Almost everywhere the ground, when you’re stuck in traffic, you’re still surrounded by the usual sea of heads attached to shoulders attached to hands attached to the steering wheel. But in a small handful of places — in Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Wuhan, China — you can find yourself surrounded by taxis with no one in the driver’s seat picking up passengers without any human supervision. And if you live in one of these cities, the sight probably doesn’t even cross your mind anymore. It’s as if the future is suspended between those who have never met it – and those who are already somewhat blind to it.
Of course, virtually everyone has been numbed by the ad cycle. Self-driving cars — one of the canonical conveniences of science fiction — were the hottest thing in tech for a few years around 2018. After a self-driving Uber tested in Arizona killed a pedestrian walking on the road, regulatory scrutiny tightened and a slew of self-driving car projects stalled amid a general period of disillusionment with the technology. The entire autonomous driving industry has begun to look less worthy of being taken seriously, if not completely on the ropes.
In reality, it was a case of rope-a-doping. Investment capital continues to flow in. From 2020 more than $11 billion was committed to Alphabet subsidiary Waymo alone. And over the past few years, hundreds of empty electric Jaguar SUVs have begun cruising the streets of Waymo’s three U.S. markets, eventually picking up passengers and charging them for rides. A similar fleet of white SUV robotics rolled out in Wuhan around the same time, operated by Baidu subsidiary Apollo Go. The thoughtful future is finally, quietly, here, and all signs point to it taking hold quickly. Waymo is on track to begin operations in two new US cities – Austin, Texas and Atlanta, Georgia – in early 2025. And autonomous ride-sharing cars are in various earlier stages of testing in Las Vegas, Houston, Detroit, Seattle and at least seven other cities in China; also in Japan, United Arab Emirates, Germany, South Korea, United Kingdom, Sweden and Singapore.
Photo: Darrell Jackson
