Despite the remarkable progress Google has achieved in bringing self-driving cars to market, such cars, at present, would easily cost more than a Ferrari.
Business Insider says the sensors alone in an autonomous car cost about $250,000. Then there’s the $45,000 retail price of the Lexus RX-450h cars that Google is employing.
Google is test driving a fleet of autonomous Prius and Lexus test vehicles and has already logged over 300,000 miles.
Several analysts believe autonomous cars will come to market in the next 10 years. Semi-driverless cars (that become fully autonomous in very slow traffic) would make it easier to use electronics in the car. Kiplinger says this might help win back younger car buyers who no longer see the car as a must-have item.
Last month, the California state legislature passed a bill that would make it legal for autonomous cars to hit the roads and it charged the state Dept. of Motor Vehicles with creating standards for self-driving cars. (But the bill still requires that a human being be behind the wheel).
Also in May, a caravan of autonomous cars completed a 125-mile test on the roads in Spain as part of Project SARTRE ( Safe Road Trains for the Environment).
Read Business Insider’s full cost analysis for driverless cars here.
Source: Business Insider
