No, autonomous vehicles need not also be connected

I keep seeing statements like ‘autonomous vehicles requires connectivity between vehicles and infrastructure’.
Yet, while such connectivity indeed can improve vehicle performance and road capacity (e.g. via advance notifications, shortening head way), I really don’t think such connectivity should be a general* requirement.

Firstly, it will make the road transport system much less robust than it is today – we don’t want to introduce system dependencies similar to those in the rail system.
Secondly, such a requirement will slow down uptake (and thus delay benefits) of autonomous vehicles, as it will both require standardisation and a homogeneous infrastructure.

Do you agree? If not, why?


*: In some situations, e.g. early deployment of driverless buses in fixed routes or in case of road construction work, it could make sense to ‘help’ the vehicles with some kind of signals.

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