Self-driving cars are being tested on a range of vehicles, including tractors and passenger cars. The technology is not designed to be used for drunk driving at this point in the game. Some companies say they can come up with their own tests that will test safety but don't provide enough information about how well it works.
Safety is one of the words that comes up most often in discussions about autonomous vehicles, but not many people really understand what the word even means in this complex context. Nat Beuse, VP of Safety at Aurora not only has "the s word" in his job title, its a topic he's thought about and worked on for decades. He joins this week's show for a wide-ranging discussion of safety, public trust, and autonomous vehicles.