Another company is dialing back expectations for self-driving taxis

Enlarge / Ola Källenius of Daimler AG. (credit: Christoph Schmidt/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Daimler is planning to “rightsize” its spending on self-driving taxis, Chairman Ola Källenius said on Thursday. Getting self-driving cars to operate safely in complex urban environments has proved more challenging than people expected a few years ago, he admitted.

“There has been a reality check setting in here,” Källenius said, according to Reuters.

He is just the latest executive to acknowledge that work on self-driving taxi technology is not progressing as fast as optimists expected two or three years ago. Earlier this year, Ford CEO Jim Hackett sought to dampen expectations for Ford’s own self-driving vehicles. Industry leaders Waymo and GM’s Cruise missed self-imposed deadlines to launch driverless commercial taxi services in 2018 and 2019, respectively.