Self-driving cars are finally here, and how they are deployed will change how we get around forever. From Tesla to Google to Uber to all the major automakers, we bring you complete coverage of the race to develop fully autonomous vehicles. This includes helpful explanations about the technology and policies that underpin the movement to build driverless cars.
Waymo announced today that it will launch a robotaxi service in Munich by the end of 2027, marking the latest international market for the autonomous vehicle operator. The company is also eyeing London and Tokyo for future service. It remains to be seen whether overseas regulators will be more welcoming than some US cities?
As more robotaxis hit the road, the fight over the rules governing the technology is intensifying.
Guests are being invited to “experience the future of full autonomy” at the event in Austin, Texas. The gold-tinted driverless vehicle has been popping up around the country, although often with a steering wheel and pedals, as employees continue to gather data. In the lead up to the event, the company has increasingly been operating its fleet of Model Y robotaxis without human supervision.
Nevada’s transportation authority unanimously approved permits for Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, paving the way for up 7,000 robotaxis to flood the streets of Clark County over the next 12 months, TechCrunch reports. Tesla received approval for 5,000 robotaxis — though the company’s reps said they’d be thrilled if they get to 2,500 — while Waymo and Uber were authorized for 1,000 each. Amazon’s Zoox already has a permit for 100 robotaxis in the city. The vote positions Las Vegas as the next major robotaxi market, with Amazon, Uber, Waymo, and Tesla all battling for customers.
The Zeekr RT minivan, which has been rebranded as Ojai, is now available to all riders in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles (after launching to select passengers last May). The company plans on bringing the egg-shaped shuttle to Denver, San Diego, and Las Vegas as its next cities before the end of the year.
Waymo has received regulatory approval in the state to “expand” its autonomous ride-hailing service “across the SF Bay Area and LA” and bring it to Sacramento and San Diego, the company said on Friday. The approved expansion covers “most of the state’s population,” Electrek reports.
The expansion will be “gradual and guided by our safety framework,” according to Waymo.
This Reddit user claims a Tesla employee left the door open on this Cybercab while charging. Sure! There’s steering wheel inside, which we’ve seen before. But also there’s something called “Rodeo controls” on the touchscreen, with buttons labeled “Short oops,” “Long oops,” “Win,” and “Voice notes.” These are no doubt controls for safety driver to record incidents or mistakes made by the self-driving system. Business Insider previously reported the existence of Tesla’s Project Rodeo, in which safety drivers would deliberately delay taking manual control longer than a typical driver.
According to local reports, the man was crossing the street outside a crosswalk in Dallas when he was hit by an SUV driver, causing him to be thrown into a driverless Waymo vehicles. On the surface, the crash sounds similar to one that eventually took down Cruise’s robotaxi business. In that instance, the Cruise vehicle failed to immediately pull, dragging the person for 20 feet. In this case, the victim struck the left rear of the Waymo vehicle.
[FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth]
The Amazon-owned robotaxi company said it would launch its first-ever commercial service in Las Vegas on August 10th. Fares will be calculated from a base fare, plus distance and time traveled. Destination fees, such as trips to the airport, may also be factored in. The news comes a few days after Zoox obtained approvals from the Department of Transportation to start charging for rides in its steering wheel- and pedal-less vehicle.
A supervisor still needs to be aboard each vehicle ready to intervene if needed, but it’s a step closer to fully driverless operations and puts Uber ahead of competition from Waymo and Baidu. Uber said more than 100,000 Londoners have signed up for the chance to be first riders starting “later this summer,” after its interest list opened in June.
After suspending freeway routes in May because of safety concerns in construction zones, Waymo announced that freeway routes coming back in Phoenix and “soon” in Los Angeles, Miami, and San Francisco.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Waymo said it had implemented “designed to improve performance around freeway construction zones.”
Using the in-car screens, you can access Gemini for things like changing the temperature in your Waymo or getting a recommendation for a good coffee shop, Waymo says. The feature is in beta, and Gemini operates “independently from the Waymo Driver.”
The Ojai cars are also getting an “all-new screen interface.” The three screens in the vehicle will all be able to show different things, though you can also set a minimal “Calm Mode” if you’d prefer.
The vehicles will operate with safety drivers, but are built for fully driverless operations, the companies say. After the UK opened the door for autonomous ridehail vehicles, several companies have indicated they intend to launch in London, including Uber, Wayve, and Waymo. Lyft and Baidu’s vehicles will stick to the neighborhood of Brent for their initial testing.
Aurora announced that it is deploying its second-generation driverless truck on public roads in Texas. The trucks will be used to haul freight for Aurora’s commercial trucking customers like Hirschbach, Uber Freight, McLane, Detmar, and more. The initial fleet will be “modest,” spokesperson Rachel Chibidakis said, but expects to ramp up to 200 trucks by year end.
Props to Fred Lambert at Electrek for catching this: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is requesting from Tesla all information about a document called “Radar Saves Us” in its investigation into Full Self-Driving crashes. The details could prove that Tesla knew its camera-only approach to autonomous driving was flawed, which could trigger another massive recall for the company.
Chip Motors is the latest startup with aspirations to disrupt the golf cart market. Its $15,000 EV can only go 25 mph, but it can park itself using remote operators.
Bloomberg has the details on some of the gnarlier aspects of a driverless car service, including finding blood, puke, and fecal matter in the vehicles. Emergency responders have received almost 100 calls about passengers falling asleep in their Waymos, and then failing to wake up at their destination. This story reminds me of one I helped report nearly six years ago about Waymo contractors discovering hypodermic needles in the cars. The more things change…
Waymo is lobbying for a bill that would legalize robotaxis in the District of Columbia. Uber opposes the bill, arguing it would displace human drivers. The bill was up for debate during a marathon hearing today (I just checked; it’s still going), but don’t expect a vote any time soon. As TechCrunch notes, the bill is exposing fractures in the Waymo-Uber relationship that could deepen as more big cities confront similar debates.
Both ABC7 and KTLA 5 report that on Saturday afternoon, police arrested this man for vandalism after he was seen smashing up a Waymo at an East Hollywood intersection on Saturday.
They didn’t know if anyone else was inside the vehicle at the time, and Waymo hasn’t issued a statement about the incident.
Xinzhou Wu on autonomy, Chinese cars, and if we really need lidar.
Two teenagers who were drinking alcohol and shooting a toy gun out the window of their Waymo were arrested last week after being tricked by a remote operator into thinking the vehicle had mechanical problems.
Until recently, the debate around Waymo’s remote operators has mostly centered on where they are located: here in the US or overseas? Now we also have to contend with duplicitous remote operators snitching you out to the cops. (But really, don’t shoot water pellets out of your robotaxi. That’s just stupid.)
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a rare warning to autonomous vehicle developers to address the “recent, disturbing trend” of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and other first responders. According to NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison:
Over the past several months, NHTSA has identified a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders. The agency has documented multiple instances in which AVs drove directly into active emergency scenes, blocked the paths of ambulances and firefighters, or failed to recognize and respond to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones.
The letter follows a meeting earlier this year between NHTSA and emergency responders to hear their driverless car headaches. The agency says it expects operators to respond with solutions by the end of July.
The company is ramping up testing in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, and Denver with the introduction of rider-only operations. Only Waymo employees will get to ride in the vehicles for now, but the company says it expects to kick off public trips soon. Waymo is also testing its newest vehicle, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, with a safety specialist present. No word on when the Hyundais will join the robotaxi fleet.
Because otherwise your Waymo might “snitch” to the cops, as in the case of two 15-year-olds in California. According to 404 Media, the two teens were detained after the robotaxi company reported them for drinking and shooting Orbeez from the vehicle. Seems like the kind of behavior you may invite when you open up your unsupervised ridehailing service to the underage. But also Waymos are covered in cameras, inside and out, and have been known to report wrongdoing to the cops. Basically they’re roving surveillance machines!
New Jersey wants driverless cars, so long as they have multiple sensors. But Tesla’s are camera-only.
The Alphabet-owned company was previously only giving rides to people on its interest list. Now it will be open to anyone who downloads the Waymo app. The robotaxi operator says its also testing out rides to Nashville International Airport, and hopes to begin offering service soon. And coming later this year, Waymo will be an option in the Lyft app in Nashville.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration kicked off a new rulemaking aimed at eliminating the requirement for brake pedals as long as the vehicle is fully automated. If it passes, it would be a gift to companies like Zoox that make purpose-built AVs without traditional controls. Safety advocates have expressed concerns about these moves, arguing that its premature to eliminate the requirement for manual controls and could pose a safety risk.
The recall comes just weeks after Waymo vehicles drove past ramp closure signs in Arizona and entered closed lanes in San Francisco, according to a filing with the NHTSA. The company paused freeway service last month due to the issue, which it’s fixing with a software update.
The company has yet to launch in its first market (San Francisco, later this year) but is already gearing up for its second. In Houston, Uber will be competing for passengers with Waymo and Tesla. But the ridehail company is in it to win it, having already secured a 50,000 square-foot facility for maintenance, and a charging pitstop for its Lucid-made, Nuro-powered robotaxis.
