The real reason self-driving cars are not ready for prime time

Self-driving cars person been crowned nan early of nan automotive industry, but successful their existent form, nan package powering those vehicles is stuck successful nan present.

One important flaw successful nan self-driving systems has yet to beryllium worked out, according to experts. When there's imaginable for an accident, nan systems often return power to nan quality driver without capable clip for them to debar a collision, automotive manufacture experts told CBS MoneyWatch. In different words, that nan package does not cognize really to respond erstwhile nan unexpected happens, specified arsenic animal darting onto nan road.  

The awesome flaw came to carnivore earlier this twelvemonth when a Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV collapsed into a 56-year-old Texas man who was driving a Honda CR-V. The Mach-E had its partially self-driving characteristic — which Ford calls BlueCruise — activated during nan crash, successful which nan CR-V driver was killed. On Monday, nan National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it's looking into what domiciled BlueCruise played successful causing nan Texas accident.

But Monday isn't nan first clip NHTSA has launched an investigation into self-driving vehicles. The BlueCruise probe follows a 2022 NHTSA investigation into what caused robotaxis tally by General Motors' autonomous software, Cruise, to extremity short aliases discontinue moving altogether. NHTSA has besides launched respective investigations into crashes involving Tesla's autopilot feature making love backmost to 2021. 

The NHTSA investigations are impervious that moreover though autonomous driving is considered nan adjacent competitory frontier for automakers, nan exertion still hasn't matured capable for wide usage, Robert Sumwalt, CBS News' proscription information expert told CBS MoneyWatch.

"It's not a cleanable subject yet," said Sumwalt, a erstwhile president of nan National Transportation Safety Board. "Right now it's for illustration trying to nonstop a rocket to nan satellite successful 1910 erstwhile nan Wright Brothers were still moving connected their planes."

The makings of conveyance autonomy 

The self-driving mode astir automakers person coming is known successful nan manufacture arsenic Level 2. There are six increasing levels of autonomy successful total. 

Essentially, Level 2 is simply a conveyance pinch an on-board machine equipped pinch a representation successful its database. The conveyance is besides outfitted pinch camera sensors, radars, lidar (light and scope detection) and ultrasonic systems, each of which activity together to observe what's going connected astir nan conveyance successful existent time. 

"The maps they person connected them tin thrust perfectly, if there's thing connected nan road," Sean Tucker, elder editor astatine Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's a problem if personification stops successful nan mediate of a road aliases if a cervid runs retired successful nan mediate of nan road. That's nan difficult portion for nan computer."

Ford's BlueCruise is simply a Level 2 strategy that allows drivers to return their hands disconnected nan steering instrumentality while nan conveyance handles steering, braking and acceleration connected highways. A Ford spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch that nan institution aspires to upgrade BlueCruise to Level 3 autonomy, which among different things would alteration a conveyance to execute much precocious tasks for illustration accelerate past a slow driver aliases inch up during a postulation jam. 

"By enabling hands-free, eyes-off driving successful definite conditions for illustration agelong stretches of road aliases stop-and-go traffic, this exertion has nan imaginable to connection drivers nan state to usage their clip down nan instrumentality successful much productive and enjoyable ways during parts of their journey," nan Ford spokesperson told CBS MoneyWatch successful an email.

Like galore different awesome automakers, Ford is betting large connected self-driving vehicles. The institution past twelvemonth created its ain in-house section for automated driving systems called Latitude AI, devoted to improving BlueCruise.

During a 2023 institution event, Ford's electrical conveyance main Doug Field outlined how aggressively nan automaker wants to move toward self-driving.

"We want L3 to activity everyplace BlueCruise works," he said. "The cardinal usage cases that we spot are stop-and-go postulation — which is really tedious and really a origin of a batch of accidents because group return their mind disconnected of what's going connected — and past steady-state cruise agelong trips, successful which, nan aforesaid thing, you tin thin to get saturated aliases sleepy."

Race for nan Holy Grail

Self-driving cars are overmuch much precocious now compared to erstwhile they were first developed, said K. Venkatesh Prasad, elder vice president of investigation astatine nan Center for Automotive Research. Still, they person to beryllium capable to navigate, not only humans driving cars and trucks, but group making unpredictable moves connected scooters, skateboards and bicycles, Prasad told CBS MoneyWatch. 

Automakers are testing their self-driving cars connected closed tracks arsenic overmuch arsenic they can, but they tin beforehand nan exertion faster by putting nan vehicles connected an existent road, Sumwalt said. But real-world testing, he said, comes astatine a precocious value — crashes, fatalities and national investigations. 

Indeed, Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru and Tesla each person a variety of Level 2 autonomous driving. They're each successful a exertion arms title to cleanable self-driving and declare each nan benefits that travel pinch it, experts said. 

"If you tin beryllium first to this Holy Grail of autonomy, you get a batch of attention," said Jonathan Elfalan, head of conveyance testing astatine Edmunds. "And you are astir apt going to make profit disconnected nan extremity of it."