Boston-based autonomous tech company Motional has expanded its operations into Southern California. According a report from the L.A. Times, Motional is bringing a fleet of driverless Hyundais to L.A. Even if autonomous cars haven't proven themselves to be safe enough for prime time yet, at least this startup is basing its effort on a car that actually looks good. This browser does not support the video element. Motional is the result of a partnership between Hyundai and the Ireland-based remains of the company formerly known as Delphi, now known as Aptiv.

Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, plans to start testing fully driverless cars in Nevada. The state is allowing the company to trial autonomous vehicles without having a safety driver behind the wheel. "The coming months will see the completion of a rigorous, self-imposed testing and assessment period, where we have studied the performance and safety of our vehicles across many thousands of miles and scenarios, on both public and private roads, in close partnership with one of the world's most respected safety assessors," Motional president and CEO Karl Iagnemma wrote in a blog post. "This process will include fully-driverless testing, on closed courses, this year." If all goes well with the closed-course tests, Motional plans to put driverless cars on public roads in Nevada in the coming months.

Why is self-driving so hard and so complex? Humans have walked on the moon, split the atom and flown faster than the speed of sound, and yet self-driving continues to elude us. Why is self-driving so hard and so complex? Humans have walked on the moon, split the atom and flown faster than the speed of sound. Yet despite the best efforts of our smartest engineers, backed with many billions of dollars from our wisest VCs and promoted with the passion of our most enthusiastic optimists, self-driving continues to elude us.

Building a self-driving car was never going to be easy. But Karl Iagnemma says he didn't expect it to be this hard. "Vehicles are these massively complex systems, and to [build self-driving cars], we need to integrate them with another very complex system and do it in a way that's reliable and cost-optimized. It's really, really hard," says Iagnemma, the president and CEO of a joint venture formed in March between South Korea's Hyundai and self-driving startup Aptiv. "I think that's one of the things that most players in the industry underappreciated, myself included."

In 2018, sharp observers of self-driving vehicles may have noticed that a few of the things have arrived. While most are still testing, only allowing employees inside--including Uber, Ford, Argo, Aurora, and Cruise--this year also saw the 25,000th passenger trip provided by a collaboration between Aptiv and Lyft, which uses a handful of autonomous vehicles to ferry riders around Las Vegas. Just this month, Waymo launched a driverless service in the Phoenix area, if a limited one. This body of evidence should help you understand the nuanced answer to an increasingly common question. "We get asked, 'When are we going to see these cars?' My answer is, essentially, 'It depends where you live,'" says Karl Iagnemma, Aptiv's president of automotive mobility.

OK, tell me if you've heard this one before. A trolley, a diverging track, a fat man, a crowd, a broken brake. Let the trolley continue to speed the way it's going, and it will smash into the crowd, obliterating the people in its way. Hit the switch, and the trolley will careen into the fat man, KOing him--permanently--on impact. That is, of course, the classic trolley problem, devised in 1967 by the philosopher Philippa Foot.

NuTonomy and Optimus Ride have agreed to suspend their self-driving car tests in Boston in the wake of Sunday's tragedy in Arizona, where an autonomous Uber vehicle killed a pedestrian. "We are working with City of Boston officials to ensure that our automated vehicle pilots continue to adhere to high standards of safety," a nuTonomy spokeswoman said in a statement. "We have complied with the City of Boston's request to temporarily halt autonomous vehicle testing on public roads." Karl Iagnemma, chief executive of nuTonomy, said the response to the crash will be vital for the future of driverless cars and whether passengers are willing to ride in them. "The reality is we may work very hard as technology developers and end up with a technology that members of the public are uncomfortable with," Iagnemma said, speaking at an event in Cambridge last night.

In the spring of that year, the good Swedes at Volvo introduced Drive Me, a program to get regular Josefs, Frejas, Joeys, and Fayes into autonomous vehicles. By 2017, Volvo executives promised, the company would distribute 100 self-driving SUVs to families in Gothenburg, Sweden. The cars would be able to ferry their passengers through at least 30 miles of local roads, in everyday driving conditions--all on their own. "The technology, which will be called Autopilot, enables the driver to hand over the driving to the vehicle, which takes care of all driving functions," said Erik Coelingh, a technical lead at Volvo. Now, in the waning weeks of 2017, Volvo has pushed back its plans.

In the spring of that year, the good Swedes at Volvo introduced Drive Me, a program to get regular Josefs, Frejas, Joeys, and Fayes into autonomous vehicles. By 2017, Volvo executives promised, the company would distribute 100 self-driving SUVs to families in Gothenburg, Sweden. The cars would be able to ferry their passengers through at least 30 miles of local roads, in everyday driving conditions--all on their own. "The technology, which will be called Autopilot, enables the driver to hand over the driving to the vehicle, which takes care of all driving functions," said Erik Coelingh, a technical lead at Volvo. Now, in the waning weeks of 2017, Volvo has pushed back its plans.

One of the biggest potential pitfalls for developers of autonomous vehicles is psychological: Will most people trust the cars enough to ride in them? It might not be easy to win people over, but it's possible--if a Boston startup's recent tests are any indication. On Tuesday, NuTonomy co-founder and president Karl Iagnemma shared early reactions from people who have ridden in cars controlled by his company's software. "The feedback has been really interesting, and I would say overwhelmingly positive," Iagnemma said at a press briefing, during which NuTonomy and its parent company, Aptiv (NYSE: APTV), announced plans for a new Boston office focused on autonomous vehicles and other mobility technologies. "We've found," Iagnemma continued, "that once people get into one of these cars, typically there's a little bit of maybe nervousness or apprehension because it is a little surprising to see that wheel turn by itself for the first time.