By Tom Murphy
Battery-electric cars became a political football well before Tesla CEO Elon Musk turned public opinion against his cars by leading the "government efficiency" campaign that sent about 300,000 federal employees to the unemployment line last year. Before that, the Biden administration erred by setting mandates for pushing automakers to build more EVs, whether Americans wanted them or not.
So is it any wonder that auto industry observers are wondering whether autonomous vehicles will befall a similar fate? MIT research scientist Bryan Reimer has posted a Substack column raising this question, especially with regard to jobs that could be lost if cars no longer need a driver to steer, accelerate, and brake.
Competing 'Against Human Drivers'
"Automated vehicles are starting to compete against human drivers in rideshare systems that already operate on tight margins," Reimer writes. "The debate is shifting from whether the technology works to whether the public and policymakers are willing to trust it. As with electric vehicles, the future of highly automated transportation may end up tied to electoral cycles as much as engineering milestones."
Precisely where President Trump stands on autonomous vehicles isn't clear. He has expressed skepticism and has said he would never get into one, while he doesn't want the US to lag behind Chinese companies in developing them and his administration has focused on easing regulations to foster American-made technologies.
Legislation In Congress
Two relevant bills are before Congress: the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act and the SELF DRIVE Act. Both face opposition from the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. President Cathy Chase says her organization is not opposed to self-driving cars.
"Once they can be deployed safely and have been independently verified to be able to perform the driving task, it could be a really wonderful thing and could significantly reduce the number of crashes, fatalities, and injuries," Chase tells CarBuzz. And while lane-departure warning, blind-spot detection and other driver-assistance technologies are important building blocks for self-driving cars, she says only automatic emergency braking, at this point, will be required by law, starting in 2029. "So there's this massive disconnect between the rush for autonomous vehicles now, but not a similar rush for the safety technologies that could be saving lives."
Super Cruise Better Than Cruise
Public safety and reliability raise other significant hurdles for regulators and urban planners alike. San Francisco pedestrians and motorists have witnessed lots of traffic jams caused by software or sensor glitches or network failures, which might seem comical until cars actually collide and people get hurt. The negative impact on a company's bottom line can be irreversible. Just ask General Motors, which gave up on Cruise Automation robotaxis in 2024 after $10 billion in losses and a serious accident involving a pedestrian in 2023.
While GM takes heat for its Cruise efforts, the automaker deserves credit for advancing its Super Cruise highway technology, which is now available on vehicles from all four brands and has delivered more than 800 million miles of hands-free, pedal-free highway motoring. Drivers must keep their eyes on the road, so it's still a long way from Level 4 autonomous driving, but this incremental technology has likely given owners a glimpse of the future.
Source: Tech Probe
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This article originally appeared on CarBuzz and is republished here with permission.
