Driverless Cars Are Coming, But Not Yet to Take Over

Signs of very early-stage commercialization are emerging from the corporate science projects that want to remove human drivers from vehicles. Alphabet's Waymo seems furthest ahead with its "robotaxi" project in the suburbs of Phoenix Customers used to have to sign a nondisclosure agreement to hail a ride with no backup driver, but Waymo opened the service up in October. Motional, a $4 billion joint venture between South Korean car giant Hyundai and automotive supplier Aptiv, said last month that it will take safety drivers out of its taxis that operate on the Lyft LYFT 3.77% platform around Las Vegas "in the coming months." Cruise Automation, the driverless-car business controlled by General Motors, GM 1.92% has said it would remove backup drivers from its cars by the year-end. Cruise runs vehicles around busy San Francisco, but without passengers or cargo.