The lure of autonomous, self-driving cars is tantalizing, billed as a panacea for our road-going ills. But reconciling whimsical expectations with reality is challenging. Automakers are scrambling to invest in self-driving technologies in hopes of being first to answer a question few asked. General Motors, Ford, Tesla, Mercedes, Google, Uber, and Apple are just a few of the companies working on various autonomous technologies in hopes of delivering a truly self-driving vehicle to the masses. However, pushing the boundaries of technology on congested roads is revealing flaws in some of these systems.
Apple co-founder, programmer, inventor, and entrepreneur Steve Wozniak, speaking with CNBC, has reservations about the immediate proliferation of self-driving cars. “I do not believe in auto driving cars,” he said, adding, “I don’t really believe it’s quite possible yet.”
Wozniak owns a Tesla, which has Autopilot, the company’s assisted-driving technology. And it’s not perfect. He said, “Tesla makes so many mistakes. It really convinces me that auto piloting and auto steering car driving itself is not going to happen.” He didn’t elaborate as to what kind of mistakes his Tesla makes on the road. Woz also owns a Chevrolet Bolt EV.
We have this expectation that self-driving cars are the future—just like the generation before eagerly awaited for flying cars that never got off the ground. Wozniak points out our infrastructure isn’t ready for self-driving vehicles. And that’s on top of waning public trust in such vehicles.
GM Cruise, the automaker’s “autonomous vehicle ride-sharing company.” Is scheduled to launch next year. Earlier this year, the company unveiled the GM Cruise AV, the company’s first production-intent model that lacks a steering wheel, brake and accelerator pedals, and other traditional driving controls.
Details are scarce. We don’t know where GM plans to launch these autonomous taxi cabs, nor do we know just how autonomous they’ll be. Can you, for example, hop in one in New York City and take it to Washington, D.C.? Or will these vehicles be geofenced in certain areas, operating in a defined area the automaker extensively mapped for this purpose? The first scenario offers a truly self-driving vehicle. The second is a glorified street car but instead being of limited to riding the rails, it’s electronically limited to a neighborhood or city center.
Perfecting the technology is only one part of the equation. State and federal legislatures are debating how to regulate self-driving vehicles, leading to a patchwork of laws across the nation. A piece of bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress, which could clarify regulations of autonomous vehicles and eliminate conflicting rules at state and local levels. While the House has passed its version of the bill, the Senate has not. Not only does the Senate need to pass the law, but then it has to be reconciled with the House bill—and time is running out as a new Congress is set to take over in January.
The road to self-driving cars is long and winding. Automakers are diving headfirst into a society-shifting technology that could face a backlash from consumers and lawmakers if it’s not perfect. Consumers want fully autonomous vehicles that could drive coast to coast without human input, but that seems more fantasy than reality.
Comments
The push has nothing to do with cars. It’s all about trucking.
Imagine fleets of trucks with no drivers. The savings is irresistible. But the only way to sell that idea is to sell US the idea of not driving our cars. Once that happens they can, naturally, introduce self driving cars.
How about self-driving supermarket carts. You know, when you put your bags in your car you tap a button and it returns itself to the store entrance. If that doesn’t sound feasible —
— why in HELL would self driving CARS make sense?
Telsa over found some middle ground and if they can get reg approval for it, all semi’s could utilize this regardless of powertrain…That is Convoy Mode, where you have one lead semi with driver and 2+ “self driving” vehicles following behind…
Why do self driving cars make sense? Those of us in cities can live in gridlock, sure would be nice to get some work done, watch a movie or get frisky with a significant other…
“Why do self driving cars make sense? Those of us in cities can live in gridlock, ”
^ This.
A city isn’t going to keep paying out tax money forever to make wider roads if it’s cheaper and easier for an automaker to make cars that prevents gridlock from happening in the first place.
Gridlock is caused by humans trying to navigate their own car around other hundreds of other cars. It’s always uncoordinated and unmanaged, and because every driver has difference levels of skill, you often get some people who simply can’t drive responsibly.
At intersections, autonomous cars only get better.
People want them in order to have sex, drink and smoke drugs while going somewhere.
That’s all that matters. Lol
Boy our country certainly has a great future ahead of it 🙁
Every day could be like being in Las Vegas… ?
What’s the best way to make big profits from driverless cars? I suspect it’s to make, own and operate millions of driverless taxis. And maybe this will happen soon because driverless taxis won’t have to be as sophisticated (smart) as most other driverless cars like the ones that Steve Wozniak is perhaps commenting on.