Die Judicii wrote:Back to my original question.
Farmer Bill says to car computer,,,
"Take me to the big paddock where I found that big firewood log last month,,, but you'll have to find a different route cos
it's rained for a week, and it's pretty boggy."
Kev the roo shooter wants to follow his nose completely off road .... " electric car, find roos. .. keep out of their flight zone"
Andrew the exploration dtiller wants to take his fleet of trucks to a predetermined gps point 100 km from the nearest track, he needs to avoid soft sand, washouts, drop offs, crab holes, trees , things that will stake his tyres, must find the most suitable creek crossing. He will at some point need to recover a bogged truck, hitch all the trucks together with rigid bars to cross difficult country stop and deploy the bog mats, perhaps even do some track building along the way..... needs to make good time. Can't take 3 months to get there like some kind of mars rover.
Normal cars, trucks, bikes and boats will NEVER be Completely replaced but driverless might become a option like automatic parking. Even then, someone needs to be in "control"of the vehicle otherwise whos to blame when something goes wrong ? The computer programmer? The manufacturer? Not likely.
The notion of normal cars becoming completely redundant by 2013 is mindless dribble.