Self-driving cars are coming, but few people will hand over control to the vehicle unless the computer can match the way they like to drive.
The good news is that there is a surprisingly small level of variance in what most people consider acceptable for certain key situations, said connected driving expert Floris van de Klashorst of Nokia subsidiary HERE.
He told the Telematic Munich conference this week that the biggest hurdle that will slow the launch of fully autonomous driving is trust.
"We can stop and start and drive the car but that doesn't make it a pleasurable experience," he said.
He envisions a world in which drivers can actually pick the kind of self-driving experience they want, such as more sporty or more conservative.
HERE is collecting volumes of data to make sure the vehicle is aware of these nuances.
He gave the example of a highway off ramp. Based on 7.5 million data points collected over three years at an off ramp, HERE found that the entry speed to the off ramp ranges from 85kph to 100kph and that even though the legally allowed speed once in the curve is 40kph, most people travel at speeds ranging from 12kph to 20kph.
He said that if the autonomous car only follows the posted speed there will be a lot of people "with a sweaty back" if they were traveling at twice the speed they consider safe.
That level of understanding needs to be built into the vehicle for people to be willing to let the car take control.
Another hurdle van de Klashorst sees for autonomous cars is that there is no Europewide effort underway to get governments to work together to launch the technology.
Unless Germany works with Austria, France, the Czech Republic and its other neighboring EU member states, a perfectly functioning system in one country will be limited by geographical borders.
Van de Klashorst says that countries need to start thinking about how to make cross-border autonomous driving a reality as soon as possible. "Let's not try to glue them together later," he warned.
