Tech-savvy turn out to be most leery of self-driving cars

Karen Brenchley is a computer scientist with expertise in training artificial intelligence, but the longtime Silicon Valley resident has pangs of anxiety whenever she sees Waymo self-driving cars maneuver the streets near her home. The former product manager, who has worked for Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, wonders how engineers could teach the robocars operating on her tree-lined streets to make snap decisions, speed and slow with the flow of traffic, and yield to pedestrians walking from the park. She has asked her husband, an award-winning science-fiction author who doesn't drive, to wear a shiny vest while cycling to ensure that autonomous vehicles spot him in a rush of activity. The problem isn't that she doesn't understand the technology. It's that she does, and she knows how flawed nascent technology can be. "I'm not skeptical long-term," said Brenchley, who has lived in Silicon Valley for 30 years.