The head of Toyota's billion-dollar U.S. artificial intelligence research center delivered a reality check on Friday for anyone over-enamored by autonomous car technology: the cars aren't as clever as you think.
"I want to help the press and the public understand that when they see a car that does not have a human being behind the wheel and it seems to be driving, that the car is not as intelligent as a human being behind the wheel, even though it seems it might be," he said.
He was speaking in Tokyo at the announcement of the Silicon Valley center. Toyota will open it in January 2016 to drive artificial intelligence and robotics research, both for autonomous vehicles and other projects.
Pratt explained what researchers already know but perhaps others don't: Autonomous cars look great in controlled environments but soon fail when faced with tasks that human drivers find simple.
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