Do self-driving vehicles have a future in New York?

Do self-driving vehicles have a future in New York?

11.6.2019

By ANNIE MCDONOUGH

City and State NY quoted President Greenberg on the Task Force on Autonomous Vehicles and the Law.

Self-driving vehicles have arrived in New York City. All they need are two drivers apiece.

Three months ago, employees at the Brooklyn Navy Yard gained a new way to travel around the sprawling campus: Optimus Ride’s free self-driving shuttle service, which shepherds riders between a Navy Yard entrance and the New York City Ferry dock. Equipped with two safety drivers – one in the driver’s seat with their hands hovering above the steering wheel and the other monitoring a computer screen from the front passenger’s seat – the vehicles are impressive in their ability to stop for pedestrians and bicyclists. But the shuttles are also slow-moving and cautious – a far cry from KITT in “Knight Rider” or the countless other self-driving cars in pop culture. With years of Silicon Valley hype generated by founders like Elon Musk and companies like Waymo about the revolutionary future of autonomous vehicles, riders in today’s models would be forgiven for questioning why the current product is so, well, boring.