Starting today, Phoenix residents can use the Uber app to hail a ride in a driverless Waymo vehicle. The two companies — former rivals turned frenemies (?) — first announced the partnership earlier this year. Tellingly, it’s only available in Arizona, and not California, where tensions around robotaxis are starting to get, well, tense.
The California DMV’s suspension of Cruise’s robotaxi permit in San Francisco is now reverberating down in Los Angeles. Los Angeles City Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez is planning to file a motion today that urges state officials to “reign in the expansion of robotaxis” in the city. Waymo is in the process of beta testing a robotaxi service in LA, which is plans on expanding next year.
Soto-Martinez is being joined by the Teamsters union, which has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of driverless cars and trucks in the state.
Lately, the Republican candidates for president have seized upon electric vehicles as potential wedge issue. And national media publications have noticed, writing trend pieces about the politicalization of EVs. But what all these pieces forget is that car shopping has always been political. Conservatives have been bashing progressives for driving Volvos or Toyota Priuses since the beginning of time. Trump supporting truck drivers tried to run the Biden campaign bus off the road. The vehicles we own say a lot about our political leanings. EVs are no different.
