This Overhyped Tech Is No Longer Coming Soon: Autonomous Vehicles

"Today, in a few cities, under the right conditions, in a limited geographical area, you can ride in a self-driving car.

But saying widespread autonomous vehicles are right around the corner in this day and age is like saying in 1897 that electric vehicles were poised to take over, on account of New York City having an all-electric taxi fleet. (Which it did, at the time.) Like EVs -- which even now are experiencing challenges to their adoption -- autonomous vehicles are one of those technologies whose success is taking far longer than initial demonstrations and promises would have had us believe.

The barriers to rollout of autonomous vehicles, or AVs, are myriad. For example, they shift liability from the driver to the manufacturer of a vehicle, or the operator of a robotaxi service. That's just one reason they can't just be as good as human drivers -- but in fact must be much safer.

"When you move people in cities, you can't afford to kill them -- that's the crucial issue," says Heidi Wyle, chief executive of autonomous-vehicle company Venti Technologies.

The other big obstacle is cost. The savings that were supposed to come from autonomous vehicles have been largely wiped out by the arrays of sensors -- cameras, radar and lidar -- and the heavy-duty computers they have to carry onboard to process all that data. Plus, there's the cost of mapping and remapping the areas these vehicles drive.

Arlington, Texas, is a prime example of economic forces holding back AV adoption. The city has no conventional mass-transit system -- no bus or rail -- but instead contracts with a company called Via Transportation to operate a fleet of minivans. Citizens can reserve rides in the city, making the service a kind of subsidized Uber.

Arlington is also currently partnering with AV company May Mobility to offer some rides, but there's not yet any urgency to switch to AVs, says Arlington transportation manager Ann Foss. The city has no trouble hiring drivers for its human-driven fleet, she adds." [1]

1. EXCHANGE --- Keywords: This Overhyped Tech Is No Longer Coming Soon --- As a sugar high of free money wears off, these three technologies are finally facing reality. Mims, Christopher.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Jan 2024: B.5.