Britons ‘cautious but curious’ about driverless taxis
A new survey of over 1500 British adults has suggested that while public awareness of robotaxis is high, attitudes remain cautious and a clear majority want government and regulators to act before autonomous taxi services are allowed to scale up. The findings come as several companies, including Wayve and Waymo, prepare to launch driverless services in […]
System outage causes mass robotaxi malfunction in Wuhan
A mass robotaxi outage in the Chinese city of Wuhan caused at least a hundred self-driving cars to stop mid-traffic, sparking renewed debate around the safety of driverless vehicles, says the BBC. Local police said initial findings suggested a “system malfunction” caused multiple vehicles to stop in the middle of the road on Tuesday. Videos, external on […]
Uber to spend $100 million on electric robotaxi charging
Uber plans to invest $100 million on electric vehicle charging infrastructure to support its growing worldwide robotaxi business. The company says the efforts are intended to accelerate the company’s vision for an autonomous and electric future, according to Axios. “Cities can only unlock the full promise of autonomy and electrification if the right charging infrastructure is […]
Robotaxis: Assembly Member urges Mayor of London to widen AI taskforce remit
Assembly Member Elly Baker has called on the Mayor of London to broaden the scope of his newly announced Artificial Intelligence Taskforce to examine the full employment impact of automation, including the potential disruption posed by autonomous vehicles to the capital’s taxi and private hire workforce, says Taxi Point. In a letter to Mayor Sir […]
Waymo robotaxis involved in 80% fewer injury-causing crashes than human-driven cars, company says
Waymo, on the back of having to defend its safety protocols after one of its autonomous taxis ran over and killed a cat in November, has said that it’s planning a software recall to prevent its vehicles from failing to fully slow or stop for school buses, in response to the NHTSA launching a probe into the company. […]
Waymo gets huge California expansion approval
Waymo has secured a massive regulatory win that could completely change California’s transport landscape. The Google-owned robotaxi company has announced that it’s now officially authorized to drive fully autonomously across large parts of the Golden State, marking the biggest expansion in autonomous vehicle deployment to date, says The Tech Buzz. The approval represents a quantum leap from […]
Waymo to launch robotaxi service in five more US cities
Waymo has announced that its driverless robotaxis are coming to five new cities: Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando and San Antonio. The company currently operates autonomous robotaxis in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The Robot Report says that Waymo is in the process of removing human safety drivers in Miami from this week and […]
Waymo, road safety and liability: Evolving legal standards for CAVs
With the news that Waymo will be bringing its autonomous ride-hailing services to London next year still fresh in minds, the legal liability questions this development will create have started being asked already. Lawyer Andrew Sanderson, a partner at Kingsley Napley LLP, says that with autonomous and connected vehicles expected on British roads by 2026, […]
Waymo robotaxis to launch in London next year
Waymo has announced that its fully autonomous ride-hailing service is coming to London in 2026. “We’re excited to support London’s extensive network of bus, tube, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure with our ride-hailing service, which will be available via the Waymo app,” said a Waymo statememt. “Over the coming months, we’ll lay the groundwork for our […]
Driverless cars: Tesla begins testing its autonomous Cybercab
A futuristic, two-seat EV with no steering wheel has been seen cruising around Tesla’s private test track in Fremont, California. The Cybercab is the company’s purpose-built robotaxi, and its first public appearance on the track is a major signal that Tesla is serious about launching it onto our streets soon. The Cybercab is unlike any of the […]