Is It Time To Tap The Brakes On Self-Driving Cars?

WAMU 88.5

Published March 29, 2018 at 10:20 AM EDT

A biker passes a pilot model of the Uber self-driving car on September 13, 2016 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

With guest host John Donvan.

Uber’s self-driving car program is still in the testing phase … but it has had to contend with a lot of negative press recently.

First, a pedestrian was killed by an autonomous vehicle in Tempe, Arizona. Uber suspended all self-driving car operations nationwide as a result. Then, the Guardian revealed that the company’s “cozy relationship” with Arizona’s governor may have also played a role in the tragedy. Now Uber has proactively decided to let its testing permit expire in California as the investigation into the fatality begins.

But Uber isn’t the only game on the road when it comes to autonomous vehicle technology. What can other companies learn from Uber’s recent experiences? And have these high-profile headlines soured potential customers from accepting self-driving cars as the wave of the future?

GUESTS

Cecilia Kang, Technology reporter, The New York Times; @ceciliakang

Levi Tillemann, Managing partner at Valence Strategic, which helps companies navigate change related to technological shifts in robotics and artificial intelligence; author, “The Great Race: The Global Quest For The Car Of The Future”; former adviser for the U.S. Department of Energy

For more, visit https://the1a.org.