Name: Amid Spate of Crashes, Driverless Car Companies Look to Build Driver Trust
Uploaded: 2023-11-13T10:30:00Z
Duration: 4 min 27 s
Description: Driverless companies have been rolling out more self-driving cars onto public roads. But the increase in vehicles also increases the probability that one of these cars could have an accident. WSJ’s George Downs explores how companies are working to build driver trust. Photo: San Francisco Fire Department

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Driverless companies have been rolling out more self-driving cars onto public roads. But the increase in vehicles also increases the probability that one of these cars could have an accident. WSJ’s George Downs explores how companies are working to build driver trust. Photo: San Francisco Fire Department

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Amid Spate of Crashes, Driverless Car Companies Look to Build Driver Trust

Driverless taxi company Cruise has had a bumpy month. Its autonomous driving permits were suspended in California after a woman was dragged 20 feet under one of its vehicles. The company then paused operations in every single one of its US markets to focus on rebuilding public trust. And that could be a challenge. See, as driverless companies try to increase public acceptance of their tech, they're rolling out more and more vehicles onto public roads. But that increases the probability that one of these cars could have an accident that damages the paint work and the reputation of the technology. While every safe journey may be one step forward, every collision can be two steps back. A recent AAA study found that the number of Americans afraid of self-driving technology has actually increased. So how can driverless car companies rebuild trust after a crash? Okay, so in case you missed it, here's how Cruise lost its permits in California, On October 2nd at around 9:30 PM on the corner of 5th and Market Street in San Francisco, a pedestrian was hit by a car, not the Cruise one, and fell into the path of a driverless Cruise vehicle. The Cruise vehicle braked hard and stopped and then attempted to pull over to the side of the road. The problem was that the pedestrian who was struck was actually still under the Cruise vehicle, and according to the DMV, was pulled 20 feet forwards of speeds of up to seven miles an hour. The DMV said this may have caused further injury to the pedestrian. Now, Cruise said it spoke to the DMV about the incident, but the DMV said Cruise didn't mention that the vehicle had attempted to pull over. Cruise, however, said it showed the DMV, a full video of the incident. California's DMV then suspended Cruise's driverless license to carry paying passengers and crucially, it's license to test on public roads, saying the manufacturer's vehicles are not safe for the public's operation. So if Cruise isn't allowed to be conducting driverless operations on roads in California, how can it rebuild trust?

It's particularly important that the company does figure out a way just because California is its biggest market.

That's WSJ's autos reporter Ryan Felton.

You're not gonna ever feel that it's safe until you actually experience it. It's hard to imagine what other sort of scenarios exist to rebuild that trust other than just seeing through that people experience it.

With its licenses revoked in California, Cruise may have to turn to the other states it was operating in to get back out there and demonstrate that its technology can be safe in the real world. But there is still a path for the company to resume driverless operations in California.

The DMV has sort of spelled out to the company it says, steps it can take to get back on the road, get its permit. We don't know what those steps are at this point.

But the fact that the DMV is regulating this industry and revoking real licenses from real robotaxis in the real world when they have real safety issues is a sign that driverless technology is in some way finally real.

Like, it's happening and barring some sort of full scale pullback across the US, which seems highly unlikely this is happening. There's mechanisms in place to take action when something does happen, then I think that's what you're seeing.

Now, Cruise isn't the only driverless car company operating in the US. And while it has been experiencing setbacks, others have been making headway. Alphabet's Waymo, for example, recently expanded its operations across San Francisco and announced that it was offering rides through Uber's platform in Phoenix. But setbacks for one company can have impacts on the reputation of the technology as a whole. And what's not clear is how much further driverless technology will have to go to convince the majority of the public that it's safe or how many accidents will happen along the way. A ladies mayor recently wrote to the president of California's Public Utilities Commission to voice serious concerns about a decision to approve an autonomous vehicle program in the city. And there are still those who believe that Cruise has rolled out its technology on public roads too quickly. Cruise, for its part, has since announced that they're taking a number of steps to improve how the company operates including issuing a voluntary software recall.

The vast majority of things are a hundred percent foolproof. That is just the reality here that we're at a point now where there are companies actually using this technology actually commercializing it. There's going to be incidents that happen just like, if a driver, a human driver gets into a crash that there could be ramifications as well.

So while Cruise might not be operating autonomously on Californian roads in the near future, the October 2nd incident is unlikely to be the last incident that an autonomous vehicle experiences on its road to building public trust.

Amid Spate of Crashes, Driverless Car Companies Work to Build Driver Trust

George Downs explores the evolution of transportation, from electric vehicles to commercial aviation and the future of spaceflight.

Amid Spate of Crashes, Driverless Car Companies Work to Build Driver Trust

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