Autonomous Cars in Florida
08.05.2019
D he presence of autonomous cars on public roads in the USA is likely to increase. According to media reports, the sunny state of Florida wants to pass a law that allows the operation of self-driving cars.
In a first step, providers such as Waymo, General Motors subsidiary Cruise and Uber could test their vehicles before regular operations begin becomes. The weather conditions in Florida play in the hands of the technology, as the sensors and cameras have to fear little rain or even snow.
Autonomous cars in the USA
The Google sister company currently operates a driver service with self-driving Chrysler vans in Phoenix, Arizona. Since April 2018, the US state of California has also legalized self-driving cars. Here Waymo mainly uses its fleet to bring employees from its own company and from Google to the respective company headquarters.
Uber also uses California asphalt for its robotic car journeys. In San Francisco, a converted Volvo XC90 made negative headlines after a fatal accident. Driving service providers like Uber have a great interest in the level 5 technology of autonomous driving becoming established. The driver who is currently still needed is the biggest cost factor. This could be saved and the vehicles could also be used more efficiently and, above all, around the clock, excluding downtime for refueling or charging electricity.
Tests in Europe
Some of the Waymo vans were also shipped to Europe. However, they did not do their first test laps on public roads, but on a test site run by FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) in northern Italy.
VW is testing a fleet of five converted e-Golfs in cooperation with the city of Hamburg. At the start of the project, the route in the city center is limited to a length of three kilometers, in 2020 it is to be expanded to nine kilometers.
