Driverless cars have arrived, and they all look like loaves of bread

The increasingly typical AV offerings are toolbox-shaped autos like the Origin shuttle shown recently by GM’s Cruise LLC (pic) and the Toyota e-Palette set to debut at the Tokyo Olympics this summer, and JLR’s Project Vector, a preview of vehicles the Tata Group unit expects to be road testing by 2021 – all of which have been described as resembling unimaginative 'loaves of bread'. — Cruise/AP

Do automakers investing billions in the self-driving cars of tomorrow risk repeating the same mistake they made with electric cars a decade ago?

Cutting-edge robotic people-movers from the likes of General Motors Co, Toyota Motor Corp and Jaguar Land Rover all share similarly rectangular dimensions with more of an eye toward engineering practicality than sex appeal. Even Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc, has chosen the lowly minivan as its primary ride for self-driving vehicles.