How far are we from autonomous driving? Could closed system approaches with only AVs in urban areas speed up things up?

Hi Sandro.

Yes, first AV applications will be closed areas, as well rural areas. Most challenging are dense, open urban settings.

In my opinion it would be most realistic to assume fleet providers with AVs in closed urban systems. Why do you assume that rural areas will also play a large role from the beginning?

Are you of the opinion that these massive transformations to the layout of our cities will be enforceable against the public's lack of trust into AV technology and reluctance to give up the comfort that comes along with personal vehicles in the near future? In China maybe, but in Germany?

Rural area, because less dangerous to test open areas. We will have a mix of both AV and private cars. Especially Germans like their cars ;)

What about the autonomous driving vehicles at Charité? Is that an example for autonomous vehicles in Berlin? How do you think that would fare in a city like New York?

For sure it's safer to test in rural areas, however closed systems are not really applicable in these cases right? So your answer would look something like closed urban systems in dense urban regions, e.g. in Asia, in the near future and long-term mixed systems?

Yes, I meant first applications can be both closed in cities and open in rural. But open in cities might take a while.