On November 12, driverless taxi firm Waymo opened its service to everyone in LA. The Herald's Chris Keall took a trip.
Video / NZ Herald
Driverless cars are increasingly a normal feature on city streets overseas - but not New Zealand’s.
While Australia has proposed a new law - and the UK has just passed one making autonomous vehicles legal from 2026 - our Government is keeping a “close watch”.
Only one company has been approved to regularly operate an autonomous vehicle on a public road in New Zealand: Ohmio can run its low-speed automated shuttles in one cul-de-sac in industrial Pakuranga.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco, you hop in a driverless robotaxi and let it take you where you want to go. Why can’t we do the same in Auckland? Science reporter Jamie Morton explains.
It’s built to whiz along our footpaths, ferrying food and parcels.
The latest image-recognition techhelps it dodge obstacles in its way.
And the Auckland developers of this small self-driving robot hope it will make a big splash when it hits the market in a few years.
Dubbed the Cloud Vehicle, and equipped with One NZ’s latest 5G tech, it’s the first product from Unitec’s new Internet of Things Impact Lab.
It also marks the latest example of an autonomous vehicle (AV) in New Zealand: something most Kiwis are yet to encounter.
A 50cm-high autonomous vehicle - equipped with One NZ's 5G technology - is the first output of Unitec's just-launched Internet of Things Impact Lab. It's pictured here with its developers, Artem Tolstykh, of start-up company Project Astra, and Unitec lecturer Dr Masoud Shakiba. Photo / Michael Craig
In some places overseas, GPS-guided delivery robots are just part of the daily scene, carting hot lattes around malls and offices.
Or, if you’re visiting Los Angeles, Phoenix or San Francisco, you can hop into a Waymo robotaxi and watch its steering wheel take corners as if eerily turned by a ghostly pair of hands.
As driverless cars increasingly populate city streets in other countries, some experts here fear New Zealand’s transport laws are stuck in first gear - and we’re missing out.
One of them, lawyer and researcher Michael Cameron, worries our slowness to embrace the technology could spell an economic loss – and perhaps even a loss of life.
“I think successive governments have failed to grasp the urgency of the situation.”
What exactly are autonomous vehicles?
Self-driving cars might seem like something out of science fiction movies like Minority Report, in which sleek machines zoom Tom Cruise around 2054 Washington DC.
But they’ve been a reality overseas for most of a decade: MIT spin-off company NuTonomy began piloting its robotaxi in Singapore in 2016.
On the five-step scale used by the Society of Automotive Engineers, you’ll find Waymo cabs - and their DeepRoute.ai counterparts in Shenzhen, China – at level four.
That means they can mostly get about without a driver - unless hampered by things like bad weather.
Truly automated level five vehicles, reliably able to operate anywhere, are probably decades away – but some countries have already embraced cars with level three automation, which manages speed and steering control.
In mere months from now, people riding in Mercedes cars with Drive Pilot will be able to watch movies as they’re driven along Germany’s autobahns at 95km/h.
A Waymo self-driving car cruises a street in San Francisco's Silicon Valley.
On New Zealand’s roads, however, there’s nothing smarter than level two automation: lane-keep assist, automatic braking, or collision mitigation systems that ping if you veer too close to the centre line.
We might have a global reputation as a testbed for new tech – from Eftpos in the 1980s to Facebook Marketplace and drone-delivered Domino’s pizza – but our stance toward AVs has long been a wait-and-see one.
The Ministry of Transport, which is currently reviewing a range of vehicle regulations, says it’s keeping a “close watch” on the tech and laws governing it overseas – but how close?
Our transport rules broadly assume a car has a human driver and a design feature like a steering wheel – so vehicles like automated shuttles or remotely-piloted e-scooters present more of a “regulatory challenge”.
To date, there’s been just one case of a company being approved to operate an AV on any kind of public road – other than for short public demonstrations.
And that exemption is extremely limited: Auckland-based Ohmio can freely run its low-speed automated shuttles in just one cul-de-sac in industrial Pakuranga.
Its eye-catching AVs – promoted as a “last-mile” solution to deliver up to 20 passengers to public transport hubs – have otherwise operated here only on closed roads.
What’s holding us back?
One issue is the mix of new and used cars on our roads, which have come from a range of markets with varying technology standards.
“Just how those vehicles communicate with each other, and with our transport systems and potentially infrastructure, is an issue we are going to need to tackle,” the Automobile Association’s (AA) chief policy and advocacy adviser Simon Douglas said.
Drivers of cars with lane-departure technology, he said, might have already experienced swerves towards old “ghost markings” on roads.
“For self-drive cars, our infrastructure needs to be up to standard, consistently.”
Ohmio's LIFT shuttle, pictured here in a demonstration in Queenstown, is promoted as a ‘‘last-mile transport solution". Photo / Mountain Scene
Another tricky question for policymakers is whether AVs might add to congestion in our already car-crammed cities.
That depends, explained Ohmio’s head of research and development Dr Mahmood Hikmet, on how we choose to use the technology.
While certain AVs might put more pressure on the transport network, others like Ohmio’s could help make bikes, trains and buses more sustainable.
Do Kiwis even want private AVs on the road?
At Massey University, Moayad Shammut and fellow researchers have found Kiwis still appear to favour cars with lower levels of automation.
That was partly because of general attitudes toward technology, but also unease at sharing a road with a slow-moving AV, or how one might handle situations like busy, uncontrolled intersections.
Beyond being confined to geo-fenced zones, Shammut figured AVs would need “remarkable programming” to negotiate our own unpredictable driving behaviour.
His team have also struck upon another obvious factor: Kiwis simply like it behind the wheel.
“I love to drive, the power is in my hands,” as one study participant put it.
“This will all be lost when robots have all control.”
But not everyone takes a dim view – and perceptions about AVs could change once people have first-hand experience with one, as Hikmet has seen with users of Ohmio’s shuttles.
How can New Zealand prepare for a driverless future?
The ministry and NZTA now both run programmes dedicated to AVs – but it’s taken years for Ohmio to navigate what remains a legislative grey area.
He thinks our transport laws effectively became out of date in 2017, when Audi announced its new A8 had a highway mode that allowed its driver to stop paying attention, and Waymo began operating driverless vehicles on public roads overseas.
“It’s possible that cars on New Zealand roads could soon receive an over-the-air software update that improves their capabilities to the extent that the manufacturer feels able to claim that it can be operated without a supervising driver.”
Our vague laws, he said, might dissuade a manufacturer from doing this.
“Alternatively, the manufacturer might do it anyway, and New Zealand law would need to catch up fast.”
The MK Dons (Milton Keynes) football team have been trialling driverless cars called Fetch to take them to and from training. Photo / Supplied
Cameron said the governing Land Transport Act could be amended to clarify driverless vehicles can be legal on our roads, provided they abide by the same rules as other vehicles, and that criminal liability for any incidents can be fairly attributed.
He also argued the ministry could adopt a policy mandating manufacturers to publish safety assessments before introducing AVs here.
AVs had the potential to eliminate human error and lower road deaths, he said, and while they might take away local jobs, those “first mover” jurisdictions would be best placed to reap the economic benefits.
Across the Tasman, Australia proposed new legislation this year, and the UK just passed laws making privately-owned AVs legal from 2026.
“Meanwhile,” Cameron said, “the ‘slow and steady’ adopters may find themselves with a permanent structural disadvantage.”
Jamie Morton is a specialist in science and environmental reporting. He joined the Herald in 2011 and writes about everything from conservation and climate change to natural hazards and new technology.
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