Does Public Trust in Autonomy Come Down to a False Sense of Perfection?

This Week in the Autonomy Economy, Kodiak delivered their first factory upfitted autonomous truck to Atlas Energy, May Mobility launched a robotaxi service on Lyft in Atlanta, and Zoox opened a limited fixed-route service in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas autonomy market is heating up. Tesla just secured a Nevada DMV permit to begin testing robotaxis, which means multiple services will soon be operating in Sin City. But is Vegas really the right market for autonomy right now?

Las Vegas’ economy is showing signs of strain. Visitor volume is down 12% year-over-year, RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) is down 12.1%, total room nights occupied have fallen 10.7%, and airport passenger traffic has dropped 5.7% according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA).

People are visiting Vegas less, spending less, and staying for shorter periods of time. For a business dependent on steady demand, this is the wrong environment to launch a robotaxi service.

So why Vegas? Is it the allure of tourists? Favorable regulations? Proximity to California? Perhaps all of the above. But what’s missing is economic discipline. Every robotaxi company should have an in-house economist working alongside policy and deployment teams to evaluate markets.

The right deployment city has three qualities: a supportive regulatory framework, a stable and growing economy, and real demand for robotaxis.

That city today is not Las Vegas. It’s Miami. Miami-Dade welcomed 28 million visitors in 2024, a new record, with tourists spending more than $22 billion across hotels, restaurants, and entertainment according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB).

The local Miami-Dade economy is strong and diversified, with County GDP growing 3.5% in 2023, outpacing the U.S. average according to U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Employment is expanding, with 42,600 new jobs added year-over-year and unemployment hovering around 2.8%, one of the lowest rates in the country. This is what a growth market looks like, the exact opposite of Las Vegas.

Will Las Vegas bounce back? Most likely. But deploying a robotaxi service into a declining market is a misuse of capital. Vegas is a gamble. An economist would never place that bet.

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WHAT’S MOVING THE MARKETS | AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

Does Public Trust in Autonomy Come Down to a False Sense of Perfection?

That’s the conclusion a recent Harvard Business School research paper reached after surveying 5,000 individuals. But why? Simple. We are human, we have egos, emotions, and pride. When we do something, we tend to believe we can do it better than anyone else.

When it comes to driving, some of us think we are “perfect” drivers, others bluntly admit they are not, and many are simply distracted behind the wheel. Yet in the event of a crash, the human driver almost always gets a pass while the robot takes the blame.

Why do we judge robots differently? Is it Hollywood’s fault? Fear of the unknown? Or just the fact that humans have been driving for 139 years while robots have been at it for only about 40? Maybe it’s because most people still haven’t experienced a ride in an autonomous vehicle?

Pride plays a role, too. When pride enters the picture, a false sense of superiority takes over and our egos grab the wheel. Robots, by contrast, don’t have egos, emotions, or pride, yet paradoxically, they’re held to a higher standard than any human driver.

This is what Dr. Julian De Freitas, Director of the Ethical Intelligence Lab at Harvard Business School, and his colleagues uncovered. In their studies, people judged autonomous vehicles far more harshly than human drivers in identical crash scenarios.

In fact, about 77% of drivers rate themselves as superior to autonomous vehicles, according to Dr. De Freitas’s research.

Why? Because when a robot makes a mistake, people imagine what a “perfect” human driver would have done, not what an average human driver would have done. That imagined ideal becomes the benchmark. And when machines fail to meet it, even if they are safer on average, they are almost always seen as falling short.

If we held humans to the same impossible standard, none of us would be fit to drive. Now add in the unfamiliarity factor that autonomous vehicles feel unfamiliar to most individuals and the judgment gap widens.

This perception gap matters. It shapes how regulators approach safety standards, how the public responds to crashes and incidents, and ultimately how quickly autonomous vehicles become part of everyday life around the world.

Autonomous vehicles do not need to be perfect to save lives and they shouldn’t be held to the unattainable standard. Autonomous vehicles simply need to be better drivers than your average human driver. Today they have already achieved that milestone as autonomous vehicles are driving millions of miles a week on public roads all around the world.

But until a majority of the public experiences autonomous vehicles and begins to use them on a daily basis, the myth of the “perfect driver” will continue to distort expectations. Maybe it’s time to let go of the wheel, and our pride.

Our take: Autonomy is good for society. It will make roads safer, create jobs, and ultimately usher in the autonomy economy.

ADVOCATING FOR THE AUTONOMY ECONOMY | SPONSORED

Automation and autonomy will strengthen the economy, create jobs, and reduce inflation. Council for Economic Resilience is dedicated to promoting the future of autonomy and automation for the benefit of the American public.

🥳 Due to overwhelming interest and to accommodate a larger group, we are moving CFER’s DC Policy Summit to Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM at American Trucking Associations. Register to attend today.

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PIQUING OUR INTEREST

Tesla Eyes San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland Airport Expansions As Tesla ramps up its Robotaxi ride-hailing service in California, the company is seeking permits to expand operations to Bay Area airports, including San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

Tesla Preparing to Test Robotaxis in Nevada This week, Tesla secured a permit from the Nevada DMV to begin testing robotaxi in the State. Now it’s just a matter of time before Tesla launches Robotaxi service in Sin City.

Mayor of San Jose has Big Plans for Robotaxis San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is a fan of robotaxis and envisions a future where visitors use them to get around the region instead of renting cars. From football games at Levi’s Stadium to airport pick-ups and drop-offs to nights on the town, San Jose wants to be a robotaxi capital.

May Mobility Launches Service in Atlanta on Lyft On Wednesday, May Mobility launched a robotaxi service in Midtown Atlanta, operating within a seven-square-mile service area on the Lyft network with safety drivers.

Zoox Launches Limited Service in Las Vegas On Wednesday, Zoox launched a limited robotaxi service in Las Vegas with pre-set destinations, allowing riders only to choose from a handful of stops such as Resorts World, Topgolf, and New York-New York.

Kodiak Delivers First Factory Upfit Autonomous Truck Kodiak continues to scale operations and this week the company began delivering Roush-upfitted autonomous trucks to Atlas Energy.

International in Partnership with Plus Commences Fleet Trials International and Plus have commenced autonomous truck fleet trials between Laredo and Dallas on I-35.

Applied Intuition Expands into Mining with Komatsu Autonomy Partnership Applied Intuition is steadily positioning itself as “AutonomyOS” — the software stack powering autonomy across off-road, mining, trucking, and automotive. Their newly announced partnership with Komatsu reinforces their trajectory towards becoming AutonomyOS.

📰 Before these stories were featured here, they were available on X. Follow @RoadToAutonomy today to stay up-to-date on the latest news and developments shaping the autonomy economy.

SOCIAL BUZZ | AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

L'Étoile de l'IA: Wayve Tourne l'Arc de Triomphe

No pre-mapping, no pre-set geofences—just scaling. That is Wayve's approach as they prepare to launch a commercial service with Uber in London next year. They are testing Wayve cars around the world in different environments and countries under unique conditions. This time, it was in the heart of Paris, an extremely difficult driving environment and Wayve drove autonomously around the Arc de Triomphe.

Our take: Big things are on the horizon for Wayve.

Wayve is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the licensing category.

THE ROAD TO AUTONOMY PODCAST

Q3 2025 Energy Market Outlook: Texas Drives Record Global Oil Demand Amid AI Revolution and Geopolitical Shifts

(September 9, 2025) Dean Foreman, Chief Economist, Texas Oil & Gas Association joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how record-breaking global energy demand and Texas’s energy dominance are reshaping markets amid the AI revolution and shifting geopolitical dynamics.

Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X

AUTONOMY MARKETS PODCAST

Grok vs Gemini: Why AI Could Be the Most Valuable Car Real Estate

(September 13, 2025) This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the rapidly shifting landscape of AI inside of vehicles, exploring how xAI’s Grok and Google’s Gemini are shaping the next wave of “car real estate”.

Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X

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