Self-Driving Cars Are Doing More Harm Than Good
The so far fruitless quest for vehicular autonomy has not only led to traffic jams and deaths, it's also gotten in the way of more realistic advancements in mobility.
Apple has long been known for marrying hardware and software to create tech products that bring delight to millions of people around the world, so when rumors started spreading nearly a decade ago that it, too, had decided to chase the elusive goal of developing an autonomous vehicle, it seemed the iPhone maker might have a good chance of accomplishing that goal. But in December, the company had some bad news: It has pushed its targeted launch date back once again, to 2026. We’ll see if it can even make that.
Since at least 2012, tech companies have been promising that self-driving cars would revolutionize our transport system, and yet not much has actually changed, nor does it appear set to change anytime soon. Uber pulled out in 2020, making a $400 million investment in Aurora Innovations to persuade the company to take Uber’s flailing self-driving division off its hands, while Argo AI, a respected autonomous driving startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, shut down in October. Meanwhile, it’s been impossible to ignore the ongoing troubles at Tesla, whose CEO Elon Musk has a tendency to promise that Full Self-Driving capabilities are right around the corner, only for them to never arrive.