AI Drives the Future of Automotive Technology in 2025

AI Is Reinventing the Car. What Does That Mean for You?

Artificial intelligence promises to revolutionize the way we design, manufacture and interact with cars. Here's what you can expect to see in 2025 and beyond. Last year, I got a real world taste of how artificial intelligence is gearing up to change the way we interact with our cars. While driving the new Audi Q6 e-tron, I asked, "Hey Audi, what's a good place to visit outside of Bilbao?" and was pointed to the beautiful coastal city of San Sebastián and told to check out the stunning views from Monte Igueldo or the Peine del Viento sculptures by Eduardo Chillida. The car I'd tested the week prior could barely "find fast food along my route," but thanks to integration with ChatGPT, the electric Audi was able to understand the full context of the question, find the answer on the web and help me plan a day trip with normal human-sounding sentence. That's just the tip of the automotive AI iceberg. In 2025, AI is poised to play a significant role in shaping the future of transportation, promising to revolutionize the way we design, manufacture and interact with cars, trucks and SUVs. That means enhanced safety, convenience and personalization are on the horizon. AI dashboard technology has the potential to minimize distractions and mitigate the consequences of lapses in attention, particularly as driver assistance and autonomous technologies continue to evolve. There's also the rise of driverless robotaxis, which are expanding operation to more cities in 2025. However, as these technologies become more prevalent in vehicles, it falls to automakers and regulators to prioritize safety and security within these AI-powered vehicles. AI in cars isn't exactly new. During my decade and a half as CNET's car tech expert, I've seen automakers and startups using artificial intelligence to design and power everything from advanced driver assistance features and natural language voice control to the way vehicles are shaped aerodynamically and safely deform in accidents. However, the recent AI gold rush has spurred increased attention and investment in robotics and large language model technology -- along with the rise in prominence of large dashboard screens, always-on, high-speed connectivity and over-the-air updatable software -- has accelerated AI's effect and visibility in the most high-tech production vehicles. In 2024, we saw a myriad of automakers and startups announcing AI technologies large and small hitting the road "soon." Here's what you can expect in 2025 and beyond. The self-driving car is no longer a distant dream. Today you can open the Waymo One app in San Francisco, Los Angeles or Phoenix and be chauffeured to your destination in a driverless Jaguar i-Pace adorned with a full suite of radar, lidar and optical sensors. The service isn't perfect -- crashes are rare, but Waymo cabs can be brought to an annoying halt by confusing circumstances and there was the weird honking incident -- but, with the aid of remote operators to get passengers out of the stickiest situations, Waymo One has proven fairly reliable. In 2025, Waymo expects to expand service to more cities, including Atlanta and Austin in partnership with Uber. Motional, a Hyundai x Aptiv joint-venture startup, has been testing a robotaxi of its own for the last year. In 2025 it'll be using the $475 million investment it's receiving from Hyundai to push development and expand operation of its Hyundai Ioniq 5-based robotaxi, which is currently in service in Las Vegas and Los Angeles in partnership with Uber and testing in cities like San Diego, Boston and Pittsburgh. Robotaxis are cool and all, but what if you want to own your own self-driving car? Last year Tesla announced its long-awaited Cybercab, which is expected to cost "under $30,000" and arrive sans a steering wheel or pedals sometime in 2026. Tesla head Elon Musk claims that owners will be able to summon the scissor-doored coupe via an app, choose their destination via touchscreen and arrive at their destination auto-magically. Tesla's reliance fully on optical sensor tech -- no spinning lidar humps here -- has me concerned over safety, but Tesla touts the advantage of eventually making the tech available on current Model 3 and Model Y vehicles equipped with its Full Self Driving tech via OTA update. Tesla is no stranger to delays: Musk has been promising "fully autonomous robotaxis" coming "next year" since 2019, so who knows when it'll actually arrive. That said, Musk's newfound political influence may help smooth the way. We've cooked up an even deeper dive into what you can expect from robotaxis and autonomous cab services in 2025, which you can check out here. A vehicle needn't be fully autonomous to be enhanced by the capabilities of AI, which is also making advanced driver assistance technologies safer and more convenient. Features like adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and automatic emergency braking are combining and becoming increasingly sophisticated, thanks to AI-powered algorithms. General Motors' Super Cruise technology allows drivers to go hands-off on about 750,000 miles of approved highways with automated steering, acceleration and braking, requiring the driver to only keep their eyes and attention on the road for safety. The tech has been around since 2017 but has seen many enhancements and improvements over the years, including the ability to tow hands-free in the upcoming GMC Sierra Denali EV. In 2025, Super Cruise will be available in around 15% of General Motors' lineup, around 22 vehicles in total including the upcoming Cadillac Optiq EV. In California and Nevada, drivers of the Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan and S-Class models recently gained access to the automaker's Drive Pilot system, the first Level 3 autonomous system approved for use in a production car on public roads. Drive Pilot allows drivers to go hands-free under certain conditions without the requirement to keep their eyes on the road, freeing up their attention to pass the miles doing other things. The automaker hasn't announced specific plans to bring the tech to other vehicles, but I'd be shocked if the new CLA -- featured at CES 2024 -- doesn't ship Level 3-ready. Both Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz made big splashes this time last year at CES with announcements that ChatGPT-powered voice assistance is coming to their vehicles' dashboards. ChatGPT (and similar LLM-based technologies) promise more personalized, intuitive and natural in-vehicle experiences, including the ability to simply talk to your car like a human and receive knowledge-based responses. So, instead of the wooden "NAVIGATION... DESTINATIONS... COFFEE SHOPS... OPTION 3" with laborious pauses between prompts, drivers may eventually be able to say something like, "Hey car, take me to that pizza place Jon recommended in North Beach" and get on their way with much less fuss and distraction. More than a few automakers (from Volvo to Ford to BMW and Mercedes) are also using AI technology to provide predictive and contextual information. So if your car learns that you usually pick your kids up from school in the afternoon, it may automatically begin suggesting that when you buckle up at 3 p.m., or if you're a hybrid worker with a long commute into the office twice a week, the car may be able to adjust your charging schedule automatically. The aforementioned upcoming Q6 e-tron electric SUV, for example, boasts one of the most impressive and natural voice assistants I've ever used. I was recently able to test Audi's latest-generation AI assistant in real world conditions and found that it understood a wide range of naturally spoken commands and questions and integrated with nearly every function of the vehicle's operation beyond the normal navigation, messaging, audio and climate. For example, I was able to just tell the car that I wanted to turn off the audible speed limit warnings when they got annoying and be brought to the exact place in the menu system to make the change. When I stumbled upon a twisty road segment, I could just say, "Activate Dynamic Mode." And I could take advantage of ChatGPT integration to ask the Audi knowledge based questions like, "What's a good place to visit outside of Bilbao?" -- a simple enough question for a human, but it was impressive seeing the system understand that I was looking for tourist destinations within driving distance of the Basque city and return a simple, spoken answer with clear information about why I'd want to visit rather than a bulleted list on the screen. It seems a small thing, but integrating AI deeply into vehicle systems enables much more than just enabling you to ask the car questions about itself ("How much air should I put in the tires?"). AI can also be used to analyze data from a car's sensors and onboard systems to predict vehicle maintenance needs, identifying potential issues before they become, well, issues. Software may be able to detect, for example, irregularities in performance, charging behavior or thermal management that the driver may not (or may not be able to) notice on their own, and use that information to warn the owner to have the vehicle serviced before a more expensive problem develops, reducing the time a vehicle spends in the shop waiting for big fixes and improving overall reliability. AI can also help your vehicle communicate what is wrong with itself in a way that's more easily understood by a human. For example, natural language can be used to explain that your check engine light is a fix you can handle yourself -- say, a loose gas cap -- or a bigger problem that requires more urgent service. Perhaps one day, even, your car will know based on your calendar that it's going to be parked for an extended period because of a vacation on your calendar and can take steps to condition its own battery for longer term storage. AI smarts could eventually lead to cars that basically maintain themselves. At the tip of the automotive spear, AI is transforming the way automakers design and manufacture cars, improving efficiency on the road and on the factory floor. From using AI-powered simulation to shape the aerodynamics, crashworthiness and assembly methods of future cars still on the drawing board to refinements in production to supply chain management, AI is being used to optimize every aspect of vehicle manufacturing. Automakers are even using AI to design the factories themselves, simulating the entire manufacturing process virtually before reshaping and reorganising how the cars move from sheet metal to assembly to customization and paint. These AI-powered factories -- along with new modular vehicle construction -- are what allows BMW to build the fully electric i4 sedan on the same assembly in its Munich plant as the hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars like the 3 Series. This allows BMW to adapt quickly to demand for all of its powertrain options as policies and market conditions change. (Though, Bimmer has announced plans to switch the Munich plant exclusively manufacturing its next-generation Neue Klasse EVs in 2027.) At the cutting edge of AI-powered manufacturing is the Hyundai Motor Group's Singapore Innovation Center, a factory without fixed assembly lines. I visited Hyundai's AI-powered factory where consumer and robotaxi versions of the Ioniq 5 are being built and was wowed by the high level of automation and the way vehicles moved freely around the modular factory floor on robotic sled, stopping at stations as needed to receive parts or bypassing whole parts of the assembly line not required by a specific trim. Along the way, AI-powered Boston Dynamics Spot robotic dogs helped human workers with inspection and quality checks, while a complex software allowed just a handful of people to oversee the entire production. Last year, Hyundai started cranking electric SUVs out of its new $7.6 billion Metaplant America outside of Savannah, Georgia (my favorite city in the world), starting with its award-winning Ioniq 5 EV. In 2025, the new, much larger Ioniq 9 will also begin production at the facility, and the automaker is also considering adding hybrid and combustion-powered SUVs, a mix that could only be tackled efficiently with the AI-powered lessons learned in Singapore. The widespread adoption of AI in the automotive industry is expected to have a profound impact on consumers, manufacturers, suppliers and regulators. While the potential benefits of AI in automotive are significant, there are also challenges that need to be addressed. Despite these challenges, the opportunities presented by AI in automotive are immense. As AI technology continues to advance, we can expect that we've only scratched the surface of what applications automakers have planned (and have yet to dream up) in the years to come.

Self-Driving Cars Are Having a Moment. You Just Have to Be in the Right Place

Named a Tech Media Trailblazer by the Consumer Technology Association in 2019, a winner of SPJ NorCal's Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2022 and has three times been a finalist in the LA Press Club's National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards. When I mention self-driving cars to someone outside the tech bubble that is the San Francisco Bay Area, they'll often ask, "Do you really think they'll become a reality?" To which I respond, "They already are." Waymo, for instance, operates a 24/7 robotaxi operation in parts of the Bay Area, as well as a handful of other cities. The autonomous vehicles are practically everywhere you look here, provoking slack-jawed tourists to pull out their phones and take videos. Personally, hailing a robotaxi to run errands or meet up with friends has become so routine that I no longer bat an eye. At the same time, the limited reach of Waymo and other self-driving companies evokes a quote from speculative fiction writer William Gibson: "The future is already here - it's just not evenly distributed." Self-driving cars, long a sci-fi staple, are becoming a tangible reality for more people, albeit gradually so. Despite recent expansions for companies like Alphabet-owned Waymo and Amazon-owned Zoox, the road to developing autonomous vehicles is a long and winding one -- so much so that even major players like Apple and General Motors have pivoted from their endeavors in that space, with GM saying earlier this month it'll no longer fund its Cruise robotaxi venture. Those departures illustrate the challenges of building and scaling autonomous driving technology: it's expensive, competitive and, not surprisingly, there are many regulatory hurdles. Still, self-driving companies are forging ahead in 2025. Waymo plans to expand to Atlanta and Austin, Texas, through a partnership with Uber and is launching its first international testing in Tokyo. Zoox aims to open up to public riders, starting in Las Vegas. And startup Avride, which has also partnered with Uber to deploy its autonomous vehicles and delivery robots, hopes to launch a robotaxi service in Dallas in 2025. Lyft, too, is teaming up with autonomous vehicle companies like May Mobility, aiming to make its fleet of self-driving Toyota Siennas available to riders in Atlanta starting next year. As robotaxi companies gradually expand their coverage areas, they're likely to remain on the slow and steady route. That means we probably won't see the proliferation of self-driving vehicles in a large number of cities in the upcoming year but rather more measured growth, such as Waymo expanding its fleet or Zoox slowly ramping up its presence, says Anirudh Bhoopalam, an analyst at Lux Research. "I wouldn't expect any big revolutionary developments in 2025," he says. "To achieve any kind of profitability, you need scale. And if you're trying to scale so quickly, the probability that something bad happens is higher; that's what happened to Cruise." Barriers like tighter tech regulations in some parts of the world and the general public's hesitance toward self-driving cars can also slow down progress, Bhoopalam notes. "There's a large part of the public that's excited about autonomous vehicles, but at the same time, there's a large part that's very scared about it as well," he says. "And it really depends on which bubble you're in." Aside from regulatory hurdles, there's also the considerable challenge of convincing the public that self-driving cars are safe. That's why practically every piece of communication from robotaxi companies touts the safety of their respective vehicles and technology -- especially in comparison to human drivers. A Waymo data hub published in September states that after driving over 22 million miles, its self-driving tech was involved in "73% fewer injury-causing crashes and 48% fewer police-reported crashes compared to human drivers." A 2022 Cruise report states that "there is no ambiguity that human driving mistakes are one of the most substantial factors causing roadway injuries and deaths." And in an open letter last year, Zoox's chief safety innovation officer noted that, "Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that 94% of crashes are caused by human choice or error." This messaging isn't surprising, given the string of incidents in recent years involving the nascent technology. Cruise was suspended indefinitely in California last year after one of its driverless vehicles struck a pedestrian, who was first hit by a human-driven vehicle. Waymo's vehicles have also been involved in a handful of high-profile collisions, including one with a biker in San Francisco and another with a towed pickup truck in Phoenix. (The company recalled and updated its software to address the issue.) And in May, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched investigations into both Waymo and Zoox for incidents in which company vehicles behaved erratically. That includes Waymo vehicles colliding with parked vehicles and sudden braking on Zoox's test fleet, according to the NHTSA. Still, these companies have all suggested that driverless tech could actually curb deaths and injuries on the road by ensuring vehicles are doing exactly what they need to, without distraction. For those of us who have taken a robotaxi, fears about safety may seem inflated. Once you get over the initial weirdness of a vehicle driving itself, the experience becomes exceptionally ordinary, and it just feels like a regular ride. But people "tend to overestimate the maturity of the technology," says Phil Koopman, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and autonomous vehicle safety expert. "People are very quick to accept things that seem well-behaved," Koopman says. "You could have one good ride, you could have 100 good rides, you could have 1,000 good rides and you still have no information about safety, because safety is up in the tens of millions of rides." Even one accident can feel like one too many, especially with all the lofty promises about safety from autonomous vehicle companies. On the other hand, people who haven't hitched a ride in a robotaxi are likely to be spooked by negative headlines and second-guess the technology altogether. According to a AAA survey from March, 66% of US drivers have expressed fear and 25% feel uncertain about fully self-driving cars. It's understandable, as I had my reservations the first time I rode in a Waymo, too. (Seeing a steering wheel turn by itself is not normal.) After a few minutes, though, I felt myself relax as the vehicle seemed to know what it was doing, even at four-way stops and while navigating among bikers and pedestrians. But, Koopman notes, "People overreact to bad headlines; that's also what people do." Companies will likely spend the months ahead continuing to focus on advancing their self-driving technologies, especially across a range of climates like rainier areas (Zoox is conducting testing in Seattle, while Waymo will soon expand to Miami). They'll also continue to rack up driverless miles to tout the safety of their fleets. Developments in artificial intelligence could help expedite that process, especially for companies in earlier stages, Bhoopalam notes. AI can help "generate millions and millions of scenarios" in a simulated environment, helping to reduce the sheer volume of testing on public roads (which will of course remain critical). "That should, in theory, speed up the time between development and deployment," Bhoopalam says. "But scaling is a different beast altogether. Waymo is scaling now, but it took them many years to get there." The introduction of robotaxis raises questions about the fate of ridehailing apps like Uber and Lyft - which themselves shook up the taxi industry when they made their debut. To help mitigate any negative impact, Uber and Lyft (which have each taken a stab at developing their own self-driving platforms) are partnering with companies like Waymo and Avride at an early stage. Uber is also teaming up with Wayve to develop advanced driver assistance and self-driving tech, with the goal of eventually adding Wayve-powered autonomous vehicles to Uber's network. Offering autonomous rides directly within the Uber and Lyft apps can not only boost revenues for the ridehailing companies and help maintain their relevance if and when robotaxis take off, but it can also make summoning a driverless ride more enticing for people who don't want to clutter their phone. "As small a barrier as installing a new app may seem, people are just more inclined to use what is available in their existing app," Bhoopalam says. Another big name hoping to make a splash in the self-driving space is Tesla, which unveiled its Robotaxi prototype at a flashy event in October. Details on the technology itself were sparse, but CEO Elon Musk shared an ambitious goal of kicking off vehicle production "before 2027." Even more ambitious: his goal to begin rolling out fully autonomous, unsupervised driving in Texas and California with the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y next year. Experts are skeptical. "Building hardware is not predictive of success," Koopman says. "The software is the only thing that matters." Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson also shared some unfiltered thoughts about Tesla's ambitions during a TechCrunch Disrupt panel in late October. "If they had technology that worked, I'm quite confident they could go through the regulatory steps. The more fundamental issue is they don't have technology that works," Levinson said, separating Tesla's so-called Full Self-Driving from truly autonomous systems. (Musk, not surprisingly, was not pleased by this assessment.) But it's not just the industry giants that want a piece of this lucrative pie. Startup Avride has been doing testing in Austin with a safety engineer in the vehicle for several months, and plans to launch a robotaxi service in Dallas sometime in 2025, through a partnership with Uber. First, though, it's teaming up with Uber Eats in Austin to deploy its delivery robots, which will later expand into Dallas and Jersey City, New Jersey. (Avride also operates its delivery robots and conducts autonomous vehicle testing around Seoul, South Korea, and is also expanding its delivery bots to Japan.) Nuro is another company tapping into autonomous deliveries and ridehailing -- along with developing driverless tech for personally owned autonomous vehicles. On the delivery front, it's partnered with companies like FedEx, Kroger and Uber Eats to transport goods. The company also plans to license its Nuro Driver technology to third parties who want to develop autonomous personal vehicles and rideshare operations. Nuro currently operates its fleet in Mountain View and Palo Alto, California, as well as in Houston, Texas, though members of the general public can't yet hail a ride. "There are far fewer potential AV (autonomous vehicle) players in the space than there were a couple of years ago," Dave Ferguson, Nuro's co-founder and president, told me during a ride along in Mountain View in mid-December. "What that means is that some of the other players in the ecosystem are more motivated to partner with the remaining AV players. ... There's more motivation to make sure that everyone that is interested in playing their role in the ecosystem has the partners they need to be able to execute on that." Ultimately, what the autonomous vehicle race comes down to is money. "The companies that have the resources to be funded for 5 to 10 more years will make it through," Koopman says. There will undoubtedly be road bumps along the way. Robotaxis have received lukewarm reception in some areas, with multiple reports of vandalism to vehicles from Waymo and, previously, Cruise. In places like San Francisco, there are efforts like the Autonomous Vehicles and the City Initiative, a UCSF-led collaboration between businesses, policy leaders and academics to mitigate concerns around issues like traffic and clean energy. Current and past sponsors include companies banking on the rise of autonomous driving like Waymo, Uber and Lyft. Perhaps, in the end, the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. People may gradually become enamored with the idea of having a ridehailing vehicle all to themselves or hopping in their very own autonomous vehicle and not having to pay attention to the road. It's possible members of the general public will find that they actually do feel more secure with a machine behind the (metaphorical) wheel. "Once people see that these vehicles can perform well and make their lives easier," Bhoopalam says, "they will be more accepting of it." For self-driving companies, that appears to be a challenge they're eager to meet, full speed ahead.

2024 was the year robotaxis proved they are here to stay

Even experienced drivers can be forgiven for missing a roundabout exit once or twice, but a disoriented robotaxi in Arizona did it 36 times... in a row. While Waymo taxis are among the most advanced autonomous vehicles on the road today, in a video posted earlier this month on X, a confused AV appears to be quite literally stuck in a loop. (Waymo clarified there was thankfully no passenger on board the high-tech merry-go-round.) And yet, even with blunders like these, there were more vehicles driving themselves this year than ever before. Once cordoned off to a few test tracks and small patches of land in Mountain View, AVs are now rearing their sensors-flapping heads in more than a dozen US cities. Tens of millions of drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians are learning how to coexist amongst these machines while their shared roads serve as real-world test-beds for full-scale AV deployment. Sure, it's not The Jetsons, but 2024 was the year driverless cars hit their stride and flooded the streets-in other words, ready or not, they got real. Whether or not that's a good thing depends entirely on who you ask. Several computer science experts and civil engineers told Popular Science that they were confident these early autonomous vehicles (AV's), slow and confused as they might seem sometimes, are the harbingers of a near-future marked by considerably less deadly damage caused by distracted humans. Others, were less optimistic. The actual on-the-ground performance of these cars in 2024 remains a mixed-bag at best. One thing seems certain: the AV race is on. Though many companies have faded, some dramatically, a handful of major players like Alphabet's Waymo, Amazon-backed Zoox, and Aurora are bulking up and scaling up operations. In the process, they are changing the way millions of people interact on the road. And it's just getting started. Though this proliferation of AVs can feel sudden to the average person, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Ragunathan Rajkumar told Popular Science the road there was incremental. Rajkumar, who has worked on autonomous research for decades, says the first example of what one could consider a rudimentary autonomous vehicle dates all the way back to 1984 at Carnegie Mellon. Progress in the space leaped forward twenty years later when DARPA, the US Defense Department's experimental research arm, held a driverless car competition called the "Grand Challenge." The teams that won attracted the attention of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. That eventually led to the creation of what would become Waymo and helped turbo charge the current era of privatized driverless car development. "The [2007] competition showed it was actually feasible," Rajkumar siad. "It made this singular point that autonomous vehicles are only a question of when and not a question of if anymore." Waymo was not only one of the earliest entries into the space, but also one of the most uniquely suited to make their product commercially available in 2024. Being tied to Google gave Waymo all the technical expertise and crucially, the deep pockets it needed to slowly build up its testing apparatus over the course of several years without a pressing need for an immediate return on investment. The company started in relatively sparse, Arizona suburbs and has gradually built up to more complex environments over time. Rajkumar said this approach differs from competitors like GM-backed Cruise which started later and may have tried to rush over some steps in a race to make a commercially viable product. That resulted in errors and an immediate degradation of public trust. By the time they were ready to test again this year, Waymo had already gained too much ground. In other words, slow and steady really does win the race. (GM announced it would absorb Cruise and transition operations away from taxis and towards fully autonomous personal vehicles earlier this month.) 2024 marked a "milestone" in driverless vehicle deployment according to Autonomous Industry Vehicle Association (AIVA) CEO Jeff Farrah. He told Popular Science that 25 states are now on the policy path towards some AV deployment. These new laws will cover around 56% of the US population. Waymo, after testing for the better part of a decade, currently offers fully autonomous commercial rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix through its app. As of late October 2024, Waymo said it was offering 150,000 paid trips every week. Those numbers will balloon further next year when the company begins offering paid trips in Austin and Atlanta through a partnership with Uber. Waymo isn't alone either. Zoox -- an Amazon-backed robotaxi service that is working on deploying a purpose-built, bi-direcitonal vehicle with no steering wheel and four seats facing towards each other -- is currently testing their fleet in Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, and Miami. Cruise resumed testing in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix, earlier this year following a spate of missteps in 2023 that saw it lose its license to operate in California. Tesla, which is controversially trying to achieve full autonomy without using LiDAR technology, charted out plans to begin production of a "Cybercab" robotaxis service sometime before 2027. [ Related: Why are 'driverless' cars still hitting things? ] Taxi-style ride hailing services also aren't the only types of self-driving vehicles already filling US roads. Mercedes-Benz, last year, gained approval to sell its "Drive Pilot" feature, a SAE Level 3 system that lets drivers legally operate a vehicle up to 40mph hands free and without their eyes facing the road. Aurora, a company racing to develop autonomous big rig trucks, has been conducting self-driving tests (with a human safety driver present) in Texas for several years. The company recently pushed back plans to let trucks drive free of human operators in the state next year. "It's clear that AVs are here to stay and as more consumers experience them, the data shows they are enjoying their experience," Farrah told Popular Science. For cities like San Francisco and Austin, Texas where hundreds of autonomous vehicles are making their way around town at any given time, the presence of cars without a human driver has gone from novel to common. Though they once regularly solicited gawking pedestrians and yells from angry pickup drivers, AVs in 2024 increasingly blend into the urban traffic. That seeming sense of normalcy on the ground runs counter to broader snapshots of American sentiment. Only 37% of US adults surveyed by Pew Research in 2022 said they would want to ride in a driverless vehicle. And yet, in places where driverless options are actually available, early reports show some riders are being won over. Part of that acceptance may be due to their passive behavior. "They [robotaxis] tend to drive very cautiously," University of Texas Professor of Transportation Engineering Kara Kockelman told Popular Science. "They look and feel much less dangerous than other vehicles driven by 19-year-olds who want a speed rush." Nicole Moore, the President of Rideshare Drivers United and herself a part-time Lyft driver had another way of describing them: "It's slow, stoned driving," Moore told Popular Science. Proponents of autonomous vehicles say the billions of dollars and investment and countless hours of testing are in the service of two main overarching goals: safety and convenience. On safety, experts told Popular Science a world awash with AVs could meaningfully cut down on the estimated 3,000 auto deaths linked to distracted driving in the US every year. Globally, around 1.3 million people die every year in auto accidents. Kockelman, who has conducted academic research on the cost-benefit analysis of AV fleets on public roads, said she expects driverless tech to potentially cut down on 80-85% of costs associated with auto crashes, a figure she puts close to $1 trillion. That's not counting other non-economic costs resulting from crashes too like pricey doctors' visits and long-lasting mental and emotional scars. A recent study conducted by Waymo and insurer Swiss Re analyzing insurance claims data found Waymo vehicles resulted in less property damages and fewer injuries than human drivers. Aside from the safety argument, Rajkumar said he was optimistic AVs would also empower legally blind individuals and others with physical disabilities to have greater degrees of mobility and autonomy. For others, time spent saved from focusing on driving could be spent completing a meeting, speaking with family, or simply taking a nap. "The arc of the progress has been happening," Rajkumar said. Maybe. But that vision wasn't what was on offer in 2024. It doesn't take long scrolling through social media to find shocking examples of supposedly advanced autonomous vehicles appearing undeniably stupid. There's these accounts of Cruise driverless vehicles causing traffic jams in San Francisco and Austin. In other cases, a fleet of recharging Waymo vehicles mysteriously started honking at each other, much to the annoyance of nearby apartment residents trying to sleep. A Cruise vehicle operating in San Francisco last year drove into a city paving project and got stuck in wet cement. In Austin, a server at a local taco shop told this reporter about a recent case of a Waymo seemingly getting trapped in the restaurant's parking lot, apparently mistaking it for a side-street. "Everyone went outside and started clapping when it drove away," he said. But there are more serious concerns as well. For starters, research looking into the limited test cases of AVs currently operating on public roads hasn't met the high-bar set by some of the tech's most vocal boosters. A recent analysis of self-driving vehicles operating in San Francisco conducted by researchers from George Mason and Duke University concluded many areas of improvement were needed. The paper, which compared crash reporting data from AVs and human drivers, claims AV computer vision systems were at times "very brittle" and can "play an outsized role in crashes. In some notable cases, self-driving vehicles were more likely to be involved in accidents than humans. The self-driving vehicles reviewed were struck from behind at a rate 1.7 times higher than human drivers. And while AV-makers often blame these incidents on other distracted human drivers, the researchers say AV can surprisingly decelerate or slam on the brakes "for no obvious reason." The researchers also noted a "substantial" number of crashes that occurred from AVs seemingly unable to properly understand social norms around driving. Those issues can lead to tragedies when scaled up. In 2018, the first reported human death linked to an autonomous vehicle occurred when an Uber self-driving car fatally struck a 49-year-old woman crossing a road in Temple, Arizona. An investigation following the death found the vehicle's software wasn't prepared to expect pedestrians crossing streets outside of crosswalks. Last year, a Cruise vehicle collided with and then dragged a pedestrian for 20 feet. Experts told Popular Science the brutal dragging incident, which contributed to Crusie losing its license to operate in California, was likely the result of the company failing to include sensors underneath its vehicle. Though fully-autonomous vehicles like those operated by Waymo and Zoox haven't resulted in human fatalities thus far, they also mostly aren't yet operating on more dangerous highway speeds. This year, just as more AVs were filling US roads, the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) announced a pair of investigations into Waymo and Zoox over allegations their vehicles had "potentially violated traffic safety laws." A Waymo Spokesperon told Popular Science it currently provides 150,000 paid trips. Weekly "in some of the most challenging and complex environments." "We are proud of our performance and safety record over tens of millions of autonomous miles driven, as well as our demonstrated commitment to safety transparency," the spokesperson said. "NHTSA plays a very important role in road safety and we will continue to work with them as part of our mission to become the world's most trusted driver." There's also the still unresolved question of what happens to the more than one million human and Uber Lyft drivers who are increasingly finding themselves in competition with driverless cars. Moore, the Lyft driver and Rideshare Drivers United President says she has watched as AVs have proliferated around her in Los Angeles. In the past, her and other drivers would share videos of the cars getting stuck or malfunctioning for a quick laugh. But recently, Moore says she saw a Waymo vehicle pick up a passenger and suddenly had a realization. "Oh my god," she recalls. "That [Waymo] is driving somebody that I could be taking!" That's a thought many more gig workers may have to come to terms with in the months and years to follow. Uber, the leading ride-hailing service, has plans to let riders request Waymo vehicles from its app in Austin and Atlanta next year. And while Waymo's still slightly more expensive options and have limited routes, that may soon change. Kockelman and Rajkumar agreed robottaxis may become more appealing to riders but they noted it would likely take time before they mean guly chip away at human gig-worker number. Human drivers will still be needed for the immediate future to operate in inclement weather and high speed situations. Even in markets where robotaxis proliferate, ride-share companies may still rely on humans to meet rider demands during peak periods. "It's going to be a slow rollout just like electric vehicles," Kockelman said. Those words aren't all that reassuring for professional drivers like Moore. "Every Waymo that people get into is costing a driver. There's no doubt about that," she said. "It's the same market. This is the wild, wild west of deregulated transportation." And while 2024 saw the realization of driverless vehicles for many, it also previewed a brewing backlash from an impassioned minority. Waymo is currently suing a San Francisco man prosecutors alleged was responsible for slashing the tires of 17 robotaxis between June 24 and June 26, sometimes with riders present. The slashing incidents came several months after a crowd of people, also in San Francisco, reportedly vandalized a Waymo, tossed fireworks into it, and ultimately set it ablaze. People in the crowd cheered and posed for photographs next to the burning wreckage. Anti-driverless car activists previously placed traffic cones on the hoods of cars to trick AV sensors and temporarily disable them. Farrah of the AVIA said driverless vehicles are at an "inflection point" in the US. As more states allow them to operate on public roads, there may be increased pressure for new federal legislation mandating a set of standards. Driverless vehicles are present in numerous cities but actually having one drive across the country would be a legal nightmare. Companies like Waymo and Zoox meanwhile, which have had years of generous coddling from wealthy investors to train up their fleets, may increasingly feel pressure to make their products financially viable. 2024 may have been the year driverless cars became "real" for many Ameircans, but 2025 will be the year we find out just how disruptive, both positively and negatively, this technology may really wind up being. And while that transformation can feel gradual in the moment, it can also snowball in what feels like an instant. "The technology is going to take a while to develop, but when you think about it, AI just popped out and all of a sudden it was there," Moore said. "We're dealing with a pop-out [moment] here."