Some companies are afraid that semiautonomous driving and shared duties are causing accidents that draw media attention and turn the public against robot cars. Ford, for one, has said it will skip shared duties and, when the technology is ready, go straight to Levels 4.
Waymo, the robot-car arm of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., likewise eschews semiautonomous systems. Already, it is running a ride-hailing service in and around Phoenix that is completely driverless. The passengers can sit and back and watch the steering wheel turn all by itself, with no human in the driver’s seat.
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