Self-driving cars: New book looks at how we're racing toward the future, not always safely

Nathan Bomey | USA TODAY

The drama, ambition and genius characterizing the race to develop self-driving cars zoom into sharper focus in “Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car,” a new book by Lawrence D. Burns.

Burns (writing with Christopher Shulgan) is uniquely suited to reveal insight into the self-driving car bonanza because of his past role as a tech executive at General Motors and his later role as a consultant with the Google driverless car company, now called Waymo.

In “Autonomy” (Ecco, 368 pp., ★★★ out of four), Burns says he grasped the seismic potential of self-driving cars years before traditional “car guys and bean counters” figured it out.

“Nearly all of my fellow GM executives considered autonomous cars to be a half century away, at least – if they even considered the possibility at all,” writes Burns, who left the company in 2009.

The chassis underpinning the book is Burns’ full-throated argument that self-driving cars “will transform the way we live, the way we get around and the way we do business.”

Burns chronicles the early days of Google's self-driving car tests on public roads around 2010 and 2011, while the traditional auto industry was ignorant.

Silicon Valley visionaries, he asserts, had the right DNA to deliver self-driving cars.

Maybe so. But traditional automakers got self-driving car religion soon enough. GM, in fact, has turned into a global leader under CEO Mary Barra.

Burns compares automakers today to “a herd of wildebeests grazing on an African savanna” and suddenly bursting into a stampede.

But recent developments have demonstrated that tech companies need to learn from the herd:

Tesla accidents raise questions

Multiple accidents involving Silicon Valley automaker Tesla’s vehicles have raised questions about whether Tesla rushed its partially self-driving vehicle technology into use. Facing criticism, CEO Elon Musk has staunchly defended the company’s Autopilot system, saying it’s safe and reliable. Burns calls the rollout of Autopilot “astonishingly reckless.”

Google's car company needed help from the auto industry

Waymo hired auto industry veteran John Krafcik to commercialize its self-driving vehicles. Krafcik, who earns praise from Burns, is widely respected for his stints at Hyundai and Ford and has worked to draw Waymo closer to traditional auto companies.

Deadly crash brought Uber's self-driving vehicles to a halt in Arizona

One of Uber's self-driving cars killed a woman crossing the street in Arizona earlier this year, prompting a federal investigation and leading Uber to end its tests there.

Which raises a serious question: Did Google just get lucky that it avoided any significant incidents in its early years testing self-driving cars on open roads?

Bottom line? The traditional auto industry, which Burns imprecisely refers to as “Detroit,” has a visceral grasp of the pitfalls of moving too fast. Those risks cannot be shrugged off.

Yes, at one point “Detroit” foolishly spurned “Silicon Valley,” forcing traditional automakers to play years of catchup.

But now, it’s Silicon Valley that needs to learn the lessons that Detroit knows all too well: Safety is paramount.

Another lesson: Avoid the backstabbing that plagued Google's project until Krafcik came on board.

"Autonomy" comes to life when Burns reveals insights on infighting between former Google car project kings Chris Urmson and Anthony Levandowski, including well-documented accusations by Google that Levandowski stole secrets and took them to Uber.

He sides firmly with Urmson, saying, “I considered his character absolutely grounded in ethics and integrity.”

But Levandowski? His character was defined by “duplicity” and “double-dealing,” Burns writes.

In spring 2011, Burns reveals, Google self-driving car boss Sebastian Thrun "turned to me for advice on which person he should fire."

“I told Thrun that both Urmson and Levandowski were valuable members of the team and that he shouldn’t fire either of them,” Burns writes.

Instead, he says he brokered a meeting where the sparring visionaries temporarily set aside their differences. It didn't last.

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Nathan Bomey covers the auto industry as a business reporter for USA TODAY. He is the author of "After the Fact: The Erosion of Truth and the Inevitable Rise of Donald Trump" (2018) and "Detroit Resurrected: To Bankruptcy and Back" (2016).