Biggest Hurdles for Autonomous Vehicles, CNBC Reports

CNBC's Phil LeBeau, Duke University's Missy Cummings, and the Center for Automotive Research's David Wallace discuss the future of autonomous cars on 'Power Lunch.'
By Giovanni Bruno ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --With questions swirling around the unraveling of autonomous cars, CNBC's Phil LeBeau reported from the 2016 Automated Vehicles Symposium in San Francisco, where the top minds of the biggest companies are working on this technology in an attempt to get answers.

It is possible that autonomous vehicles will be met with heavy restrictions in the future. LeBeau spoke with Anthony Foxx, the secretary of the Department of Motor Vehicles, who believes autonomous cars will someday hit the market and that the most important thing is to be prepared for when they arrive.    

"There's an opportunity with the data that the systems develop to have shared knowledge between systems just like we do with the FAA. An individual vehicle can avoid a situation and teach others to do the same thing in similar situations. I think there's a continued opportunity for accumulated knowledge," Foxx said.

The expectation is for the guidelines for autonomous vehicles will be ironed and rolled out by the end of the summer, LeBeau reported.

Adding to the autonomous car discussion, Missy Cummings of Duke University robotics, and Richard Wallace, research director at the Center for Automotive Research joined "Power Lunch" to discuss the biggest hurdles the technology faces, and consumer's willingness to purchase the technology.

"To get to the fully automated car world, we have to get through this scary part that we're in which is the partially automated car world. Once we get the fully autonomous car that can really drive by itself with no human intervention, life will be great," Cummings said, while also reiterating that this is the most dangerous time period for automated vehicles.

Wallace echoed similar concerns, and the fact that this "partially" autonomous period for cars is the most dangerous to the human driver.

"I agree 100%, the average age of the car fleet is 11.5 years, so even if the companies developing this technology could make it fully automated starting with next year, you've got a long transition time with mixed traffic, and for me personally, that's the scariest," Wallace explained.

In terms of consumer willingness to buy these types of vehicles, Wallace does believe that drivers will be willing to buy automated vehicles.

"There's a lot of consumer evidence that says people are willing to pay for this because they think it's going to help them save lives. We think computers will eventually be able to drive better than humans. Replacing your eyes and your ears that's the easy part, replacing your brain that's the hard part," Wallace said.

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