[Salizar]

Not to be outdone by its competitors Nissan, Mercedes-Benz will also be launching a self-driving car by the year 2020. Benz says that it is hard to predict when drivers will become passengers in their own car. "Autonomous driving will not come overnight, but will be realized in stages."

Another company that is on the forefront of autonomous car technology is Google, who will show off its autonomous car technology at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week.

Just like the rapid development of electric vehicles, it seem that autonomous cars will be a battleground for the car industry.

 

[Zeus]

It will be super interesting to see how this part of the industry develops. Will the first autonomous cars switch between manual and automatic mode? I've also heard of an automated taxi service where you call it up on your smart phone and the cab picks up and drops you off. Some say it could revolutionize personal transport. It would also put a lot of cabbies out of business. Not to mention truck drivers, bus drivers, limo drivers, etc...

2020 should be an exciting year if all these companies actually meet their goal of having an autonomous car by then.

 

[AMG]

That a good time frame for us to see self-driving CLA's. 6-7 years is a good time. By then it should either be last year model self-driving CLA's or next gen self-driving CLA's.

 

[WildBenza]

I wouldn't trust it but the way its going majority might just end up giving it support. I can see these being sold globally but really guys it would take the fun out of things.

 

[brianch]

and I'll be a millionaire by 2020.

 

[mr.smith]

While Mercedes-Benz and Nissan have plans to complete a self-driving car by 2020, Tesla is aiming at having a self-driving car in just three years from now! Tesla also says that it will develop all its self-driving car technology in-house.

So it really seems like this self-driving car battle is already completely underway. Experts say that they expect self-driving car technology to be realized in 10-15 years. I guess the major car companies take that as a challenge.

 

[BenzinoXL]

I could understand for Tesla to come out with the technology first since they dont have that many cars to focus on. they can divert most of their time to focus on self driving cars all they want but it wont be cheap. Wait for it later and the price might come down with the competition.

 

[mr.smith]

I could understand for Tesla to come out with the technology first since they dont have that many cars to focus on. they can divert most of their time to focus on self driving cars all they want but it wont be cheap. Wait for it later and the price might come down with the competition.

Tesla has always been trying to be the first one to commit to new technology. When no one was making electric cars Elon was like, "Let's make an electric car."

Now everybody is like autonomous cars will be here in 2020 (maybe, in some unmarketable form.) Elon is like "we can build one from scratch in just 3 years!"

I do wonder how driverless cars will sell though. Even if they work perfectly, at least at first, a lot of people will hold onto the driving experience. We will all be turned into our driver license-less teenage selves by them. Driven from point a to point b while we gab with friends, or play games, or have our face glued t our phone.

Speaking of which, the dawn of the driverless car will also bring with it the advent of the entertainment focused car. If you aren't driving, you need something to do. I am seeing plenty of games, news, tv, etc being placed in the car to entertain passengers.

 

[brianch]

so what happens when the car is self driving and it gets into an accident because someone hit you?

Hows that for an insurance clusterflop.

 

[SimpsonTide985]

2020 sounds a little optimistic.

At the same time, I guess I wouldn't doubt it.

I mean, think about the cars we were driving back in 2003! Most new cars back then didn't have nav screens or blind spot systems or reverse cameras or self-parking systems. Now almost every car in the $20k range has them as available options.

Self driving cars have been in testing for almost 10 years now and today you'll struggle to find a car over $40k that doesn't have an adaptive cruise control that can sense other cars around them to keep up and adapt to traffic conditions.

The next thing we need now is car sensors to pick up on traffic lights.

 

[Mike T]

For those of us who enjoy driving, this whole thing is anathema.

 

[brianch]

I really don't see it happening anytime soon.

So us real drivers dont have to worry

 

[SimpsonTide985]

I really don't see it happening anytime soon.

So us real drivers dont have to worry

2020 isn't that soon though

 

[Zeus]

Even if there is one available in 2020 it doesn't mean that everyone will go out and buy it all at once. There will be a long time where self-driving cars will be sold alongside traditional vehicles. You will see one on the street and be excited to see one because they are fairly rare.

Over time they will become more widespread. Technological advancement usually surprises me with its speed though. So we will see...

 

[BenzFan]

Even if there is one available in 2020 it doesn't mean that everyone will go out and buy it all at once. There will be a long time where self-driving cars will be sold alongside traditional vehicles. You will see one on the street and be excited to see one because they are fairly rare.

Over time they will become more widespread. Technological advancement usually surprises me with its speed though. So we will see...

thats easy to say now, still a long way to go till we see some big news on self-driving cars being on the road. Over the last couple years they has been a lot going on, who knows how much longer till it all really happens and what will actually happen in 2020/

 

[MaximilianJürgen]

It think the rate of technology is really up to speed now for everything. And for cars simpsons got it right. Just look back tens years and what we had in cars is crazy.