AUSTIN, Texas — Later this summer, a new batch of self-driving cars will begin testing around Austin.
The Amazon-owned company, Zoox, said Austin will be its fourth public testing site, with cars also driving around in Miami, Seattle, Las Vegas and San Francisco Bay.
Kara Kockelman, a professor of transportation and engineering at the University of Texas, said cars like Zoox’s retrofitted, automated Toyota Highlanders will be the future of driving.
“Driving is an incredibly complex task, but we let 16-year-olds do it, so you might as well let some brilliant AI do it as well,” she said.
Zoox is the newest automated vehicle company to come to Austin. Waymo started testing cars in March, and before that, Cruise launched its robo-taxi service in September of 2020.
“They need a place that’s more typical of American cities,” Kockelman said. “You want an educated, high-tech kind of population because they're more likely to welcome new technologies and adopt them faster.”
She said despite automated driving being such a new technology, it's boomed in recent years because it's useful.
“I mean, driving is boring for most of us,” Kockelman said. “It brings down the travel burden dramatically for whoever the driver was on that trip ... You're being chauffeured all the time, and people pay good money for that. It also can reduce crashes dramatically.”
In May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched investigations into several autonomous vehicle companies, including Zoox and Waymo. An investigation into Cruise began in October last year.
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Zoox has reported two rear-end crashes in the U.S. caused by unexpected braking. Both reports involved motorcycles and minor injuries. Waymo has reported 22 crashes nationwide, and Cruise has had four. Cruise suspended its operations in Austin last November after experiencing some traffic issues.
Kockelman said federal agencies like the NHTSA have to investigate new technologies on roadways, so they can figure out how to make them happen less often or not at all.
She said automated vehicles are still experiencing fewer crashes than humans – by a lot. Kockelman said automated vehicles may bring down crashes by 85% in the future.
“Americans [are] killed twice as many people as our peer countries do per mile driven. So, we are not good at this,” Kockelman said. “In many cases, that computer can do a much better job, especially one that has eyes on all four corners and special radar to back it up.”
Zoox said it is testing its new vehicles, equipped with safety drivers, in small business and entertainment districts soon. Kockelman said not only will these new cars be safer to drive, but they will also be cheaper and more efficient in the long run.
“You’re in a two-facing-two vehicle. So, it's like being in a train … And there's no need for a big engine because this is all electric. So, these are lower emissions and they'll take care of the recharging for you," Kockelman said. “You get, you know, a safer, smaller, much more energy-efficient vehicle that somebody else is managing for you. So, I think Americans are ready for that.”
KVUE also reached out to Dallas-based attorney Amy Witherite, who specializes in vehicle accident cases, including collisions with automated cars.
Witherite said that we have already seen tragic results from the experimental technology. She said the experiments conducted on public streets fail to meet the needs of modern traffic. She also said that based on past accidents involving autonomous vehicles, these tests will put the lives of Austinites at risk.