Can ‘outer markers’ make self-driving cars happen?
Autonomous is only worth it if done fully SAE Level 5. If not, forget about people wanting to use AV systems on a wide scale. I can think of only one in between phase for passenger cars: Level 5 outside the built environment (out on the ‘open road’). Level 2–3 or manual operation within city limits. How to go about this? Like airports have, have cities use electronic outer markers that indicate to AVs where (GPS-defined) it is allowed to switch to driverless, and where not. Now, ILS (Instrument Landing System) are used to have an airplane line up with the landing strip, in terms of direction and height. Since AVs operate in the ‘2D pane’, the outer markers only serve to indicate zones. Then again, it is a million times cheaper to no longer allow people to drive a car when incapacitated, if it is our goal to bring down accidents. To begin with, by mandatory installing an alcohol lock. But one can also think of dashboards which are less distracting to the human eye. Obviously, for Public Transport and ride-hailing purposes one can imagine having SAE Level 5 MPVs or small buses which operate on dedicated lanes within the city.
