It’s going to be a while before fully self-driving (FSD) cars hit the road in South Africa.
Industry veterans speaking at the annual South African Auto Week suggested that the unpredictability of local roads may be too much to handle for current FSD tech which will add to the already highly dangerous conditions.
As per Peter van Binsbergen, CEO of BMW South Africa, certain levels of advanced driving systems do make drivers safer and more alert, “but driving a car is so complex and especially driving in a mixed mode where one person is driving the car themselves and another is driven by a computer — that is such a hurdle to cross and I don’t see it here in the short term.”
“What we might see is some cities having zones dedicated to automated vehicles. That will work, because they’ll talk to each other … But you won’t see them on the roads for quite some time, as far as I’m concerned,” said the CEO, as quoted by Dispatch Live.
Regardless, the automaker is currently constructing a test facility in South Africa for developing FSD systems before they are sent to export markets where automated vehicles are more prevalent.
“So, it’s coming into our factories before it actually comes onto our roads here in South Africa,” said Van Binsbergen.
Managing Director of MAN Automotive South Africa, Jan Aichinger, echoed these sentiments and stated that the local roadblocks to FSD cars not only revolve around two-mode road dedication to South African roads but also the country’s infrastructure shortcomings.
“If the infrastructure is not developed for that, it won’t work,” he said.
“I’ll give you a simple example. All our trucks are also fitted with automation and driving assistance systems. Currently, the drivers are switching those systems off if they can. Simply because the system is tracking in the middle of the road, where all the potholes are.”
FSD follies
Perhaps the biggest proponent of FSD capabilities is South African-born billionaire Elon Musk, who has touted his Tesla vehicle as being capable of piloting themselves virtually unsupervised.
In the same breath, FSD has been a perennial thorn in Musk’s side as the more his company develops it, the more lawsuits it attracts.
As we speak, Tesla is fighting at least half a dozen wrongful death claims in California and Florida courts over fatal crashes blamed on its Autopilot driver-assistance system, Bloomberg reports.
Should the plainants win, Tesla will be deemed culpable for deaths of its customers and put Musk’s dream of being at the vanguard of FSD tech in peril.
Other manufacturers paid attention to these challenges and have thus taken a more measured approach to ensure safety is at the forefront of their FSD advancements.
Nameplates like BMW and Mercedes-Benz only started selling vehicles with limited self-driving capabilities in 2024, which are only available on select models and in regions such as the United States and Europe.
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