As 2018 dawned, expectations for self-driving vehicles were sky-high:
- Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car company, was testing fully driverless cars and preparing for a commercial launch in the Phoenix area.
- Uber was racking up millions of test miles for its own cars.
- Tesla was selling a "full self-driving" upgrade for its vehicles—though the feature wasn't actually shipping yet. Several times in 2016, CEO Elon Musk predicted that the technology would be ready in about two years.
Self-driving technology seemed to be right around the corner. But then the industry was battered by bad news.