The chapter discusses the negative perception surrounding an autonomous vehicle company called Cruz due to frequent reports of incidents involving their vehicles. The speaker questions whether the public's perception would be the same if the incidents involved other companies like Waymo or Zooks. They highlight the challenges faced by Cruz in managing public perception and the importance of optics in such situations.
Alex and Kirsten riff on the most recent robotaxi news before they head off to the Up Summit in Dallas. With Ed gone this week, the duo turned to CMU professor, engineer and autonomous vehicle safety expert Philip Koopman swung by to discuss the hands-off, eyes-off Mercedes Drive Pilot system and whether it's really Level 3 automation.