Driverless cars have left the realm of science fiction and are now hitting American roads. About three dozen companies in the U.S.—including automakers and tech companies—are working on self-driving cars. Waymo (a Google spinoff) has a fleet of 100 self-driving Chrysler minivans on California roads. Uber is testing about 100 driverless cars in both Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Tempe, Arizona.
Ford has about 30 self-driving test vehicles on the roads in California, Michigan, and Arizona, and hopes to triple that number by the end of this year.
But there have been setbacks: In March, Uber briefly suspended its program after a self-driving car crashed in Tempe. (No one was injured.) Advocates say autonomous vehicles will make roads safer, but critics say the technology isn’t yet ready for prime time.