Autonomous vehicles, through thrown off their horse (strange pun intended) years ago, have not gone away, and aren’t even out of the news as artificial hearts have long been. What has been happening with them?
The largest
recent news item was “Feds are investigating Waymo driverless cars after
reports of crashes, traffic violations” (Corina Vanek Natalie Neysa Alund, USA
Today, May 16th). The
National Highway Safety Administration got “reports of nearly two dozen
incidents where a Waymo vehicle was the sole vehicle operating during a
collision or the driving system allegedly violated traffic laws.” There were no injuries, but “17 involved
crashes or fires,” and the automated driving system “was either engaged through
the incident, or, in certain cases when supervised by an in-vehicle test
driver,” it “disengaged in the moments just before an incident occurred.” Waymo gave itself a vote of confidence, with
a spokesperson saying “we are proud of our performance and safety record over
tens of millions of autonomous miles driven”; additionally, “according to data
released by Waymo in December 2023… which was peer-reviewed by experts outside
the company, Waymo vehicles were involved in 0.4 collisions with injuries per
million miles driven, compared with humans who were involved in 2.78.” This story graphically shows how autonomous
vehicles are being held to vastly higher standards.
Travelers are
showing an interest in “San Francisco’s Hot Tourist Attraction: Driverless Cars” (Lauren Sloss, The New
York Times, May 22nd). There
they “have been operating commercially since August,” though only through
Waymo, as “popular pickup and drop-off locations” include “the Ferry Building,
Pier 39, Coit Tower, and the Japantown Peace Plaza.” They are “all-electric Jaguar I PACEs,” and
are accessed through an app. Trips are
remotely monitored. Although different
in some ways, “perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of a first-time Waymo ride is
how quickly it feels normal.”
A company not
doing as well is the subject of “The Very Slow Restart of G.M.’s Cruise
Driverless Car Business” (Yiwen Lu, The New York Times, May 30th). General Motors is still using its “sprawling
complex in Warren, Mich.,” but “G.M.’s driverless future looks a lot further
away today than it did a year ago,” before “a Cruise driverless car hit and
dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet on a San Francisco street, causing severe
injuries.” Since then, it has “slowed
its breakneck development to a crawl,” and, per a consultant, “catching up with
Waymo technologically is going to take three to five years at best.” Yet GM’s CEO said the subsidiary “has made
tangible progress.”
Meanwhile, we
saw “Waymo, Zoox expand autonomous ride-hailing operations despite recent AV
setbacks” (Jordyn Grzelewski, Emerging Tech Brew, June 11th). Zoox is moving from three cities to five, but
is only testing; Waymo “revealed that it expanded its ride-hailing service area
in Metro Phoenix by 90 square miles, bringing its total service area to 315,”
and as well as San Francisco, “operates… in Los Angeles, and is testing in
Austin.”
For now,
Waymo is the only normally available option.
But another competitor, nation-sized, is emerging, as “China Is Testing
More Driverless Cars Than Any Other Country” (Keith Bradsher, The New York
Times, June 13th). In the
city of Wuhan, “a fleet of 500 taxis navigated by computers, often with no safety
drivers in them for backup, buzz around,” operated by “tech giant Baidu.” No mention here, though, of a date when
paying customers can ride in them. That
seems better though, than another major country, as, although resumed in March,
“last fall, Japan suspended its test of driverless golf carts that travel seven
miles per hour after one of them hit the pedal of a parked bicycle,” causing no
injuries.
All of this
is much the same as 2023’s reports, and largely like the past five years’
worth. While Waymo is piling up miles
and a record, the others are too often stopped by small mishaps. Companies’ levels of caution are based on the
correct perception that such blips unduly scare people. However, as before, we are paying too little
attention to the upside of driverless technology. Over 40,000 died in American car crashes last
year alone, compared with zero in the accidents above. A tenuous niche has been established – a great
future autonomous vehicles still have, if we allow that. Will we get to the point where extensive
testing efforts are not halted for months by the likes of hitting a bicycle
pedal? The answer to that question is
more important than any possible driverless technology improvement. The choice, once again, is ours.