Determining when to drive autonomously

[0029]As shown in FIG. 1, an autonomous vehicle system 100 in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure includes a vehicle 101 with various components. While certain aspects of the disclosure are particularly useful in connection with specific types of vehicles, the vehicle 101 may be any type of vehicle including, but not limited to, cars, trucks, motorcycles, busses, boats, airplanes, helicopters, lawnmowers, recreational vehicles, amusement park vehicles, farm equipment, construction equipment, trams, golf carts, trains, and trolleys. The vehicle may have one or more computers, such as a computer 110 containing a processor 120, memory 130 and other components typically present in general purpose computers.

[0030]The processor 120 may be any conventional processor, such as commercially available CPUs. Alternatively, the processor may be a dedicated device such as an ASIC or other hardware-based processor. Although FIG. 1 functionally illustrates the processor, memory, and other ...