Most manufacturers have made their announcements, published their road maps and now have gone quiet while getting on with the job of making it work.
The major hurdle these days seems to be government dragging heir feet and not addressing the issues that will have a dramatic effect on society.
I wrote an open letter to that effect and have held off publishing it as I have sent requests to both state and Federal (Australian) governments requesting information of what they are intending to do.
After a month I have had no response.
However, as is the way of life when you take a stand, something comes long to make you look faintly ridiculous, or prophetic, depending on your outlook. I'll go with prophetic.
The (Australian) National Transport Commission has been in place since 2003 and has had a remit to look at transport across the country. But as time goes on, things change.
Recently their focus has been updated. and this is a quote from their website.
Automated vehicles offer the possibility of fundamentally changing transport and society by improving road safety, freight productivity and by reducing road congestion.
However, current regulations do not adequately support automated road vehicles. In November 2016, Australian transports ministers agreed to a phased reform program so that conditionally automated vehicles can operate safely and legally on our roads before 2020, and highly and fully automated vehicles from 2020.
To provide certainty on the use of existing technology, transport ministers reaffirmed the existing policy position that the human driver remains in full legal control of a vehicle that is partially or conditionally automated, unless or until a new position is developed and agreed. These recommendations and policy positions are set out in the NTC policy paper – Regulatory reforms for automated road vehicles.
However, current regulations do not adequately support automated road vehicles and there is uncertainty about how and when current polices and regulations will be adapted. There is also a risk that, without a national and coordinated response to automated vehicle reform, Australia’s complex regulatory framework will result in inconsistent regulation of automated vehicles across states and territories. In this policy paper, the National Transport Commission (NTC) recommends that the Commonwealth and state and territory governments support on-road trials, remove unnecessary legal barriers, and provide for the safe operation of automated vehicles.
So it seems, I am pleased to say, that I have been pre-empted in trying to get governments involved.
As this technology will be appearing on the road within the next few years it needs to be addressed urgently and this is a good start with a National focus.
Apple has finally announced their intention of development in the field of autonomous vehicles with a letter to the (US) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) .
Although apple does refer to the sharing of crash data between manufacturers, that does seem to be at odds with their usual closed eco-system. Hopefully they will help with standardisation not proprietary systems.
In the US it's anyones guess what will happen once Trump gets into the White House.
His opposition to automation stealing jobs doesn't bode well for automated vehicles as they will replace many driving jobs.
If that's the case then the US may well slip behind the rest of the world in leading edge technologies, ironically leaving China to grab the lead.
There has been a huge amount of capital spent in developing technology to replace people and I don't think that's going to change back anytime soon. Amazons automated warehouse being a case in point.
This has to be the ultimate bridge builder to date. Note how fast it happens (even though the video has been sped up) and how few people are involved.
The clock doesn't get turned back just because you want to...
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