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Norway Aims To Allow Testing Of Self-Driving Cars in 2017 (reuters.com)
The Norwegian government aims to pass a law in the spring of next year to allow testing of self-driving vehicles on Norwegian roads, it said on Thursday. From a report: Norway is one of the largest markets for Tesla Motors electric vehicles, thanks to generous government subsidies. Tesla said in October its new models will come with hardware, including cameras and a radar, to enable them to be fully-self driving. The move to permit testing of self-driving vehicles is also aimed at giving a competitive edge to Norwegian technology companies as the country seeks to diversify away from the offshore petroleum sector, hit by a plunge in global oil prices.
no need to waste money on permitting it, Uber can do it without government approval
Public roads: Now in Alpha
Technology preview available now, possibly lethal, and mandatory.
~ Whence do you come, slayer of men, or where are you going, conqueror of space?
They public Healthcare so when an auto drive hit you in the bike lane after running the red light your covered vs in the usa you have your bills racking up while the courts are fighting out who is going pay up.
Teslas and other electrical cars do not have VAT charged on the sale price, and once on the road it can be driven for free on all the toll roads and toll-enclosed city centers. Annual registration charge is also the minimum rate otherwise applicable to veteran cars, older than 30 years, and they are allowed in most of the bus and taxi lanes. The term subsidy has been used for this, maybe it should be called tax relief, or incentives, or something else. However, whether the government pays extra for something or just refrains from charging taxes on something doesn't make much of a difference in the end: it does make these cars much more popular than they would have been otherwise.
Now as for autonomous cars in this place where the winter is an inferno in white with snow or an inferno in black with the grime and mud produced by salt and studded tires grinding up the pavement ending up all over the cars and the road; snow or mud covering road markings such as the center, lane divider, and edge lines (provided there are any there at all) -- then add the unique tendency of Oslo pedestrians to wander into the street in front of anything that moves (cars, buses, streetcars, bicyclists) never mind trafic lights... and the large population of moose and deer in the woodlands all over the place which isn't exactly known for their good traffic discipline either, and it is going to be really interesting to see how this experiment turns out!
SIGBUS @ NO-07.308