look, mum, no hands
Driverless cars have popped into conversation twice of late. First when a pal of mine bought a Ford Mustang Mach-E, the first car where drivers are legally allowed to take their hands off the steering wheel on the motorway, and secondly when Wayve, a UK AI company founded in a garage (where else!), scooped over $1bn in funding. Furthermore, our own imminent Automated Vehicle Act potentially makes these a distinct possibility by 2026. But the question raised is why are self-driving cars still a very rare sight on the world’s roads and is it really the revolution that’s never going to happen?
Manufacturers have been trying to build autonomous cars since the 1960s, initially for military purposes and latterly for the great unwashed. In 2014, the Society of Automotive Engineers introduced what is now an internationally recognised classification system for self-driving cars ranging from Level 0 to Level 5. Obvs, zero has no automation whatsoever and five requires no human interaction at all. Somewhere in between is accepted as being the more viable: Level 1 involves a small amount of driver assistance such as adaptive cruise control or additional braking; Level 4 is classed as ‘high automation as it allows the driver to relax whilst the vehicle drives itself inside certain areas, conditions and speeds’.
However, take-up has proved difficult, most likely due to an overarching lack of public trust in the safety of such vehicles. Humans are generally good at dealing with the unexpected but machines must be ‘taught’ to behave in certain ways within certain situations. How should a car with no driver respond if it sees, say, a rock in the road that may actually be a paper bag? What happens if it snows and the white markings are obscured?
In 2018, Elaine Herzberg became the unfortunate first pedestrian to be killed by a self-driving car when she was hit by an Uber test vehicle operating in autonomous mode. It appears the car became confused when she stepped into the road while pushing a bicycle with bags on its handlebars – an array of objects the Uber couldn’t interpret. Similarly, a woman in San Fran was seriously injured by one of GM’s robotaxis when confronted by an unknown situation and consequently dragged for over twenty feet. Recent US trials have thrown up other issues from preventing emergency services reaching crime scenes, to braking inappropriately and failing to stop at red lights. Last year, Tesla had to recall two million vehicles after regulators found almost a thousand collisions, 956 to be precise, had taken place because the tech intended to ensure full attention wasn’t er, paying attention!
What’s going to happen next is anyone’s guess but in January, Apple became the latest US firm to scale back its autonomous driving programme, delaying its long-rumoured Project Titan to 2028 at the earliest. Other companies such as Waymo and Cruise are following suit and respected analysts are saying we’d be hard-pressed to find another industry that’s invested so much and delivered so little. But for now perhaps the real issue is the fact lots of us really enjoy driving our own cars and have no desire to hand over control of the wheel. Why, even my electric Mustang man invariably chooses his 350bhp Audi for the daily schlep to the shops.
