New York (AFP)

The first cars without people driving safely in the city had to arrive on American roads in 2019, but just a few days before the end of the year, this promise of car manufacturers and Silicon Valley is far from become reality.

Recent accidents, such as those involving Tesla cars equipped with Autopilot, a driver assistance software, have shown that "the technology is not ready," explains to AFP Dan Albert, critic and author of the book "Are we there yet?" (Are we already there?) On the history of the American automobile.

They questioned the sales argument that the autonomous car would help reduce the number of road deaths - 40,000 per year in the United States, mostly because of human error - because there is had deaths.

As a result, the maneuvers that can be made by technology-clad cars without human intervention remain limited: parking, braking, starting or driving in a parking lot.

. Are there autonomous cars on the roads?

No. Most autonomous vehicles are still experimenting in different cities.

"When you're working on large-scale deployment of critical security systems, + going fast to risk + is not an option," says Dan Ammann, CEO of Cruise. Yet General Motors, its parent company, had promised a fleet of autonomous vehicles in 2019.

Autonomous shuttles are running on specific courses, including university campuses, says Tara Andringa, director of PAVE, a coalition of industry players, academics and insurers to educate the general public about autonomous technology .

Waymo / Google (Alphabet) has been offering a robotaxis service, Waymo One Brand, for about a year in Chandler, Arizona, southwest. A human, called "safety driver", is nevertheless in the driver's seat to take control in case of emergency.

Waymo, however, wants to go further and offers, since the summer, this service to subscribers in Phoenix and its suburbs: travel without human behind the wheel, free in the afternoon and sometimes in the evening.

. Where is the technology?

"Autonomy can be used in certain areas such as university campuses where the speed of traffic is low and there is little interaction with other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists," says Sam Abuelsamid, engineer and expert at Navigant Research.

The big problem is the "perception", ie the ability of the software to process the data sent by the motion sensors (other vehicle, pedestrian, animals, cyclist ...) on the environment of the car .

He must then be able to predict the future actions of these other actors and adapt his own behavior accordingly.

"Part of the + perception + is not resolved yet, it is at 80-85%, which means that in 15% of problem situations the car can hit objects or people, kill them or damage them", Advance Professor Avideh Zakhor, a professor at Berkeley University.

. What are the other pitfalls?

The legislation, which is underway in some 40 US states, focuses on testing. The actors hope that the accumulation of thousands of kilometers traveled will reassure the security of technology.

Authorities must also adapt road signage to these smart cars.

Contacted by AFP, the Federal Road Safety Agency (NHTSA) could not say where it was on these issues.

. When will we see autonomous cars on the roads?

Not until a few years.

Henrik Fisker, the CEO of Fisker Inc, believes that "you still have to wait at least seven years if you want to be realistic".

"We should observe the deployment of autonomous car fleets, probably at a regional level, over the next five years," said Aurora, a start-up specializing in autonomous driving supported by Amazon and Fiat Chrysler.

If he concedes that finding a self-driving car at a dealership will take time, Sam Abuelsamid believes that in the short term it should be circulating in demarcated areas.

"We will be able to see a limited number of autonomous vehicles in certain geographical areas by mid-2020 and a gradual deployment from 2021", predicts this engineer.

Elon Musk, the whimsical boss of Tesla, however, reiterated at the end of October that by the end of the year, "the car (Tesla) will be able to drive from home to work, probably without intervention, but under the supervision of a human".

Dan Albert believes the promise is unfeasible and warns that customers who believe it by paying in advance the $ 3,500 required by Tesla for this option "give an interest-free loan to the company."

© 2019 AFP