Going straight to Levels 4 and 5 and offering a fully autonomous vehicle creates new markets, and new opportunities to challenge the likes of Uber and Google.
Tech companies like Google or Uber can go for the moon, but automakers tend to be more conservative. They prefer small steps, gradually refining and introducing new technology to prepare consumers for the changes ahead.
And so most of them planned to progress steadily through the ranks of Level 2, 3, and so forth. Ford was among the first to break ranks, announcing in late 2015 that it would skip Level 3.
Still, any automaker willing to throw enough time, money, and engineers at the problem can solve the so-called handoff conundrum.
Audi has all of those things in great quantity and plans to bring Level 3 capability to its flagship A8 sedan in 2018. The car will handle stop-and-go traffic to start, with highway capabilities to follow.
The German luxury carmaker, which offers some of the best user interfaces in the business, has spent many years and many dollars studying the handoff, which it considers a top priority. Its solution, while not yet complete, will include driver monitoring systems and a combination of alerts the human will see, hear, and feel.