Both BMW and Daimler AG, which owns Mercedes-Benz, have been working on autonomous vehicle concepts for years, such as BMW's self-driving 5 Series.
However, spokespersons for both companies have admitted to Wired.co.uk that marketable products in this category are a long way off. The reason? Simply put, it's because the legal framework that would enable the sale of such vehicles is more or less absent.
"The legislation is just not in place for us to be able to put these vehicles on the market," explains a BMW spokesperson.
Essentially, EU law has not yet worked out applicable assumptions and rules that would apply to the kind of intermittently autonomous vehicles currently available, never mind the sort of design just shown off by Google—which lacks a steering wheel.
Click the link to see more: Europe demands driverless cars be driveable | Ars Technica
Not surprising. It’s pretty obvious people would be nervous if there wasn’t a way to keep humans in the loop. Now imagine planes. We can make them pilotless, but that doesn’t mean we’d want to fly in one without a pilot.
