Stanford study: fossil-fueled cars will vanish in 8 years as ‘big oil’ collapses
inhabitat.com
inhabitat.com
Given that an autonomous vehicle capable of performing safe comprehensive driving skills doesn't yet exist I find this and other claims in the article somewhat of a stretch.
This seems odd to me - this is a prediction, so (to me) it is natural that the tech doesn't quite exist yet. But we have things like assisted braking, cars that help you park, and tests of self-driving cars. Heck, some cities have already approved them for use (1]. It isn't like we need them to be perfect, only have them wind up better than the humans. It doesn't seem like much of a stretch to say we'll increasingly rely on them in 10 years.
I would still say that being truly autonomous is quite different to a "help you park" feature and having "assisted braking". Its all the gaps in between these tasks.
In the UK and I haven't yet seen a demo of a car driving down rural roads, let alone on UK motorways or in congested London. But with segregation I could totally see autonomous vehicles being swiftly adopted within a matter of months.
[edit] yes I know the study is about the US.