Rollout of driverless cabs in select U.S. cities raises safety questions

John Yang:

Order a taxi in some select U.S. cities and the car that comes to pick you up won't have a driver. Just hop in and all by itself, the cab or robo-taxi takes you to your destination. As Ali Rogin reports, these vehicles are generating a lot of interest and controversy.

Ali Rogin:

With the cost of owning a car out of reach for many today, ride sharing gives commuters an alternative. And a handful of U.S. cities, self-driving taxis are getting the green light to pick up passengers. Several companies including Waymo, Cruise and Motional are touting driverless taxis as the way of the future.

But the rollout of these robo-cabs has hit some speed bumps. Not everyone is comfortable with autonomous cars on the road. And major technical questions remain. Aarian Marshall is a staff writer for WIRED, and she covers transportation. Aarian, thank you so much for joining us.

Driverless vehicles, autonomous functions on cars have been around for a while. But how new is this concept of self-driving taxis?

Aarian Marshall, Staff Writer, WIRED:

Yeah, this is a pretty new thing in terms of something that's actually happening on the streets right now. Waymo, which is a company that's associated with Google and Alphabet, launched self-driving taxi services in Phoenix, Arizona a few years ago. And now they're finally coming to San Francisco.

So it's something that researchers, developers, the tech industry has been working on for a number of years now. And now it kind of seems like it's coming into fruition.

Ali Rogin:

And how does a system like this work? We all know Uber. Is it, does it work like Uber? And what is the user experience like?

Aarian Marshall:

Yeah, it's kind of exactly like Uber, you download an app onto your phone, if you happen to be in one of the cities where these taxi systems are operating. And you hail it by pressing a button and it shows up to your door.

It's not in too many places right now. It's in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. And then also in San Francisco is where they're offering paid rides. So where you actually have to pay a fare to get into these driverless cars. So it's a real taxi company.

But these companies have ambitions to expand very quickly. Cruise, which is a General Motors subsidiary, has announced plans to come to 15 cities in 10 states, everywhere from North Carolina to Texas to where I am in Seattle. And Waymo plans to come to Los Angeles, Austin. So it's happening quickly.

Ali Rogin:

Now where are the price points right now for these rides in the cities that you can do this in? And are they comparable to other ride sharing services that involve human beings?

Aarian Marshall:

Yeah, anyone who's taken and Uber or Lyft recently, might notice that prices have gone up a lot in recent years. So there's definitely space there for robo-taxis to compete.

And right now, they're generally a bit lower than what you're seeing from those conventional human driven services. And the other kind of nice thing is that you don't have to tip the robots. So it might end up being a little lower overall.

Ali Rogin:

In California, in particular, there's been some blowback from especially emergency responders, what have been some of their concerns.

Aarian Marshall:

Yeah, emergency responders have been very concerned about the rollout of these robo-taxis in California. In San Francisco, the fire department there has said they've had at least 55 negative run-ins with robo-taxis since the beginning of this year. That's everything from them kind of freezing in the middle of the road and not allowing fire trucks to get by to them freezing in front of fire stations, so the fire trucks can't leave those fire stations as they're responding to emergencies.

So far, it doesn't seem like this has really affected emergency victims. But it's something that officials in San Francisco are really concerned about and watching very closely.

Ali Rogin:

Now, in terms of the rider safety of these vehicles. What is that like? Are these cars safe?

Aarian Marshall:

Yeah, so this is definitely up for debate. We do know that they've been built to be very cautious drivers. The companies that build them say this is the absolutely the right approach. I have heard from people in San Francisco, who say they're maybe a bit too cautious. And they not only cause traffic jams, but one of the most frequent crashes that these things get into in San Francisco and the other cities where they're testing right now is they can get rear ended by people because they, for example, really do take full stops at stop signs. And they might sometimes stop short when they think they see something scary on the roads ahead of them.

What the companies will tell you is that robots don't get drunk, they don't get tired, they don't get distracted. So it's possible that these could be safer than humans now or perhaps down the line.

Ali Rogin:

Based on your reporting. Is it your sense that these companies want to figure out these issues that we've talked about before they begin scaling out to other cities? Or do they view these, as you just mentioned, not as bad as some of the hazards of driving in cars operated by humans.

Aarian Marshall:

These companies will tell you that they are safety first, but that they can't guarantee that a car is going to be a totally, totally perfect 100 percent driver without running them on the streets first. So they are definitely kind of full steam ahead. Now they believe the technology is ready and close to ready to deploy in more cities and in more places.

Ali Rogin:

And lastly, Aarian, so many people, especially during the pandemic turn to the gig economy to make ends meet. What is the future for the jobs that are associated with ride sharing cars operated by humans are these driverless taxis going to run people out of jobs?

Aarian Marshall:

So this is something we heard a lot about from professional drivers in San Francisco as the state was considering last month, whether to allow paid robo-taxi services in the city of San Francisco. We heard from Uber drivers. We heard from professional taxi drivers who said these things are coming from my job.

And the companies will tell you yeah, that's kind of true. That's going to happen but they say it's going to take a long time. So it's not like they're going to flip a switch and all of the professional driving jobs will disappear.

Ali Rogin:

Aarian Marshall with WIRED, thank you so much.

Aarian Marshall:

Thanks for having me.