The past few years have been an exciting time for the intersection of cars, robotics, and AI. It seems like every company that has built its brand on any of these three is trying to develop that perfect fusion—a self-driving, self-driving car. Yet here we are, in 2023, without a single capable competitor in the market. Now, even the money is exhausted, leaving only the daredevils.
In case you lost it:
Jalop alum Patrick George, at The Verge, look at the current status of AV. He found that investment in self-driving cars has fallen by nearly 60% by 2022, and that more and more companies are returning to their efforts to develop self-driving cars. Investors are faltering, money is running out, the world of autonomy looks bad.
But it doesn’t look die. Toyota is still moving forward, partnering with Nvidia to support an Israeli company developing new self-driving and driver assistance systems. That company, Foretellix, also sells to the commercial trucking divisions of Daimler and Volvo—when large rigs spend hours or days on flat, well-ventilated highways, automation becomes more technically simpler.
Tesla, too, is still banging his head against the Autopilot/FSD wall. Certainly, the company has claims its software has been nearing completion for almost a decade, but who knows? Maybe one of these years it will really be true.
Piece of Verge shows that the world of self-driving cars is changing, with investors more hesitant to pour money into a still unproven business. However, some companies are still betting big on an autonomous future. Whether they’re right and AV becomes an achievable dream, only time will tell.
