Chauffeurs will soon be out of a job as car manufacturers are working harder on self driving cars to be released to the market at the soonest. News just in that cars could be driving themselves sooner than expected because of a change in a global treaty backed by European countries. A little-noticed amendment to the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic agreed last month would let drivers take their hands off the wheel of self-driving cars. It was pushed by Germany, Italy and France, whose high-end carmakers believe they are ready to zoom past American tech pioneers and bring the first “autonomous vehicles” to market.
Audi, Mercedes, BMW as well as suppliers Robert Bosch and Continental, are working on technologies for autonomous or semi-autonomous cars. Mercedes has developed technology which can scan the road ahead and behind with cameras and radar, and prompt a vehicle to pull out and overtake a large truck without a driver having to touch the steering wheel.
It now wants to introduce more automated driving features into its cars, such as automated parking, automatic stop-and-go driving in traffic and motorway driving functions. Eventually, it hopes to have cars with elaborate self-driving software that can be easily updated to take advantage of new technical capabilities or changes in the law.
