Self-driving car services are popping up across the country. But they are not what they seem.
The latest example is an improved service in Las Vegas from the taxi company Lyft.
On Tuesday, the company said it would allow users to hail a new kind of self-driving car on and around the Las Vegas Strip, building on a similar service it has offered in the city for the past four years. But the news comes with an important caveat: Riding in these vehicles are two of what the industry calls safety drivers, who take control of the car if something goes wrong.
The technology and automotive industries have promised many cars over the past decade that could drive on the streets on their own. But many years – maybe even decades – will pass before truly autonomous vehicles are commonplace. While the leading companies have made significant progress, delivering the technology to the masses remains a tedious process.
“No autonomous system is ready to be deployed safely, at high volume, in urban environments,” said Schuyler Cullen, who oversaw a team exploring the possibilities for autonomous driving at South Korean tech giant Samsung and is now launching. -upgebouw runs a new kind of camera for self-driving cars.
Earlier this year, three other companies introduced self-driving services in San Francisco, Miami and Austin, Texas. All said these services would not include security drivers. And, at least in some cases, these cars now run without drivers. But they are only available to a few riders, many of whom are friends or relatives of the companies’ employees.
Reporters are not allowed to use these services without a driver behind the wheel.
As it stands, only one fully public service operates with no security drivers. Waymo, owned by Google’s parent company, offers a driverless service in the Phoenix suburbs, where roads are wide, weather predictable and pedestrians are few.
Even as new services expand to places like San Francisco, they come with important caveats. They will only be available in tight areas. They operate at speeds of less than 35 or 40 miles per hour. They close in unfavorable weather. And companies will employ technicians who can take over the car remotely if something goes wrong.
Karl Iagnemma, the CEO of Motional, the company that will operate Lyft’s self-driving cars in Las Vegas, said this was to be expected. “The technology required for autonomous driving is extremely complex,” he said. “The solution will be found step by step.”
Mr. Iagnemma points out that unlike other services, anyone can drive the Motional cars that Lyft offers in Las Vegas. The cars will be more advanced than the ones Lyft has been using in the city since 2018, and the two companies have come up with a new app that will open the doors of the cars.
Mr Iagnemma said the company’s latest cars were “a path to a driverless system” that Lyft and Motional plan to unveil next year.
