The main reason why self-driving cars are not ready for prime time

Self-driving cars have been crowned the future of the automotive industry, but in their current form, the software powering those vehicles is stuck in the present.

One significant flaw in the self-driving systems has yet to be worked out, according to experts. When there's potential for an accident, the systems often returns control to the human driver without enough time for someone to avoid a collision, automotive industry experts told CBS MoneyWatch. In other words, the software does not know how to react when the unexpected happens, such as an animal darting onto the road.  

The major flaw came to bear earlier this year when a Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV crashed into a 56-year-old Texas man who was driving a Honda CR-V. The Mach-E had its partially self-driving feature — which Ford calls BlueCruise — activated during the crash, in which the CR-V driver was killed. On Monday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it's looking into what role BlueCruise played in causing the Texas accident.

But Monday isn't the first time NHTSA has launched an investigation into self-driving vehicles. The BlueCruise probe follows a 2022 NHTSA investigation into what caused robotaxis run by General Motors' autonomous software, Cruise, to stop short or quit moving altogether. NHTSA has also launched several investigations into crashes involving Tesla's autopilot feature dating back to 2021. 

The NHTSA investigations are proof that even though autonomous driving is considered the next competitive frontier for automakers, the technology still hasn't matured enough for widespread usage, Robert Sumwalt, CBS News' transportation safety analyst told CBS MoneyWatch.

"It's not a perfect science yet," said Sumwalt, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. "Right now it's like trying to send a rocket to the moon in 1910 when the Wright Brothers were still working on their planes."

The makings of vehicle autonomy 

The self-driving mode most automakers have today is known in the industry as Level 2. There are six increasing levels of autonomy in total. 

Essentially, Level 2 is a vehicle with an on-board computer equipped with a map in its database. The vehicle is also outfitted with camera sensors, radars, lidar (light and range detection) and ultrasonic systems, all of which work together to detect what's going on around the vehicle in real time. 

"The maps they have on them can drive perfectly, if there's nothing on the road," Sean Tucker, senior editor at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader told CBS MoneyWatch. "It's a problem if someone stops in the middle of a highway or if a deer runs out in the middle of the road. That's the hard part for the computer."

Ford's BlueCruise is a Level 2 system that allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel while the vehicle handles steering, braking and acceleration on highways. 

Like other major automakers, Ford is betting big on autonomous technology. The company last year created its own in-house division called Latitude AI, which is helping the automaker develop Level 3 autonomous systems.

During a 2023 company event, Ford's electric vehicle chief Doug Field outlined how advancing to Level 3 would help the automaker and its customers.

"We want L3 to work everywhere BlueCruise works," he said. "The key use cases that we see are stop-and-go traffic — which is really tedious and actually a cause of a lot of accidents because people take their mind off of what's going on — and then steady-state cruise long trips, in which, the same thing, you can tend to get bored or sleepy."

Race for the Holy Grail

Self-driving cars are much more advanced now compared to when they were first developed, said K. Venkatesh Prasad, senior vice president of research at the Center for Automotive Research. Still, they have to be able to navigate, not only humans driving cars and trucks, but people making unpredictable moves on scooters, skateboards and bicycles, Prasad told CBS MoneyWatch. 

Automakers are testing their self-driving cars on closed tracks as much as they can, but they can advance the technology faster by putting the vehicles on an actual road, Sumwalt said. But real-world testing, he said, comes at a high price — crashes, fatalities and federal investigations. 

Indeed, Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru and Tesla all have a variation of Level 2 autonomous driving. They're all in a technology arms race to perfect self-driving and claim all the benefits that come with it, experts said. 

"If you can be first to this Holy Grail of autonomy, you get a lot of attention," said Jonathan Elfalan, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds. "And you are probably going to make profit off the end of it."

Khristopher J. Brooks

Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch. He previously worked as a reporter for the Omaha World-Herald, Newsday and the Florida Times-Union. His reporting primarily focuses on the U.S. housing market, the business of sports and bankruptcy.

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