Autonomous cars have been on the horizon the last couple of years now. The biggest name we frequently keep hearing of in this space is Tesla, which got me thinking… is there any other car by any manufacturer which has any degree of self driving capabilities?
I’m thinking… put the destination in the map and the car leaves, no human intervention required unless necessary. Doesn’t have to be an EV. Any cars that can almost drive themselves?
I found an article that lists cars in the USA
requires human intervention at some stage
That’s totally fine, I’m trying to ascertain if there are any cars other than Teslas that can do this today for sale in Australia…
In short, no, other than lane keeping assist and automatic cruise control there's no "set and forget" car out there. The Tesla's are the most capable, but even then the automatic lane changing and gps navigation driving that the UK and America get is not permitted here. Can't wait until it is though.
Tesla has had autonomous navigation enabled since early 2020 in aus: example https://youtu.be/vKei8b3r4ck
Most cars that have adaptative cruise control, lane departure, FCM and auto-parking, in theory could be fully autonomous. But there are some legalities about liability around allowing the car to be fully autonomous.
No. You are ridiculously over simplifying a very complex problem.
This is bad news for drivers. Now when you apply for a job you will be competing against everyone who is qualified, not just those who have a car or can put up with driving. Now everyone can show up to any job or job interview even if they don't even have a license. Your car used to give you a competitive edge but as the self driving gap closes that edge will more and more be erased, until self driving cars can do everything a person could except for a few very niche jobs.
If you think being able to drive and owning a car is a competitive advantage then the barrier for entry in the jobs you're talking about must be extremely low :/
No it’s not that. It’s just a lot of jobs assume, even if they never actually require it if you, that you can drive their company car between locations while working. New articles say a lot of young people today aren’t bothering to get their license, even if they are becoming professionals in some area. But a lot of people do commute by train and bus, I’ve seen them in the morning and they are packed like sardines.
Nothing wrong with choosing to take public transport/cycle to work, its probably better than cramming more cars on our congested roads.
The same could be said about manual vs automatic cars, less people are getting manual licenses but the industry is changing to cope with this by only getting automatic fleets. It'll be the same with autonomous cars soon.
What a hot take.
A) public transport is great for our cities and the planet
And b) any job where having the ability to drive is a barrier to entry isn't going to have many applicants who firstly cannot drive a normal car, and secondly can afford a self-driving car (minimum $70k).
I'll have what you're smoking austria bargain.
Nissan Leaf 2017-2020 ZE1 "G" specification (Import under SEVS) have ProPilot Assist, the local delivered ones do not have it.
This it true, all 2015 Leafs that are being imported and sold in Australia can only go 20km before the battery dies.
Hah a /s would clear things up
One of my Nissan Leaf's is 4 years old and state of health is 89%.
The article you have linked is a 2012 ZE0, they're rubbish, there have been 2 models released with revised batteries after that car (AZE0 and ZE1).
The major fault lies in the lack of a cooling/temp management system for the battery pack, and to my knowledge the later models haven't been improved.
Maybe the latest model will be different, but knowing Nissan and their receding engineering I doubt it.
@Brian McGee: I recommend on doing more research, reviews from owners of newer models with packs that have upgraded battery chemistry.
Many reviews are quite misleading, they are based on a car that was first released in 2010 in Japan, 2012 here (Nissan Aus sold 2012 models until 2016) that had issues and imply nothing has changed since then. Nissan Japan updated their batteries in the next model the AZE0 and people are retrofitting these into their first gen leaf's, you can even install a current model 62kwh battery (from a model that Nissan Aus hasn't brought here) into any older leaf.
My cars get fast and slow charged, summer or winter outdoors, I monitor temps and have not found them to be an issue, neither have many others. The key when looking to buy a second hand import is to buy one with a good battery, one that the car hasn't been used as a power storage device for a house or portable business and use it normally without trashing it.
Volvo has a feature called "Pilot Assist". You can turn it on with the radar cruise control and it will keep the car in the lane while the radar cruise control manages speed and distance to the car in front. You do basically have to keep your hands on the wheel because if it can't sense hands on the wheel after several seconds it will disengage.
My wife’s ‘19 Corolla does this. Radar cruise and lane keep assist. Take your hands off the wheel and the LKA goes off it’s tree and disengages.
Some cars have the fully autonomous technology already inbuilt (eg Tesla, 2021 Mercedes S Class) but is 'deactivated' because the legislation has not allowed it to be possible.
I am keen on autonomous cars and will adopt said car the moment the laws allow for it.
Nah that’s marketing department bullshit. It has nothing to do with legislation, they don’t have the software capable of autonomy yet. Tesla just released full self driving beta software to a handful of users in the US two days ago, and it looks promising, but it’s a long way off being able to drive itself with no driver monitoring. Mercedes is way off that, not even close to the latest Tesla FSB beta, and I read a report yesterday that Mercedes has given up on developing their own autonomous software (this comes 6 months after they dissolved a co development deal with BMW).
I did not look at any articles so I will assume your points as valid.
However I am not aware of any legislation proposals, let alone changes, that will allow fully autonomous vehicles as of this moment in any case. Whilst one may debate law changes, it should be done prior not play catch up to techonological change / upgrade.
The legislation needed only applies if a person doesn't have any responsibility. If you implement the Tesla strategy where the driver is always responsible and must keep their hands on the wheel, then you can put out whatever software you want. It's very clear from the latest software beta (linked below), that Tesla are years ahead of everyone else in autonomy, (they've had level 2 autonomy for over 5 years now, in varying degrees), and with the latest beta, the roadmap to level 4 and 5 is very clear- although the timeframe isn't. Whatever happens, the Teslas will have the software running in the cars long before the legislation catches up.
I’ll just leave this here:
Owner cars beta test.
https://electrek.co/2020/10/24/tesla-full-self-driving-beta-…
No production cars.
Even Tesla vehicles, by law, requires human intervention at some stage.