The CEO of a self-driving car company says we won't see cars that can drive themselves anywhere without human help for many years.
Gavin Jackson from Oxa spoke at a tech conference in London. He thinks it will take a long time before self-driving cars can be as good as or better than human drivers. He says these cars need to learn a lot about local roads before they can be trusted.
"Our goal is to make software that knows how to drive everywhere," he explained. "But we're still a long way off. It will be decades before this is possible."
Oxa is a UK company that makes self-driving software. Their cars can drive themselves but only on set routes. Human safety officers watch over them. The company is mostly working on buses and trucks for cities, not private cars.
They've tested their tech in places like factories and have teamed up with other companies to use their software in Europe and the US.
Jackson says the biggest challenge is gathering enough data to teach the cars how to handle all driving situations. Oxa is trying out a type of AI to create different driving scenarios and spot problems before they happen.
Jackson also mentioned that collecting data by driving around isn't enough. They need better ways to test their software before it's ready for public roads.
Some companies have made progress with self-driving cars. Cruise can run driverless taxis in San Francisco but only in certain areas. They're still far from making a car that can drive anywhere without human help.
Elon Musk's Tesla has a 'Full Self-Driving' feature, but it's controversial. Critics say it's not really fully self-driving and could be unsafe. Tesla says drivers need to watch over the feature.
Jackson compared training self-driving software to the tough test London taxi drivers take. The software needs to learn local roads, shortcuts, and efficient routes. He believes it will take a long time before these cars can drive without any human help.