Driverless Cars Tap the Brakes After Years of Hype

LAS VEGAS—At a command center near the airport here, executives from automotive supplier Aptiv showed why deploying robot cars will be far more complicated than many envisioned just a few years ago.

With people in town for the annual CES tech show, Aptiv revealed its new operations with more than 300 people, rows of computer monitors and a 30-foot video screen. It’s all to track and keep a fleet of 75 autonomous cars operating. Thirty of those vehicles make up the 20-hours-a-day operation for passengers on Lyft Inc.’s app, taking riders across a 17-square-mile area around the Strip. Those cars already have made about 30,000 Lyft trips.

“What was underappreciated by the industry is how long and how difficult it would be to industrialize the technology,” said Karl Iagnemma, president of Aptiv’s autonomous mobility. “Industrywide that recognition has dawned.”
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