In article , Jethro_uk
writes
On Fri, 17 Mar 2017 14:07:20 +0000, dennis@home wrote:

On 17/03/2017 13:57, wrote:
[quoted text muted]

All fine until an artic crosses the central reservation and you discover
you need the same stopping space as you did with a driver

I'm suspecting that there will be a few stages ..

1) Autonomous control allowed
- Drivers of vehicles with the appropriate technology are allowed to
engage "auto" mode, if they wish. Probably for some stretches of
motorway. Obviously the vehicle will identify such roads itself (new
roadsign + GPS ?), and have a config setting "automatically engage
autonomous mode where allowed"

2) Autonomous mode mandatory
- roads that *only* allow autonomous vehicles. Probably more city-centres
to start with, and slowly enlarged to include trunk routes and link up
with the roads setup for (1) above.

This would reduce the pedestrian/vehicle interaction which worries some
people. Bearing in mind that when pedestrians are stupid enough to go
sightseeing on train tracks, we don't have any handwringing about how
dangerous it is to allow trains on the rails. Nor do we have the legal
wittering that the train manufacturer is liable ... even for trains which
have no driver. And they've been around for years.
We don't actively go around encouraging people to walk on train tracks.
City centre trams are different but they move relatively slowly.
--
bert