On-the-job traffic crashes cost employers and commercial carriers billions of dollars each year.

When it comes to your fleet, efficiency, compliance and the ultimate safety of your drivers and other drivers on the road are your top priorities.

For the past decade, engineers have been working hard to make the dream of a driverless car a reality. With the quiet launch of Google’s Waymo projectin 2009, the race was on to develop and deploy vehicles that would do everything a human-piloted vehicle would do — but to do it better.  The promises surrounding autonomous vehicles, or AVs, have been big and bold. In 2012, Google co-founder Sergey Brin announced his planto have AVs on the road “within five years or sooner.” In 2016, Lyft CEO John Zimmerproclaimed that self-driving vehicles would be so prevalent by 2025 that automobile ownership would be nearly obsolete. All of the major auto manufacturers have announced plans for AVs and invested heavily in their development. Although the idea of vehicles that don’t need a human at the wheel was alarming for most drivers, it initially sounded like a great opportunity for businesses. AVs would eliminate the expenses associated with hiring and retaining qualified drivers, reduce the risk of crashes, which lowers liabilities to the company and it would give businesses a vehicle that, unlike a human operator, doesn’t need rest or breaks However, the reality of driverless cars has failed to deliver on those original promises. In the past few years, hiccups and slowdowns have shown a widening gap between what was originally proposed and what could actually happen. Now, it seems that AV developers are nowhere close to having AVs sharing the road. At the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, tech companies showcased innovations that stepped away from previous claims and displayed scaled-back visions of the future. Instead of sleek driverless pods zipping through traffic, the first AVs in action will most likely be robot shuttles and taxi services that travel a predetermined route at a relatively low speed, according to The Wall Street Journal. Driverless cars will eventually share our roads, but it’s becoming more evident that the predicted takeover of human drivers isn’t right around the corner. Here are five factors that have helped hit the brakes on autonomous vehicles.

Drivers spend less than 1% of their time backing up, but a surprising 30 to 40% of all crashes happen when vehicles are in reverse. What's more, approximately 210 people die from backing incidents each year, mostly children under the age of 5. For both new and experienced drivers, driving in reverse continues to be the most dangerous move you can make behind the wheel. While heavy-haul drivers are often given a great deal of instruction on how to maneuver their trucks in reverse gear safely, much less attention is given to drivers of light- and medium-duty vehicles. However, learning more about the hazards of backing up and how to avoid them is one of the best lessons every driver can (and should) receive.