Wemyo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (Parent company of Google) developed self driving taxi. These self driving taxis do not require human driver, using different technologies to drive through urban roads.
You may not have seen Wemyo taxis in your neighborhood, it is because they are currently only available in San Francisco, Los Angeles and the Phoenix are. It is said that is will be soon available in Austin, Texas.
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Now, let’s take about the reason it is targeted by Federal Department.
Why is Wemyo’s Self driving taxis are targeted by Federal Department?
The main reason for being targeted is for the safety concerns. Almost every human have concern regarding the self driving cars whether they are safe as human driven vehicles. Even though these robotic, self driving vehicles are believed to reduce accidents, in fact, they lead to more accidents than ever.
Due to this specific reason, Wemyo taxis are now under federal investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). They have been more than 20 accidents, such as traffic law violations, driving on the wrong side of the road, and crashes. There were incidents where taxi hit a bicyclist, and struck a pedestrian.
Is it Safe to ride in a Self-driving cars?
It is not that human-controlled cars are 100% safe. They are also not fully safe but there are not as high errors done by self-driving cars. They are not fully perfect and have risks for failure. If you ever decide to hop on those cars, you need to understand that the unexpected situations may occur.
They use their technology to respond to the traffic conditions in real-time but it is still not same as driven by an experienced driver. Even though these vehicles are made to reduce human error but they are now one of the leading causes of traffic accidents.
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What about Tesla, another self-driving car?
Tesla is definitely a self-driving car but they are not 100% autonomous. They can also be controlled by human. Tesla offers Autopilot and Full Self-Driving features, which provides varying levels of autonomous driving capabilities.
It is not that they have been in any accidents. Tesla’s technology has also been involved in several accidents. So, anyone planning to ride into tesla should carry concerns as same as they would in wemyo.
