The autonomous vehicle is already an everyday reality in the United States. However, in Europe and other parts of the world it has yet to be introduced, and with the threat of a trade and tariff war, uncertainties about its future are arising on all continents, including America. Therefore, including the United States.
However, the autonomous vehicle, or “robotaxi”, is gaining more and more followers, some of whom have come to the United States to try it out. This is the case of the Spanish senior executive Carlos Sánchez Sanz, director of Customer Experience and Connected and Autonomous Electric Mobility at the Korean multinational car company in Spain, Kia Iberia.
Carlos Sánchez has visited California and has tested the autonomous vehicle in San Francisco: “a car that drives itself,” he says, “no hands on the wheel, no feet on the pedals… Just technology, precision and a little bit of vertigo, I admit,” he said in a video posted on his social networks.
THE TEST
The test took place in February on the streets of San Francisco. Carlos Sánchez, Head of Customer Experience & M.E.C.A (Customer Experience, or CX, and Mobility, Electrification, Connectivity and Autonomy, or “connected and autonomous electric mobility”) at Kia Iberia, has thus become one of the very few Spaniards and executives in the European automotive sector to have personally tested the autonomous vehicle in the US city.
“A car that drives itself,” says Carlos Sánchez on LinkedIn. ‘No hands on the wheel, no feet on the pedals. Just technology, precision and a little bit of vertigo, I admit.’
SURPRISES FOR EUROPE
The CX and M.E.C.A. manager of Kia Iberia describes his experience as ”unique. Testing an autonomous vehicle is like opening a window into the mobility of the future.” A future that could be put off for all countries if international trade becomes entangled in tariff wars over absolutely everything, including raw materials, chips and other technological components. An everyday reality already in the United States, whose expansion could suffer a “brake” due to the lack of these essential parts for the proper functioning and safe maintenance of vehicles.
Carlos Sánchez highlights several aspects of the autonomous vehicle, such as its comfort: “without any effort, the car decides the best routes, brakes in milliseconds and adjusts every movement for a journey that is as smooth as it is surprising”. Or its precision: “sensors and algorithms anticipate traffic, pedestrians and complex situations in real time”. The vehicle is equipped with 19 cameras to monitor the entire environment. Or the personalization: “from the ideal temperature to music suggestions according to my mood (yes, that happened)”. Carlos Sánchez was surprised when, when he opened the rear door of the vehicle, it greeted him in Spanish.
CHALLENGES IN EUROPE AND THE UNITED STATES
The experience makes Carlos Sánchez reflect on the fact that “innovation is in how we perceive it as users. This is not just about cars that drive themselves. It is about rethinking how we move and what we expect from mobility, which is not science fiction, but applied technology.
In Europe, they still have to solve some challenges that arise for the immediate future of the connected autonomous vehicle: infrastructures to support this connectivity; regulations to keep pace with change and generate confidence in users.
In the United States, on the other hand, we are already at a higher level and our challenges are different. In fact, so much technology, and such sophisticated technology, is starting to become a nuisance.
A WARNING?
It’s a warning from Strategic Vision, a market research company. In a recent customer satisfaction survey on highly technical cars, it revealed that the proportion of people with a positive opinion on the handling of car controls has fallen from 79% in 2015 to 56% in 2024. This data has been published by Joe Pinsker in The Wall Street Journal, with statements from the president of Strategic Vision, Alexander Edwards.
Certainly, a manned and technologically sophisticated car is not the same as an autonomous, unmanned vehicle, which necessarily has to be technologically very sophisticated. But the survey may be a “warning” for a society where cars drive without human intervention and people feel uncomfortable seeing themselves as “just another piece of luggage”.