Will self-driving cars solve our traffic and street safety problems? A tech historian says no

AdvertisementAs tech historian Peter Norton told me this week, promises like this — that new kinds of cars will solve the problems caused by our current cars — are nothing new. In his 2021 book “Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving,” he explores history to argue that self-driving cars aren’t the solution tech companies and automakers market them as. Take claims that self-driving cars can fix California’s trademark congestion. Plus, recent research concluded traffic would actually get worse in urban areas as more people opt for self-driving cars over public transit. Los Angeles TimesSupport our journalism Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times.