In 2019, We'll Have Taxis Without Drivers--or Steering Wheels

A coming milestone in the automobile world is the widespread rollout of Level 4 autonomy, where the car drives itself without supervision. Waymo, the company spun out of Google's self-driving car research, said it would start a commercial Level 4 taxi service by late 2018, although that hadn't happened as of press time. And GM Cruise, in San Francisco, is committed to do the same in 2019, using a Chevrolet Bolt that has neither a steering wheel nor pedals. These cars wouldn't work in all conditions and regions--that's why they're on rung 4 and not rung 5 of the autonomy ladder. But within some limited operational domain, they'll have the look and feel of a fully robotized car.