Over the last 12 months, there have been a significant number of “setbacks” relating to the possibility of self-driving vehicles. Five years ago, we believed it was possible. Four years ago, we absolutely thought it was going to happen.
Despite the significant investments from countless companies, however, there have been setbacks that now make most of the industry question whether or not self-driving vehicles are going to be possible in the foreseeable future.
It is clear that self-driving trucks and autonomous delivery vehicles are making significant inroads. But from a commercial point of view, autonomous vehicles (AVs) will likely be coming quicker than robo taxis.
It seems to me that the monetary challenges that exist for companies like Uber are dramatic. The billions and billions of dollars that have been invested may or may not be lost as we move forward over the next five to ten years.
However, it is important to remind individuals who are working on self-driving vehicle technology that there is a bigger mission here and that is automobile safety. This message that Chris Urmson, one of the architects of Google’s self-driving car program, used to tell his staff that about 40,000 people die on the roads every year.
This is roughly equivalent of four Boeing 737s falling out of the sky every single week for an entire year! While this illustration puts the seriousness of the situation in perspective, it also provides motivation and persistence that those in the self-driving car industry will continue to look for a solution to the problem.