Autonomous vehicles: Where are we headed?

Last year was a rough one for the autonomous vehicle industry, with it suffering several setbacks while the federal government considers its role in the emerging technology.

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers have garnered plenty of headlines in the past 12 months, most of them not flattering. Tesla has faced several significant recalls that have gained the attention of members of Congress. Meanwhile, General Motors’ Cruise project came to an abrupt halt.

All of this occurred while the federal government considered a rule that effectively would add more autonomous vehicles to the nation’s roadways. That too has been put on hold.

Tesla woes

As one of the leaders in Level 2 autonomous vehicle technology, Tesla has been giving the public plenty of reasons to worry about self-driving cars.

In December, Tesla made headlines after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a recall that affects nearly every Tesla sold in the U.S. Specifically, NHTSA found that Tesla owners were misusing the Autosteer feature, which allows the car to steer itself while on clearly marked lanes.

The recall was the culmination of a two-year investigation conducted by NHTSA looking into 11 crashes in which Tesla vehicles encountered first-responder scenes. In those 11 crashes, there were 17 injuries and one fatality.

Despite its ability to control the driving function of the vehicle, Tesla’s Autosteer requires drivers to have their hands on the wheel at all times while being fully attentive to the road ahead, allowing the driver to take over at any second. The system monitors the torque from hands on the steering wheel, giving out warnings and alerts when it fails to detect that torque.

A deeper dive by NHTSA revealed that out of 43 crashes, 37 Tesla drivers had their hands on the wheel in the final second before the crash – indicating that despite the Autosteer system working as designed, drivers still were not attentive to the task of driving. In other words, simply detecting torque from hands on the wheel is an insufficient way to measure the attentiveness of drivers.

Despite the two-year investigation detailing the safety issues of Autosteer, Tesla did not agree with NHTSA’s analysis. The automaker agreed to a voluntary recall only to end the matter.

Tesla’s refusal to acknowledge defects was highlighted in a Reuters report that exposed the company’s denial of known issues. The report reveals significant steering and suspension issues experienced by Tesla owners. Despite having detailed records of these issues, Tesla blamed them on “driver abuse.” However, the company issued a recall over the same issues in China.

Soon after Reuters published its report, Sens. Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., sent a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, urging him to issue a recall immediately.

“We write with extreme concern following recent reporting about Tesla’s knowledge of safety flaws in its vehicles and concealment of the causes of these flaws from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),” the letter states. “This reporting puts your statement from January that ‘Teslas are the safest car on the road’ at stark contrast with reality. We call on you to swiftly recall all Tesla components that pose a safety risk and correct the record with NHTSA to ensure it can properly do its job.”

Last February, Tesla had to recall hundreds of thousands of vehicles equipped with its Full Self-Driving software. The software allowed vehicles to perform several unsafe maneuvers around intersections, including traveling straight through an intersection while in a turn-only lane, failing to come to a complete stop and proceeding into an intersection during a steady yellow traffic signal without due caution.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association warned the federal government about the Full Self-Driving system well before the recall. In November 2020, OOIDA sent a letter to NHTSA expressing these concerns and pointing out that the majority of truck-involved crashes are caused by passenger vehicles. Consequently, misleading technology like Tesla’s autonomous system jeopardizes the safety of truckers and other motorists.

“Therefore, we are dismayed with the administration’s lack of oversight of automated driving technologies currently deployed on public roadways that jeopardize truckers’ safety,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer wrote. “The use of unfinished and unproven automated technologies poses a significant threat to small-business truckers, and we urge you to take action to protect all road users and promote greater transparency and oversight of their development.”

Cruise pauses autonomous vehicle operations

GM’s Cruise program has been a big player in truly driverless, Level 4 autonomous vehicle technology. However, the program took several steps backward in 2023.

Trying to get ahead in the autonomous vehicle game, GM’s self-driving vehicle division, Cruise, had been deploying vehicles in San Francisco. For the better half of 2023, operations were going well. Then all hell broke loose in October.

On Oct. 2, a Cruise robotaxi struck a pedestrian in San Francisco, dragging her 20 feet. Emergency crews had to use heavy rescue tools to pry the woman from underneath the autonomous vehicle.

Two weeks later, NHTSA opened an investigation into Cruise’s autonomous vehicles that remained open as of press time. Specifically, the agency is looking at the vehicles’ automated driving system’s ability to navigate around pedestrians. Cruise issued a voluntary recall of its self-driving software in November.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits in the state on Oct. 24. Two days later, Cruise announced it was pausing all autonomous vehicle operations across the nation. The company also scrapped its plan to deploy vehicles in more than a dozen cities and now plans to deploy in only one city, which had not been named as of press time in early January.

Stakeholders call for federal action

Problems with Tesla and Cruise are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the fate of autonomous vehicles. More federal oversight could help solve some of those problems.

Last July, NHTSA Acting Administrator Ann Carlson talked about a new program the agency is looking into called the ADS-equipped Vehicle Safety, Transparency and Evaluation Program, or AV STEP. The program would allow autonomous vehicle manufacturers to apply to deploy self-driving vehicles that do not have components like pedals or steering wheels. In return, the automakers would be required to submit detailed data to NHTSA.

At the time, Carlson said the agency would start the rulemaking process for AV STEP in the fall of 2023. But no action had been taken as of press time.

In early December, several stakeholders including the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Trucking Associations sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, urging him to “move forward expeditiously” with AV STEP.

On the other hand, labor unions have sent a letter to Buttigieg expressing concerns over the deployment of autonomous vehicles. The unions want the federal government to expand its investigation into Cruise to include other self-driving manufacturers. They also want NHTSA to subject driverless vehicles to stricter federal regulations and oversight. LL