“In fact, the truth is we don’t actually have any truly self-driving cars yet.”
Our reading, the sentence that was checked:
There are not yet any truly self-driving cars: every 'self-driving vehicle' on public roads has either a human safety driver on board or a remote human who can help it when issues arise.
Assessment: Unresolved Evidence as of
Where and when Gary Marcus wrote it
Marcus on AI, Face it, self-driving cars still haven’t earned their stripes, paragraph 15.
- Said
- Source observed
- live page, full text, public
- Evidence as of
- the cutoff for this assessment
- Assessment recorded
- assessment marcus-face-it-self-driving-cars-still-havent-f85462-a1
We recorded 7 claims from this post. See every claim from this post.
The wording above is the version this site observed on 2026-10-29. The source may have been edited after 2023-08-19. This page does not claim the wording was captured then.
What the claim commits to
- Kind
- Observation
- Deadline, as the speaker wrote it
- None stated. This site does not add one.
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Deadline state on 2026-10-29
- No horizon (the release’s reference date)
Conditions
- on public roads (scope, stated by the speaker)
- yet (qualifier, stated by the speaker)
From the speaker
- don’t actually have any truly self-driving cars yet
- literally every
- on public roads
- a human safety driver on board
- some human somewhere watching remotely who can help
Our interpretation
- Use the factual definition supplied in the surrounding sentence: every public-road self-driving system had either an onboard safety driver or remote human assistance available.
- Having remote assistance available does not necessarily mean continuous human observation, remote steering, or intervention on every trip.
- Use August 1–19, 2023, for the ongoing state described in the publication month.
- Do not silently restrict every vehicle on public roads to Cruise and Waymo.
Counts as supported if: Contemporaneous operational documentation or an adequately comprehensive industry assessment establishes one of the two human-support arrangements for all public-road systems.
Counts as contradicted if: A verified public-road self-driving system operated without an onboard safety driver and without remote human assistance.
Retrospective: these criteria were written after the outcome was public.
Current assessment
Was it true for the period described?
Outcome: Unresolved
The record was checked, and the evidence available by the cutoff does not settle it.
Scored on a plain reading. The speaker named no measure for this claim, so it was judged on the reading an informed reader would take, stated below under our interpretation. Both reviews had to find that reading fair.
- Evidence as of
- Deadline state when assessed
- No horizon
- Assessment recorded
- Policy version
- 2026-10-28.7
Rationale
The August hearing supports Marcus's factual premise for Cruise and Waymo: both had remote human assistance. It does not establish his literal claim about every public-road vehicle. Waymo also distinguished assistance from driving, so the existence of backup does not independently settle the label truly self-driving. No verified counterexample was found, but the universal claim remains unproven.
Limitations
- The strongest contemporaneous evidence covers the two San Francisco operators.
- Assistance availability is different from continuous supervision or remote control.
- The March white paper is explanatory context, not August outcome evidence.
Evidence (2 items)
Supports the claim: California Public Utilities Commission,
in real time, 24/7.
Why it matters here: Cruise described monitoring and remote help for unforeseen circumstances; Waymo separately described remote assistance while retaining automated driving control. This establishes the human-support arrangement for the two named operators, not for every public-road system.
- Publisher
- California Public Utilities Commission
- Kind of source
- Regulatory filing
- Describes events of
- Public from
Context only: Waymo,
information and direction
Why it matters here: Waymo expressly distinguished remote assistance from performance of the driving task. This earlier document explains why human backup does not by itself establish that a car is remotely driven or continuously supervised.
- Where
- Footnote 10
- Publisher
- Waymo
- Kind of source
- Company disclosure: the company describing itself, not an independent finding
- Describes events of
- Public from
What would settle it
A comprehensive contemporaneous inventory of public-road systems and their human-support arrangements, or one verified August 2023 counterexample operating without either support mode.
Where it was said (1)
Said once in the sources this register covers.
: Marcus on AI, Face it, self-driving cars still haven’t earned their stripes
In fact, the truth is we don’t actually have any truly self-driving cars yet.
- Where
- paragraph 15
- Published
- 2023-08-19
- Source observed
- , live page
- Access
- full text, public
History
Assessment versions
- Assessment marcus-face-it-self-driving-cars-still-havent-f85462-a1: Current. Outcome: Unresolved. Evidence as of 2026-10-28. Public date not recorded.
Recorded events
Assessment publishedBy this site
First assessment published after both reviews and the final-text check passed.
About assessment marcus-face-it-self-driving-cars-still-havent-f85462-a1.