If you believed the early hype about autonomous cars, we’d all be buying them by now, or at least enjoying the view from autonomously driven ride-sharing vehicles. Needless to say, that hasn’t happened. In fact, the day that becomes a reality seems to get pushed further out every day.
On one hand, it’s easy to understand why the delay occurred. Overenthusiastic tech industry titans were eager to make an impact on a large industry that seemed ripe for disruption. Automakers, frightened by potential tech competitors, were so engulfed by FOMO that they felt caught in an environment that didn’t just enable but encouraged unrealistic time frames. This started a cycle of overpromising and underdelivering that’s still going today.
Both automakers and tech industry suppliers have pushed back their timelines for delivering real-world products. The challenge of achieving full autonomy turned out to be a significantly harder problem than many people initially acknowledged, and the grim reality of several autonomous vehicle-related deaths didn’t help matters.
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