For years now, we’ve been hearing that autonomous vehicles are just around the corner. Google, Uber, General Motors, Tesla, and other companies invested huge sums in hopes of realizing the dream of a car that drives itself on the open road.

And yet, after more than a decade of effort and prototypes, driverless cars still appear to be a long way off. Why is that?

Bloomberg reporter Max Chafkin joins this episode to talk about the industry’s persistent roadblocks — and what’s ahead. And Anthony Levandowski, a pioneer and early champion of driverless car technology, explains why it continues to be such a difficult puzzle to solve.

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