The road for driverless cars is far from clear. As the technology is perfected, companies will face other problems, such as regulatory hurdles, consumer acceptance and producing at scale.
But at this year's South by Southwest conference, we got a better sense of one thing that may make the technology more palatable to the average consumer -- price.
In one session, George Hotz, CEO of comma.ai, discussed how he built a self-driving car system he claims is better than systems from Tesla Motors (TSLA -2.89%). Hotz suggested his kit of sensors and cameras could cost consumers only a few thousand dollars.
Representatives from Alphabet's (GOOG 0.10%) (GOOGL 0.01%) Google also chimed in on the issue. The head of their autonomous-vehicle project, Chris Urmson, made it clear there is no "unobtainium" in the tech that powers this technology, and once it's produced at scale it should be priced at a point accessible to most consumers.
In this video, The Motley Fool's Dylan Lewis and Rex Moore discuss what they heard about driverless cars at SXSW and why it was all particularly great news for the people who will benefit most from the technology.
