Why Autonomous Vehicles Are Not Ready Yet: A Multi-Disciplinary Review of Problems, Attempted Solutions, and Future Directions

Abstract

Personal autonomous vehicles can sense their surrounding environment, plan their route, and drive with little or no involvement of human drivers. Despite the latest technological advancements and the hopeful announcements made by leading entrepreneurs, to date no personal vehicle is approved for road circulation in a “fully” or “semi” autonomous mode (autonomy levels 4 and 5) and it is still unclear when such vehicles will be mature enough to receive this kind of approval. The present multi-disciplinary review investigates the major challenges faced by the automative sector and identify the problems that delay the commercialization of autonomous vehicles, examining the limitations and risks associated with current technologies and discussing the most promising solutions devised by the researchers. This negative assessment is not motivated by pessimism, but by the aspiration to raise critical awareness about the technology's state-of-the-art, the industry's quality standards, and the society's demands and expectations. The review aims to offer an enlarged picture that links the purely technological aspects (like artificial intelligence for perception and navigation) with the relevant theoretical, methodological, and human-centric dimensions, including design preferences, socio-cultural attitudes, conceptual assumptions, and normative frameworks. Our analysis suggests that considering the broader context, adopting an integrative and culturally aware approach, is key to illuminate structural problems and identify holistic solutions. We conclude that, due to the systemic, cross-disciplinary, and highly interrelated character of these problems, continued research and development efforts in the medium-long term will be necessary to safely deploy levels 4 and 5 personal autonomous vehicles.