Opinion: autonomous vehicle tech is a waste of money

Has there ever been a bigger waste of money than the bizarre mission to create autonomous vehicles? A technology nobody asked for and that – if it ever came to pass – would destroy the very companies throwing good money after bad to force it into existence.

Think about it. If autonomous vehicles worked reliably and could be proved by some spurious system to be safer than human beings, how long do you think it would take for governments to ban us from being in charge of piloting our own vehicles?

And once your car is just a box to transport you, why would you care about the history of the company who built it? About its performance or all that lovely brand equity that the likes of BMW etc have built up over generations? If Apple simply bought the autonomous tech and created a sort of motorised iPhone, it’d be game over.

Maybe a few would cling on to past glories and want a ‘legacy’ brand. But why would they upgrade to newer models every year or two when there’s zero emotional connection left? In the best case scenario the big OEMs would shrink considerably. Probably they’d whither and die.

Yet, in 2022, VW invested $2.3 billion in Beijing robotics company Horizon for its autonomous capability. Just last year BMW opened an autonomous driving R&D centre in Czechia at a cost of €300m. That’s just for the various test tracks and labs and says nothing for the spend on actual technology. Toyota recently pledged £2.2 billion and 1,000 staff to develop self-driving software.

Now multiply those numbers over and over again to account for all the car companies around the world. It is lunacy. Almost criminal. Even Tesla spent at least $20 before unleashing its Autopilot system on the world.

Imagine if that money was put into infrastructure to help those truly in need of mobility solutions. The manufacturers could agree a certain percentage of their turnover to be pooled into a fleet of cars to fulfil these requirements. The elderly would be liberated, those cut off from society could interact with other humans, the new service would create jobs and the rest of us could still enjoy the freedoms of driving fun cars, wasting our money on new ones we don’t really need (which keeps these companies afloat) and the world would be a better place.

Instead, they strive for autonomy. Recently, I decided to embrace some Level 2 autonomous driving. I was in the US and borrowed a Chevy Traverse 271 with the Super Cruise system. Essentially this system uses GPS data and a series of cameras and sensors to allow handsfree driving on interstates and freeways. Simply select cruise control at your desired speed, press the button marked with a little steering wheel and Super Cruise takes over.

It steers smoothly, it can sense slower traffic ahead and perform safe overtakes, plus it will brake for heavy traffic and keep you a safe distance from the car ahead. It works superbly. Yet it’s more stressful than simply driving. I’m sure with time you’d build the necessary trust to relax... but then what?

For most of us, autonomous cars simply means more time scrolling on our phones. Who wants or needs that? And for manufacturers? Self-inflicted oblivion.