The current state of the technology is really impressive, but there are still real technical problems to solve before it is something that is ready for you to buy. As far as I know, nobody has successfully driven a driverless car in snow, for example.
>As far as I know, nobody has successfully driven a driverless car in snow, for example.
Snow is really the last technological problem left. Rain is fine, but heavy snow completely blocks almost all visual indicators.
That being said, it's not an insurmountable problem and there are plenty of places where snow is almost never a problem.
If you look at the DARPA grand challenge. In 2004 the farthest anyone got was 7 miles. Yet one year later 5 vehicles successfully completed the 150 mile course, and all but one of the 23 finalists surpassed the 7 mile best from the previous year.
If California said that beginning in 2015 it would be legal for private citizens to own and operate a self driving car, I have no doubt there would be several companies with commercial products the first day they were legal.
The obstacles are almost totally political at this point.
The current state of the technology is really impressive, but there are still real technical problems to solve before it is something that is ready for you to buy. As far as I know, nobody has successfully driven a driverless car in snow, for example.