Some of the top technology inventions and innovations for autonomous vehicles in 2022 include:
• Waymo started offering fully driverless rides to the general public in Phoenix, Arizona, the first commercial robotaxi service without a safety driver.
• Cruise received the first deployment permit for driverless taxis in California, though it has not launched the service yet.
• Tesla released a major “Full Self Driving” beta update that enabled some of its vehicles to navigate city streets with no human intervention, though it is still considered a level 2 system and requires constant driver supervision.
• Argo AI, a Ford and Volkswagen backed startup, received permits to test its autonomous vehicles on the streets of Munich, the first city outside the U.S. for the company.
• Mobileye, an Intel company, announced a robotaxi service will launch in 2022 with Safety Drivers and a fully driverless service in 2023. They plan to deploy thousands of autonomous vehicles per year in the coming years.
• Autonomous trucking continues to make progress, with companies like Plus, TuSimple, Embark and others expanding their testing and development programs.
• Sensor and lidar technology advanced, with higher resolution, further range and lower cost, helping to improve the perception capabilities of self-driving systems.
2022 saw the first commercial robotaxi services without safety drivers launch, although still in limited areas. Autonomous trucking development continues to progress. And there were advancements in the underlying technologies like sensors, lidar and AI that will feed into the next generation of self-driving systems. However, fully driverless vehicles for the mass market are still likely years away.
