What is the prospect of autonomous driving?, After consecutive car accidents, the usage of autonomous taxis in California, USA has been halved. Cruise | Shuttle | California, USA

On August 10th, California regulatory authorities allowed General Motors' Cruise and former Google owned Waymo to operate autonomous taxis in San Francisco, making it the first city in the United States to have two autonomous driving fleets. But recently, due to two consecutive accidents involving autonomous vehicles, the California Motor Vehicle Administration has begun to impose restrictions on them, raising concerns in American society about the safety of autonomous driving. Nevertheless, major companies and governments around the world are still persistently promoting the development of autonomous driving and building bridges for its future transportation.

According to the Associated Press on August 20, the Cruise autonomous vehicle division of General Motors agreed to cut its fleet of autonomous taxis in San Francisco in half.

Greg Dietrich, the General Manager of Cruise in San Francisco, stated in the accident statement that "the ability of emergency rescue vehicles to plan their travel routes was affected due to their ability to bypass red lights and enter the reverse lane." Dietrich said, "The cruise vehicle discovered the risk of a collision and braked, slowing down the speed, but still failed to avoid the collision." He also stated that in the first seven months of this year alone, Cruise's autonomous driving mileage in the city exceeded 4.8 million kilometers, with over 168000 interactions with emergency vehicles. ". "We realize that we will always encounter challenging situations, which is why continuous improvement is the core of our work."

"The Vehicle Authority is investigating the recent incident involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco," the California Vehicle Authority said on the 19th. "Cruise has agreed to reduce the number of unmanned rental vehicles by 50%, with no more than 50 vehicles operating during the day and no more than 150 vehicles operating at night." DMV stated that the fleet size will continue to be reduced until the investigation is completed and Cruise takes corrective measures to improve safety. "After investigation, if DMV determines that Cruise autonomous vehicles pose an unreasonable risk to public safety, they will suspend or revoke the right to test and/or deploy their licenses."

Autonomous taxis are currently being deployed across the United States, but the various types of accidents they cause and the unstable behavior they exhibit have raised concerns. Nevertheless, more and more companies are still investing in this field, and some state governments are eager to try and gradually open up policies related to autonomous driving, attempting to lead a "fully automated" future.

Recently, Orlando, Florida launched its first self driving shuttle bus, which will pick up and drop off passengers in the city center. Orlando officials announced on the 16th that starting later this month, an electric autonomous shuttle bus will provide free transportation for passengers within a 1-mile radius of the city center. This shuttle service, which can carry eight passengers, is part of a six-month trial in central Florida. Traffic planners hope to use the data collected from pilot projects to guide the city's future transportation strategy. Badi Dale, mayor of Orlando, said: "With the expansion of the autonomous vehicle shuttle bus to our community, we can combine cutting-edge technology with new transportation solutions to further redefine our community's transportation mode."

On the other hand, Waymo and Uber put aside their differences in autonomous vehicle technology in the past and cooperated to develop autonomous taxis in Phoenix. Uber has always been interested in autonomous driving technology, believing that it is a way to increase profits by reducing the manpower demand for drivers. Waymo is expected to dispatch some autonomous vehicles by the end of this year to pick up passengers and deliver meals when summoned through the Uber application.

In addition to the United States, some other countries are also actively promoting the research and development of autonomous driving. Recently, the autonomous vehicle Zpod developed by Indian AI company Minus Zero debuted for the first time, saying that it can reach Grade 5 SAE level, namely fully autonomous driving. Unlike most autonomous vehicles that use radar sensors, the company claims that the high-definition camera equipped in the vehicle will real-time submit the image to the vehicle's AI for processing, and manipulate the car to move forward and avoid obstacles.

Under the flourishing development of autonomous driving technology, there are also concerns about the potential safety hazards that this technology may bring. However, according to the autonomous vehicle accident data of Gitnux in 2023, autonomous vehicle have the potential to reduce the death rate of traffic accidents, fuel consumption and automobile insurance costs. Research shows that the accident rate of autonomous vehicle is far lower than that of human driven vehicles, and about 94% of all vehicle collision accidents are caused by human error. In addition, it is expected that by 2025, automatic driving technology will become increasingly popular on the road, and there will be 8 million automatic driving or semi autonomous vehicle on the road. With continuous safety testing and software updates, autonomous vehicles seem to have the potential to save thousands of lives each year, while also bringing economic benefits such as reducing car ownership and insurance costs.

As more companies and governments join and support this field, autonomous driving technology is also constantly growing. At present, most car companies have already mastered the Level 2 SAE autonomous driving level, namely steering wheel and speed control, while a small number of car companies such as Mercedes Benz have reached the Level 3 SAE autonomous driving level, namely assisted autonomous driving. Although autonomous driving technology still faces challenges and obstacles today, the development of this field is still advancing rapidly. With continuous innovation and improvement, it may be possible to usher in a more intelligent, safe, and efficient transportation future.