2024: The Year of the Driverless Car

Waymo is expanding its autonomous taxi fleet that can carry passengers on public roads, no human driver required.

Despite a decade of predictions that they were just around the corner, autonomous vehicles that can carry passengers on public roads, no human driver required, have mostly been confined to drawing-board dreams and venture capital–supported pilot programs. The oft-repeated joke is that driverless cars are five years away and they always will be.

But in 2024, driverless taxi company Waymo (owned by Google parent company Alphabet) started expanding its limited commercial operations into something that looks a lot like a full-fledged driverless taxi service in multiple cities. The company performs 100,000 rides a week.

Safety is obviously the major concern holding back driverless car operations, particularly after an autonomous Uber-operated car with a human test driver in it fatally struck a pedestrian in 2018. But reporter Timothy Lee found that most accidents involving Waymo cars were caused by the errors of human drivers in other vehicles, and that the company's autonomous cars get into crashes at about a third of the rate of human drivers.

Here's a list of places where dreams of driverless cars are quickly becoming reality.

San Francisco, California

Dense, hilly San Francisco, with its narrow, chaotic streets, is a challenging environment for driverless cars. Yet in 2023, Waymo started offering rides to select passengers who had put their names on the company's waitlist. In June 2024, the company started offering rides to the general public across all of San Francisco and a few other neighboring communities on the peninsula.

Los Angeles, California

In April 2024, Waymo began offering rides to customers in Los Angeles. By August, it had expanded its service area to cover 79 square miles of metro area. The company's robotaxis can now take you all the way from Santa Monica to downtown Los Angeles.

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix's wide, low-traffic suburban streets and sunny, stable weather made it an ideal testing ground for driverless cars. Waymo has been offering rides to customers there since 2020.

In 2024, it passed some crucial milestones. The company expanded its services across the metro area. Waymo cars can now pick up and drop off customers across a 315-square-mile area. Come January, Waymo has announced it will begin testing on Phoenix highways. That will dramatically cut travel times for cross-city trips.

NEXT UP: Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, Georgia

Waymo announced in September that it would be partnering with Uber to offer rides in the Texas and Georgia capitals. By early 2025, the company says riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric ride could be matched with a Waymo for qualifying trips.

Comments

[Chumby]

Waymo safe than with a female driver.

[Randy Sax]

I've heard arguments that this will drive wealthy people out of cities. Once you can buy a personal autonomous vehicle, you move out of the city to the suburbs/country for nicer house/place to live and make your commute to your job in the city part of your sleeping schedule. No "lost time" that way.

[Longtobefree]

Just as soon as the suburbs/country have curbs, sidewalks, traffic lights, and well painted traffic lanes that these cars need to function.

[mad.casual]

Also notable about the list, little rain and no snow.

[Rossami]

You mean like public transportation (busses, subways and trains) already did a century ago? People still living in cities are doing so because they actually like city life.

The tiny minority moving into a city because they can't sleep well enough on a moving train are going to get equally poor sleep in a moving car.

[CE]

Teslas usually ride a bit better than commuter trains.

[Longtobefree]

The best feature of these cars is the way they quickly and safely stop when the gang member steps out in front of them, so the rest of the gang can smash the windows and beat the crap out of you and take your wallet, watch, and jewelry.

[Chumby]

Not all immigrants are gang members. How dare you!

[Eeyore]

There is both indigenous and invasive wildlife.

[Chumby]

Some states might allow a driver causing a gang member roadkill to harvest the meat.

[Rossami]

"autonomous cars get into crashes at about a third of the rate of human drivers"

And that's the key point that people keep forgetting journalists keep obscuring. Self-driving cars don't have to be perfect - they just have to be better than an average human driver. And that's a low bar.

[Longtobefree]

One interesting statistic is that everyone on the planet thinks they are an above average driver.

[CE]

What a coincidence.
2024 was also the year of the driverless White House.

[See.More]

Yes, but what do you expect to happen when autonomous cars become ubiquitous?

I have a few predictions. Some are merely the natural progression of things already happening with services like OnStar.

* Eventually, driver-operated cars will be completely banned.

* Government will ask (maybe?), then demand, then dictate access to the vehicles’ data.

* Government will require that all autonomous vehicles be connected to a central network.

* Government will follow the same pattern with regard to accessing the vehicles’ controls, you know, to stop the bad guys from getting away or some shit.

* Government will require some form of “log in” to the vehicle, ultimately to facilitate the next two.

* Government will use the vehicles’ systems to track your movements.

* Government will expand No-Fly List type restrictions to punish people for whatever fucking thing (social credit, wrong think, etcetera).

* Government will make it a felony, with severe punishment, to tamper with vehicles’ systems in any way to avoid, bypass, or prevent any of the preceding encroachments.

Autonomous cars will be networked to a central system, will require some form of identity and authorization, will be monitored and tracked, will be able to be remotely overridden and operated, and will be under the thumb of government control.

One morning, in the not too distant future, you may get in your car to commute to the office/designated work site, log in and set your destination, only to minutes later discover that you are locked inside and the car has been rerouted. Only, after autonomously pulling into Detention Bay 13 (a single-car occupancy secure automated garage) will the doors open, but then you are greeted by armed agents of the state (perhaps autonomous androids at this point) to be processed for your Article Who-Fucking-Even-Knows infraction.

The real threat of autonomous cars has nothing to do with vehicle or traffic safety. That is simply the Magician distracting you with his left hand while his right hand is manipulating the balls in the cup. The real threat is to individuals' autonomy and freedom.

[See.More]

> Only, after autonomously pulling into Detention Bay 13 (a single-car occupancy secure automated garage) will the doors open, but then you are greeted by armed agents of the state (perhaps autonomous androids at this point) to be processed for your Article Who-Fucking-Even-Knows infraction.

But hey, at least the government would be able to eliminate no-knock raids to catch criminals, amiright?

[Liberty_Belle]

What is neither a pedestrian nor a vehicle ? A baby stroller ! So who cares if you run it over ! They literally had to go back to the 'drawing board' to fix that little oversight ... after Tesla had been on the roads for over a year.