ANSWERS: 2
  • Hundreds of billions if not trillions. Remember that even to build a 5 or 10 mile stretch of road, money needs to be aquired, plans need to be finalised, engineers brought in, surveyors... Not to mention shutting down the roads for construction - it would take decades and cost a lot of cheese basically.
    • Roaring
      There's a simple way by sawing a line in the middle of each lane and filled with metallic epoxy. This will be a good first and inexpensive step to assist on-board tracking know the true center. Of course on-board tracking technology would have to do the smart maneuvering.
  • It is more likely that we'll see cars using advanced AI with image recognition, so roads won't have to be "enhanced" at all for robotic cars. The military (DARPA) recently held a competition to develop an autonomous vehicle that can drive itself over a test track. http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/military.html As with any technology, it will eventually find its way into consumer products, such as private vehicles, someday. In the US, Canada, and the UK, road markings, signs, and signals are thoroughly standardized, making the step to AI image recognition extremely difficult rather than impossible :-) Oh sure, some problems will come up initially, like signal lights in direct line with the sun on certain hours of certain days, and some non-standard markings and signs here and there. But in these cases, safeties will likely kick in and the car will simply stop and require the driver to drive through the area manually.
    • Roaring
      Yes and Tesla Motors leads the way in more ways than this. Their all-electrics are miles ahead of the big car companies.

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