAL take offs and landings are only made...

In airplanes...because that is how that clip was started...about 747s...

In the aircraft industry....ALL manual controls were made drive-by-wire...and eliminated ALL manual controls....only to go back to MANUAL controls when the airplanes had computer glitzes so in the aircraft industry...MANUAL controls are STILL used as BACK-UPS...

THEREFORE...in cars....because there are MANY cars on the road...one cant just doze off...one still has to be alert just to be able to get manual control back!

We even saw it in the clip where the car "asked" for help....

I understand many algorithms still have to be computed and cars dont "talk" to each other yet (GM is working on that technology as we speak), remember....computers in 2015 STILL FREEZE UP!!!

Even APPLE computers....you know....the holy grail of Apple software and operating systems that is unlike the laughable Microsoft software!!!

PLEASE...SOMEONE...END THIS INSANITY!!!

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING COMPUTER FREEZES?

Very good question.  The Benz CLS400 I had over the summer had a bad habit of its navigation system freezing up on me and me not realizing it until 5 or 10 miles down the road.   Then it would reboot which seemed to take 2 - 3 minutes.

 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING COMPUTER FREEZES?

 

Very good question.  The Benz CLS400 I had over the summer had a bad habit of its navigation system freezing up on me and me not realizing it until 5 or 10 miles down the road.   Then it would reboot which seemed to take 2 - 3 minutes.

 

5 or 10 miles and the rebooting would take 2-3 minutes...

That is a heck of a long time and distance for a computer driven car to be without any guidance...especially when hundreds of cars are being encountered in that period of time and distance...

Then there is the question of maintenance.

People dont change their oils, brakes...on a regular basis...

Heck, people dont even check their tire pressure any more.

Plus...it is a well known fact that all these sensors we have in modern cars eventually fail...

Add all that up...on an autonomous car that is 6-7-8-10 years old, with 90 000/120 000/150 000 hard daily driven miles with a very minimal amount of maintenance done to the vehicle...what happens to all that computer technology and all those sensors let alone the mechanical side of things that fail on today;s cars on top of all the autonomous driving smart technology computer systems?

Meaning...

A brand spanking new autonomous car will perform flawlessly the first 1-3 years....what happens to that autonomous car when wear and tear actually occurs down the line and proper maintenance is not performed?

With airplanes...rigorous overhauls for maintenance is made on a very regular basis...we all know that the cars on the road are not all exactly in pristine showroom quality with near 100% flawless mechanicals...

Well in the case of the sensors, I assume there will be some self diagnostic built in that will disable the autonomous drive if the sensors aren't in perfect working order.   I had a test Lincoln MKS years ago with adaptive cruise control.  I took it on a trip about 2.5 hours into Ohio during a heavy snow storm. The front end would get completely caked over with ice/snow/mush, including wherever the sensor was located for the ACC.   After a very short time, ACC would simply refuse to function, citing a sensor error. 

 

 

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN AUTONOMOUS DRIVING COMPUTER FREEZES?

 

Very good question.  The Benz CLS400 I had over the summer had a bad habit of its navigation system freezing up on me and me not realizing it until 5 or 10 miles down the road.   Then it would reboot which seemed to take 2 - 3 minutes.

 

5 or 10 miles and the rebooting would take 2-3 minutes...

That is a heck of a long time and distance for a computer driven car to be without any guidance...especially when hundreds of cars are being encountered in that period of time and distance...

 

Then there is the question of maintenance.

 

People dont change their oils, brakes...on a regular basis...

Heck, people dont even check their tire pressure any more.

 

Plus...it is a well known fact that all these sensors we have in modern cars eventually fail...

 

 

Add all that up...on an autonomous car that is 6-7-8-10 years old, with 90 000/120 000/150 000 hard daily driven miles with a very minimal amount of maintenance done to the vehicle...what happens to all that computer technology and all those sensors let alone the mechanical side of things that fail on today;s cars on top of all the autonomous driving smart technology computer systems?

 

Meaning...

 

A brand spanking new autonomous car will perform flawlessly the first 1-3 years....what happens to that autonomous car when wear and tear actually occurs down the line and proper maintenance is not performed?

 

With airplanes...rigorous overhauls for maintenance is made on a very regular basis...we all know that the cars on the road are not all exactly in pristine showroom quality with near 100% flawless mechanicals...

 

What you do not realize that this is a step towards never owning a car again. You lease for the right to have a car to drive and at the end of the 3 year lease the car goes back, gets shredded and recycled and they produce a new self driving car that you have to pay for. This is the new model of perpetual payments for life and never owning a car again.

Well in the case of the sensors, I assume there will be some self diagnostic built in that will disable the autonomous drive if the sensors aren't in perfect working order.   I had a test Lincoln MKS years ago with adaptive cruise control.  I took it on a trip about 2.5 hours into Ohio during a heavy snow storm. The front end would get completely caked over with ice/snow/mush, including wherever the sensor was located for the ACC.   After a very short time, ACC would simply refuse to function, citing a sensor error. 

Yeah...I could see that also where the computer would refuse to function and would require manual controls to be taken over...and if a car is old and not maintained properly, that mode would be activated more often than not...DEFEATING THE PURPOSE OF SELF AUTONOMOUS DRIVING...me thinks.

Unless of course what DFELT is suggesting that either people themselves choose to lease or Big Brother forces us to not ever own a car again and just have a car on loan or the whole industry goes public and is solely governed by the State. Hyper also touched up on that idea...that the State would control the industry to some degree, maybe 100%...

I don't mind the idea of the self driving car.  There are times I want to drive and there are times (like my frequent trips to NJ on the PA Turnpike) where I'd rather someone else was driving.