Subaru Takes On Self-Driving Cars In California, What This Means For Tesla?

Recent reports have confirmed that Subaru has received its Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles on February 9, 2017.

Subaru Gets Permit To Test Autonomous Vehicles In CA

According to CNET, Subaru joins other car manufacturers and suppliers including Honda, Ford, BMW, Delphi, Waymo, and Nvidia. Overall, 22 groups currently have permits for testing autonomous vehicles in the said U.S. state.

Subaru currently doesn't really immerse in semi-autonomy. It has Eyesight, which is a suite of active and passive driver aids, but the company's offerings focus more on driving safety rather than self-driving; Eyesight gives a car adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and autonomous emergency braking.

Subaru's Goal For The Future

Subaru's offerings will eventually expand towards including systems that are capable of holding a lane, stopping and starting in traffic, at speeds that clock up to 40 mph. Subaru also hopes to offer a system that will be able to navigate through curves and bends, as well as autonomous lane switching, by the year 2020.

Why In California?

Every automaker is part of an increasing contingent testing self-driving on public roads. GM's Cruise Automation has recently released a video, showing a 23-minute driverless jaunt around San Francisco. Volvo also has some self-driving cars, too, several of which have gone towards Uber for testing, with a lot of mixed results.

If there is any place perfect to test a system like the ones mentioned, it's definitely California. According to TechCrunch, California is the main target for a lot of companies looking towards fielding autonomous or semi-autonomous driving features in the near future.

This is because the permitting program introduced by the state's DMV makes it absolutely possible to run trials on city streets and public highways for companies including automakers and technology providers. All they have to do is to meet its requirements and pay its modest fee.

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