Hesitancy about autonomous vehicles depends on overcoming consumer concerns, a marketing problem, which is the sort of issue automakers and tech companies are very skilled at addressing. JL
Geoff Winestock reports in AFR:
Why? Usually electric cars take off when there is a country policy about supporting zero emissions. "In the next five years most of the cars will be with some capacity of autonomy. The premium market is going to be totally autonomous."
The chair of the world's largest manufacturer of electric vehicles says autonomous vehicles could come fairly soon.
Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the Renault Nissan Alliance, told a press conference in Sydney that car makers were very close to developing cars that could operate without a driver's hands on the wheel - at least on highways. The car would become a "mobile space" for watching movies, reading and video conferencing.
"In the next five years most of the cars will be with some capacity of autonomy. The premium market is going to be totally autonomous." Mr Ghosn said.
But he argued that unlike in China, the US, Japan and most of western Europe, the Australian government was not offering what would be needed to bring zero-emission vehicles up to commercial scale."I don't think there is anything that is going to lead us to believe that Australia is going to see electric cars soon. Why? Usually electric cars take off when there is a country policy about supporting zero emissions."I understand that your government is going to issue a new policy but for the moment we are waiting for the components of this policy," Mr Ghosn said.
It is not clear what policy Mr Ghosn was referring to but the Federal government has been considering adopting much tougher European fuel emission standards once local manufacturing closes down at the end of the year. In some countries, car electric recharging stations are also subsidised.
Renault has surfed the electric car wave and sold about 4650,000 vehicles, with its Nissan Leaf the global top seller. But only 600 Leafs have been sold in Australia.
Mr Ghosn said he was not lobbying for any particular change in regulations in Australia but he said that subsidies for electric vehicles would only be needed at the start to "jump start" sales and reach an efficient scale. Nissan this year helped set up a group called the Electric Vehicle Council to promote the technology in Australia.Brazilian-born Mr Ghosn recently stepped down as chief executive of Nissan Renault which he has run since the late 1990s. In that time the firm has become one of the top three global manufacturers alongside Toyota and Volkswagen. Mr Ghosn's successful fusion of Japanese and French corporate cultures is now a classic business-school case study.
His first trip to Australia in 10 years, however, comes partly because Australia has underperformed compared to other markets such as North America.
Mr Ghosn said what he called "robocars" with no drivers at all could eventually play a role as taxis or for commercial deliveries but it might take longer than for autonomous cars because regulators were wary of approving cars with absolutely noone on board.
He said that in developed economies the rise of ride sharing was undercutting the demand for cars somewhat but a rise in demand from developing countries where the rate of car ownership is still relatively low would more than compensate.
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