New data points to another setback for Uber

Uber has been facing a slew of setbacks in the self-driving car space, largely as a result of its ongoing legal dispute with Alphabet’s Waymo. And new documents obtained by Recode have only added to the list of Uber’s problems. According to the documents, Uber’s autonomous cars drove over 20,000 miles and had to be taken over by a human on average every mile, putting its vehicles technologically behind Waymo’s. While Uber has made progress, disengagements — instances of human intervention when an autonomous vehicle can’t handle the road — still occur more frequently than they do for competitor Waymo. Uber’s vehicles averaged one disengagement per 196 miles in the week ending March 8 of this year, which has so far been the lowest number of weekly disengagements for the ride-hailing giant. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo averaged one disengagement per 5,129 miles in 2016, down from one every 1,243 miles in 2015. New data points to another setback for Uber. Uber has been facing a slew of setbacks in the self-driving car space, largely as a result of its ongoing legal dispute with Alphabet’s Waymo. And new documents obtained by Recode have only added to the list of Uber’s problems. According to the documents, Uber’s autonomous cars drove over 20,000 miles and had to be taken over by a human on average every mile, putting its vehicles technologically behind Waymo’s. While Uber has made progress, disengagements — instances of human intervention when an autonomous vehicle can’t handle the road — still occur more frequently than they do for competitor Waymo. Uber’s vehicles averaged one disengagement per 196 miles in the week ending March 8 of this year, which has so far been the lowest number of weekly disengagements for the ride-hailing giant. Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Waymo averaged one disengagement per 5,129 miles in 2016, down from one every 1,243 miles in 2015. Waymo has tested vehicles longer than Uber, but these statistics show how badly Uber needs to keep testing its vehicles to further develop its technologies. BI Intelligence noted last week that there’s a possibility that Uber would be forced to take its self-driving vehicles off the roads as a result of the legal dispute with Waymo. Not being able to test vehicles on public roads would serve as a substantial barrier to the company developing its autonomous technologies. The self-driving car is no longer a futuristic fantasy. Consumers can already buy vehicles that, within a few years time, will get software updates enabling them to hit the road without the need for a driver. This autonomous revolution will upend the automotive sector and disrupt huge swaths of the economy, while radically improving energy efficiency and changing the way people approach transport around the world. Automakers and tech companies are racing to develop the technology that will power self-driving cars in the coming years. That tech is advancing, but leaves observers with a bigger question: will consumers trust driverless car tech, and will they want to use autonomous cars? Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that analyzes the market, and forecasts vehicle shipments and market penetration. It also profiles the players expected to take on a prominent role in the autonomous future, examines the barriers to autonomous car development and adoption, and reviews developments in technology, regulation, and consumer sentiment. Finally, it analyzes the impact the introduction of autonomy will have on various industries and transport trends. Here are some of the key takeaways from the report: Self-driving cars are coming; there will be fully autonomous cars on the roads in the US in 2018, and adoption will just take off from there. The technology is developing swiftly to allow fully self-driving vehicles, while the regulatory environment is adapting to the anticipated changes that this new technology will bring. We conducted a survey asking our exclusive BI Insiders panel about their thoughts on self-driving cars, the future of the automotive industry, and the impact autonomous vehicles will have on their purchasing habits moving forward. The results provide a picture of consumer sentiment at the precipice of the autonomous era.