Autonomous Vehicles see investment but where is the promise of safety?

Autonomous vehicles have seen some major investment in the US recently. Google’s parent Alphabet, recently announced an investment of US$5 billion on its self-driving subsidiary Waymo. Currently, operating in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, these vehicles will soon test the freeways of the San Francisco Bay Area. Apparently, Waymo is currently delivering 50,000 paid rides per week. 

Zoox, a subsidiary of Amazon, is also developing autonomous vehicles and is operational in certain cities in the US. Tesla is also coming out with robotaxis in October as is General Motors.

Read more: Driverless cars are moving into high gear despite warnings

China too is surging ahead in the sector. Baidu’s autonomous fleet, which is already running 6,000 driverless rides per day in Wuhan, China, adopts a mix of technologies. As of April 2024, the cumulative test mileage of Apollo L4 has exceeded 100 million kilometres.

Tesla, with its “Full Self-Driving” system, has been eyeing the Chinese car market to shift into the fast lane of the global race toward autonomous vehicles. The EV maker cleared crucial regulatory hurdles that have been blocking its self-driving software in China.

In Dubai, Einride has partnered with Jebel Ali Port with the goal of building the largest networks for autonomous trucks in the world.

Does this mean we’re ready for autonomous vehicles?

In July, a policeman pulled over a driverless taxi when it jumped a redlight. Such incidents are not one off.

Regulations were supposed to take care of the problems that keep occurring with self-driving cars, but are they helping? According to a study, even the most advanced regulatory frameworks have failed to achieve the three socially desirable promises related to driverless cars, reducing road accidents, improving environmental sustainability, and ensuring equal access to road mobility.

But as tech advances, somehow, we do want to take our eyes off the road as we get from one place to another. Last month, Ford said they’ll have cars that let drivers look away while driving in two years. In fact, Ford CEO Farley envisions vehicles as mobile offices in the future. Already, in April, Mercedes became the first automaker to sell autonomous cars in the US that don’t come with the requirement that drivers watch the road.

Read more: AV Gen AI cars: Talk to the car

Despite the potential dangers, we want to embrace self-driving cars. But we have our doubts still. Maybe people aren’t fully ready for AVs. According to research, people show a preference for partially autonomous vehicles over fully autonomous vehicles.

Autonomous car builders must create more trust in the customer if they want it to become a popular product. But the only way they can do that is by making the system flawless. Is that even possible?