Autonomous vehicles (AV) to be ready for sale starting with 2025
At least this is the opinion of the chief executive of Volkswagen, the world’s largest vehicle maker by sales
An autonomous car is controlled by an automatic driving system that does not need a physical driver. It is based on wireless technology that enables cars to communicate with one another via Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and with overhead traffic systems through Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I). So they are self-driving vehicles (cars or trucks) in which human drivers are never required to take control to safely operate the vehicle. Also known as autonomous or “driverless” cars, they combine sensors and software to control, navigate, and drive the vehicle.
Herbert Diess, the chief executive of Volkswagen, says that the improving performance of computer chips needed in autonomous cars while developments in artificial intelligence are speeding the process. And that we can expect autonomous vehicles to be ready for sale between 2025 and 2030.
“It is foreseeable that the systems will soon be able to master even the complex situations of autonomous driving,” Diess told the Wirtschaftswoche weekly magazine.
GM Motors, Tesla, Wayo and Yandex are some of the big names currently involved in the self-driving car development race.
Legislation changes
Experts say that beyond technology progress, which is undeniable, countries should change legislation and create a new vehicle class. Since the current regulations were not written with AVs in mind, a number of existing standards assume the presence of a human driver and therefore present a barrier to the deployment of AVs without conventional driver controls.
