As the Boom of Self-Driving Cars Stalls, AV Startups Put Technology to New Uses

According to McKinsey & Co, over the past decade, investors poured about $330 billion into 2,000 mobility companies, two-thirds of which went into AV technology and smart mobility.

The future of self-driving cars didn’t pan out, but those in the spotlight realized early on that flashy announcements and grandiose projects were fantasies, says Michigan State University’s Active Safety for Connected & Autonomous Network Vehicles. Department Director Heydar Rada said.

“In 2017, there was a lot of enthusiasm in AV technology and a big rush from many major players, especially from the big three, especially Ford and GM,” said Radha. “After a while, I think the reality started to become real that we weren’t even close to developing a truly self-driving safe car in this short period of time.”

The reality is hard to reckon with in Michigan, the nation’s AV tech capital in dispute alongside Silicon Valley. millions of dollars invested in it was not in vainsaid Trevor Pawl, the state’s Chief Mobility Officer.

“I wouldn’t say there are surprises where we are,” Paul said. It’s one of the toughest challenges.”

While the concept of a fully self-driving car is gaining traction, it no longer drives the development of AV technology, Pawl said.

Companies are moving from the costly moonshot of fully autonomous driving to incremental improvements to advanced driver assistance systems. Features such as hands-free driving on select highways, lane centering, and adaptive cruise control have been introduced by automakers such as Tesla, GM, and Ford.

“A lot of the innovations and real-world deployments are arguably mode-shifting,” says Pawl. “The other change for him is that it’s no longer on a per-feature basis, rather than full Level 5-based autonomy.”