I figure that by the time this self driving tech makes it to Honda's vehicles, few people will be buying them, because Honda has failed to get on the EV bandwagon. Honda and Mazda may be victims of the surge of EVs soon to come from China, Europe and Tesla.
Other Asian carmakers such as Toyota and Hyundai are doing much better getting onboard the EV/Hybrid train though.
Honda is doing fine, and was early into the hybrid market. Whatever are you on about?
The only missteps was their zev hydrogen tech which doesn't make engineering sense (to me), and a black eye from bad v6 transmissions for way too long in the 90s thru 00s, and a departure from small, low-displacement, high efficiency, well handling cars with sla suspension for pigfat appliances with cheap mcstrut suspension and more wings.
Lucky for them, the world is a bit pigfat and risk adverse themselves, and still buy CRVs like crazy. While the 88-01 civic, and s2000 still somehow support their reputation in enthusiast circles thanks to those now purely nostalgic qualities.
But I digress. I think ICE cars will continue to serve a purpose. Mazda just announced a new rotary ICE hybrid engine design this week! If self-driving tech takes off, it will be applied just as easily to either tech. I see Honda at no major positional disadvantage here.
MacPherson struts are fine. Even the most ardent enthusiast has difficulty telling the difference between a MP setup and a double wishbone.
BMW uses them and Porsche uses them on their GT# 911s. You'd think if there were a case to be made for the performance demerits of a MP setup, Porsche wouldn't be using them on their halo cars (or their class-winning race cars).
I'm on about solely electric vehicles: EVs. Honda is more interested in Hydrogen than EVs. They have some underpowered hybrids, but few, overpriced models on the global market.
Lots of EVs are on their way and Honda and Mazda aren't announcing any future plans to enter that market.
Initial cars will have a reasonably high power consumption requirement. Vehicles with adequate voltage supply will probably have an advantage compared to less sophisticated energy distribution.
A couple of years back I made the same comment about the European car industry. I got wiser since then. The main lesson I drew from Tesla's struggles with manufacturing was 1) efficient mass manufacturing is making the difference between life and death for EVs too and 2) an EV is easier to build than an ICE powered car.
I don't see the early mover advantage, just a realistic risk for really late companies. And rigjt now it is not too late for anyone at a long stretch. It is important to remember thst the EV game now moved to car makers core competencies in mass production. There a stll a ton of challenges for them but none as existential as it seemed a couple of years back.
Other Asian carmakers such as Toyota and Hyundai are doing much better getting onboard the EV/Hybrid train though.