Hyundai's robotaxi takes its driving test

How do you feel about the advent of driverless / autonomous cars? They've been in development for a while, of course, and equally of course, opinion is divided: at one extreme, people can't wait to get their hands on one, and at the other, fear of mayhem reigns. Most of us sit in the large middle ground. There are already stories such as people instructing their driverless vehicles to drive endlessly round town centres while they themselves are off shopping instead of being a driver having to find and pay for parking. This footage shows a social experiment by automaker Hyundai, putting an actual car, rather than its driver, through a driving test. The robotaxi navigates its way through an official driving evaluation, autonomously performing maneuvers under the watchful scrutiny of Kandice Jones, a certified driving examiner with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) who, in her career as an examiner, failed almost 90% of the students.
Starting on grade, shifting, keeping in lane, left turn, right turn, overtaking, speed control, reaction time, focus and attention, emergency brake, parallel parking - these are few of the test the driverless vehicle had to face. "The IONIQ 5 robotaxi is equipped with Hyundai's advanced tech, featuring over 30 sensors, including cameras, radars, and lidar, for robust 360-degree perception and ultra-long range detection," explains the firm. "Each robotaxi is developed in partnership with Motional, an autonomous technology company providing advanced machine learning systems alongside decades of real-world trained data." The heart-warming story of how it can help those with less mobility is naturally a compelling argument. How do you feel about this campaign - is it a realistic forerunner of how autonomous vehicles can benefit society, or does it give you the shivers thinking how many aspects can go wrong/be abused?

Keywords: Hyundai IONIQ5 robotaxi, Hyundai robotaxi takes driving test, autonomous vehicles, driverless cars, first car to take driving test. Jung von Matt