Many other parts of the world are trying instead to get small aircraft to get people around. With the machines up in the air, it takes MANY unforeseen variables out of the way, such as a falling tree, someone pulling out in front of you, a deer (or other animal) jumping out of nowhere, sinkholes in the road, etc, etc. There is already very good radar for air, but for ground, an entirely new system has to be built. Each of these "driverless vehicles" would have sensors and cameras, and be able to communicate with each other and with a network. ...In other words, a ground-based driverless system will NEVER have all the kinks worked out of it unless and until the roadways are made up entirely of such vehicles. Even then, ground-based vehicles will be much more apt to surprises from things such as deer, sinkholes, bridge collapse/washed away, other types of accidents like involving trains or tractors, and who knows what other variables.
At the moment, there is ONLY ONE working "Air Car"-type vehicle that I know of, and it's designed, built and currently being used/tested in China. Seems impressive, especially for its small size. Another route that is more common in other areas is a system that, "for now", works more like a drone aircraft and has a live operator at the other end. I say "for now" because their eventual goal is to have a system that is so perfected that they can then remove the human factor.
IMO, all of the above systems are never going to be foolproof. The air-based vehicles will be first to come close, and might even achieve their goal....for a while. But eventually, as the population continues to grow and as more and more products continue to be shipped out/delivered (think Amazon and eBay), not to mention all the other non-manned aircraft, and any manmade hazards coming from the ground, there will eventually be many problems. The hope is to be able to work out those problems as they arise, and there IS a better chance of that for the air-based vehicles over ground-based.
One thing's for certain though, and that's that mankind will never in the foreseeable future be able to get rid of roadways. So long as there is any reason to deliver concrete, lumber, and other large/heavy loads to off-highway locations, then there will always be a need to keep the roadways intact and updated -- which may be why the USA is working on ground-based methods rather than air-based. My thought is that for either to work very well, it will require the other system also. All vehicles will eventually need to collect and transmit real-time data for both air and ground-based operations.
Personally, I don't like where any of it is going, but then I'm just an old fuddy-duddy anyhow - set in my ways. I don't trust people too much, but I also cannot trust machines, as they are designed, built and maintained by people. And once true AI comes to be, what real need will it have of "serving" mankind??
Dang, think I strained my last remaining brain cell on this post. Think I'll go back to bed! :shock:
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