Why It's So Hard to Make a Reliable Self-Driving Car

"Two decades ago, the US military kicked off the race to build self-driving cars by sending a fleet of fledgling robot vehicles across the Mojave Desert in its seminal Darpa challenge. By 2015, autonomous vehicle technology was being widely pursued, and the industry was abuzz with predictions that driverless cars would soon be everywhere.

It didn’t happen. Some legacy carmakers and startups abandoned their efforts, citing excessive costs and complexity. Regulators stepped up scrutiny of the emerging technology after crashes involving cars equipped with partial-automation systems.

The companies still making progress are proceeding with caution, aware of the heavy reputational damage when someone is injured or killed by a self-driving car. Waymo, a venture of Google parent Alphabet Inc., introduced its driverless taxi service to a fourth major US city in March through a partnership with Uber Technologies Inc. Tesla Inc. is planning a long-delayed robotaxi service confined to Austin, Texas, in June. It aims to start with roughly 10 or 20 Model Y cars operating under remote supervision — a far cry from what Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk pledged in 2019, when he said the carmaker was a year away from putting 1 million robotaxis on the road."