There is no excuse for this kind of secrecy, and the companies that refused to answer Senator Ed Markey's questions are not acting in good faith. When autonomous vehicle makers withhold data about how often human intervention is needed, they are asking the public to accept a significant amount of risk on faith alone. That is not a reasonable position, and it should not be treated as one.
Let's be clear about what happened. Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox all declined to provide numbers during the investigation. These are not small startups with limited resources. They are major players with sophisticated engineering teams, and they all track this information internally. The fact that they would not share it with a senator who is asking basic safety questions tells you everything you need to know about how they view public accountability. They are treating their own operational data as proprietary secrets, but this is not a trade secret. It is a public safety issue.
Here is what this means for you in practical terms. If these companies will not share basic figures with an elected official, they will not share them with you when something goes wrong. You will not be told how often a vehicle gets confused or needs a remote operator to step in. You will not be told whether a specific route or weather condition causes problems. Instead, you will get press releases about successful pilot programs and carefully curated videos of flawless trips. That is not transparency. That is marketing.
The core issue is trust, and trust is not built by refusing to answer direct questions. It is built by showing your work. If these companies want to put vehicles on public roads, they should be eager to demonstrate that they are safe. They should be proud to share how often human assistance is required, because that number would reassure people that the technology is maturing. Instead, they have chosen to hide behind vague claims of confidentiality. That choice suggests they know the numbers would not help their case.
We are not asking for proprietary code or detailed engineering schematics. We are asking for a single number that indicates how often a human has to take control. That is a reasonable request, and it is the bare minimum for responsible deployment. Until these companies are willing to provide that information, regulators should treat their silence as the red flag it is. Public roads are not a private testing ground. If you want to operate there, you should be prepared to answer for what happens.