RObert,

Very interesting links, thank you.
I wonder could the cars be programmed to avoid kangaroos and deer; two of our local hazards.

Is Mise, I assume that collision avoidance is at the core of what they are being programmed to cope with. No idea if they are dealing with specific characteristics of different hazards but overall I suspect they should be able to do better than a lot of human drivers who get distracted, inattentive, tired etc.

A driverless car can detect hazards from more than one direction at a time and depending on what technology is implemented do that detection with more than one means (not just eyesight).

I'm surprised at just how well they are doing so far.

R0bert

Do they have a Pothole Avoidance system ?

I'm more concerned by the damage from so called traffic calming devices than potholes.

In past years car computers and even turn blinkers were susceptible
to radio frequency interference. My first knowledge of this was in
Germany. There is an autobahn that passes along the Czech border.
Radio Free Europe was just west of that road and the NRMA equivalent
had to position a patrol car to tow through the modern cars that died
as they passed through the beam.
One Holden, can't remember which, its blinker operated rapidly when in
a close field.
There have been many cases in US of cars stopping on the freeway when
an adjacent car transmitted with about 50 to 100 watts.

The European standards try to cope with this by subjecting cars on the
end of the production line to a strong RF field then testing everything.

There was big row in the UK when the government tried to stop
retro fitting of two way radios, because the cars were not tested as new.
Self drive cars could be a bigger problem with RF than it is with fly
by wire aircraft systems. The transmitters can be very much closer.

A humorous aside; the harbour bridge had new coin mechanisms installed
on the toll gates. Did not take long for taxi drivers, and radio
amateurs to discover that a press of the transmit button opened the toll gate.
No, I was a very good boy and did not do that. Prove it if you can !
Another trick we used to play was with courier drivers, they all had
radar detectors and when driving behind you could see the little red
led light up when you transmitted. A game to play with the couriers
was to transmit and light up the led, as he put his hand up to reset
you let the button go, then do it again until they wake up.

Oh dear, thems were the days, got around the boredem of driving.