Why Cars Aren't the Real Stars of the Autonomous Revolution

Driverless car startups are booming these days, many with rock-star valuations. Automakers also now talk about rolling out autonomous taxi services by 2019, but here's a quick reality check: By some estimates, we're still 15 years away from truly autonomous vehicles being available to the general public, once you consider the complications of regulation, insurance and the critical last-mile challenges of human safety. For example, carmakers and autonomous startups have to date not agreed on any sort of data-sharing system to allow vehicles to talk to one another, a mandatory step prior to unleashing full autonomy in passenger vehicles. The Uber self-driving car fatality in Arizona in the spring of 2018 further illustrates that driverless cars remain a work in progress. The economic need or demand for driverless cars also remains unclear.