While most autonomous vehicles (AV) research is currently conducted by the automotive industry, a philanthropic foundation is now supporting AV pilot projects across five U.S. cities with the focus on answering community-level questions that will help shape AV policy at the city, state, and national level. There are currently over 70 AV pilot programs around the world, with many of them researching different elements of the technology and its uptake. AV technology has made major gains and has been declared by many experts as ready for large-scale uptake in many areas as a solution to a variety of transportation and environmental problems, but the buy-in from policymakers and consumers has yet to follow.
Source: Introducing Resident-Centered Autonomous Vehicle Pilots – Nextgov