What is Level 4 autonomous driving, and which companies have actually achieved it?
Self-driving cars can now navigate entire cities without a human driver. But a string of bizarre incidents has raised questions about whether they're truly ready.
The answer
Level 4 autonomy means a vehicle can handle all driving tasks in defined areas without human intervention. Waymo (Alphabet's subsidiary) leads the field, operating fully driverless robotaxis in San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Austin, completing over 100,000 paid rides per week as of 2024. Cruise (GM's subsidiary) launched in San Francisco but suspended operations in October 2023 after an incident where a car dragged a pedestrian who was struck by another vehicle. In China, Baidu's Apollo Go operates driverless taxis in Wuhan and Beijing, completing over 7 million rides. Waymo's safety data shows it has 85% fewer injury-causing crashes than human drivers per million miles. The remaining challenges include handling extreme weather, construction zones, and the massive computational cost of maintaining detailed HD maps.
Source: Waymo
- autonomous vehicles
- Waymo
- self-driving
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