There has been a lot of hype about self-driving cars. But when, realistically, can we expect to be driven to our destination by a vehicle that has no steering wheel, gas pedal, or seat specifically designated for a driver? In 2021, self-driving cabs hit the roads in select test cities. Companies like Waymo, Tesla, and Uber have been actively involved in autonomous taxi development, but this service is still not commonly available in most places.
Perhaps the most interesting insight is that, due to the high cost of the Lidar imaging system and onboard computer, you will probably not want to own a personal self-driving vehicle for a while still. Expert predictions about how much it will cost to buy such a car span a wide range. Recently, Tesla, one of the major brands offering an early edition of a self-driving car, increased their driver assistance software costs from $8,000 to $12,000. This means that right now a brand new self-driving Tesla Model X will likely cost you in total upwards of $120,000.
"...It’s clear that in this phase of development, it costs a lot of money to innovate, test, and deliver reliably to customers," according to Maximilian Wühr, CGO and Co-Founder of FINN.
Although owning a fully self-driving vehicle yourself is still just a dream, using self-driving vehicles for taxi and delivery services is already possible in some cities. Waymo, which is part of the corporate family that includes Google, and General Motors, another industry leader, have both achieved “Level 4” automation (which means the vehicle has the ability to drive on pre-mapped routes and handle anything on that course without the intervention of a driver). Waymo has run extensive testing at this point, including their driverless pilot program in Arizona that was first announced in 2017. Last year they began offering robotaxi rides to the general public in a small subset of the Phoenix area. Then, earlier this year, Waymo stated they are doubling the size of their Phoenix service area to encompass about 180 square miles, making it the largest of its kind in the world.
General Motors now has its own self-driving subsidiary called Cruise. Both Cruise and Waymo secured the permits necessary to expand their commercial, fully driverless, 24/7 robotaxi services across San Francisco, California in August of this year. Unfortunately, Cruise vehicles were involved in a series of incidents shortly after and the California Department of Motor Vehicles requested that they immediately reduce their San Francisco fleet by 50% while it conducts an investigation into the company. Although this is evidence that this technology still has a long way to go before it’s commonplace, it has been confirmed that Cruise is still working toward bringing its robotaxis to other parts of California, Seattle, Washington D.C., Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arizona, Texas, and even other countries.
Of course, these aren’t the only two companies out there pursuing similar goals. Another top competitor, Motional, has teamed with popular rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft to offer driverless taxi services through their apps in select cities. Regarding self-driving technology in personal vehicles, other names you should look out for in the news (beyond Tesla) include BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz. Each of these companies has manufactured at least one car that offers Level 3 automated driving, which allows the driver to hand over control to the car itself in specific situations. Now, when will someone develop a safe vehicle with full Level 5 automation that’s ready to hit the streets? That may be the next big question in this story, and it will take some more time for us to get an answer.
