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.
It’s a big move for the robotaxi company, especially if they want to cut down on trip times amid competition with Uber and other human-powered services. The company said that a 17 mile trip from Santa Monica Pier to the Broad museum utilizing Interstate 10 would be 50 percent faster than local roads. Waymo has been slowly expanding its geofence to include more freeways, most notably in Phoenix.
This time it occurred during an “illegal” street takeover near the Beverly Center in LA. Video from Fox 11 shows a crowd of people basically dismantling the driverless car piece by piece, and then using the broken pieces to smash the windows. This is going to happen more frequently as these cars spread to more cities, but obviously you are taking a huge risk when vandalizing a car that it literally covered in cameras.
This week, the Biden administration finalized a rule that effectively bans connected vehicles from China. So naturally some of us were wondering how that would affect Waymo’s next-gen robotaxis, which are built by Zeekr in China. Now that it’s had a few days to review the rule, Waymo assures us that everything’s cool.
“Waymo filed comments in support of the rule last fall, and we appreciate the Department’s prompt rulemaking,” spokesperson Ethan Teicher told me. “We do not anticipate the final rule will impact our use of the Zeekr platform.”
Sophia Tung, who ran a 24/7 livestream of a Waymo parking lot that went viral last year, just uploaded this fascinating video about her attempt to hail a driverless car in China. Along the way, she runs into a number of problems, including pedestrian-unfriendly infrastructure and a lack of available cars. This leaves me wondering whether the US should be as scared of China’s AV industry as they have been.
I’m not saying I want to buy one. I’m just very curious to see where this is going.
The vehicles will be underpinned by a new in-house-developed operating system named after Honda’s iconic Asimo robot.
iDrive uses 3D graphics and augmented reality to keep your eyes on the road.
The automaker has received the green light to push new Drive Pilot software that enables its cars to operate as fast as 95km/h (just shy of 60mph) on the Autobahn.
Level 3 autonomous systems still require a driver behind the wheel, but they can go hands-free and even distract themselves by doing something else, like watching a movie.
Zheng Gao worked at Tesla for eight years, most recently as head of autopilot hardware design. He also spent nine years at Apple on its connector and input device product design team. At Zoox, he’ll lead the hardware engineering team, where he’ll be under pressure to meet the Amazon-owned company’s deadline to launch a commercial robotaxi service in 2025. Zoox’s co-founder has previously dinged Tesla for promoting self-driving technology that “doesn’t work.”
In a regulatory filing, Microsoft said it would “record an impairment charge of approximately $800 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025” tied to GM’s decision to defund its robotaxi subsidiary Cruise. Microsoft has been a minority investor in Cruise and a strategic partner since 2021. For example, Cruise used Azure to manage its (now defunct) robotaxi fleet.
If that sounds absurd, scroll down to see the illustration included in the automaker’s patent application (as noticed by Autoguide). The filing describes a system to protect autonomous vehicles from “adversarial behavior” from “vulnerable road users” like pedestrians. Sure, there have been a handful of incidents of people attacking and vandalizing driverless cars. But a 5,000-pound car has certain inherent advantages when facing off against a 150-lb person, regardless of the technology onboard.
A new job listing noticed by Electrek says the team will provide “remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots.” The job calls for a “C++ Software Engineer” who has experience with Python, 3D graphics, and Unreal engine; it offers a salary between $120,000-$318,000.
It was already confirmed that the Tesla Optimus bots at the Cybercab event in October had human remote operators.
