The Amazon-owned robotaxi company was just approved to make passenger trips to and from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Airports can be chaotic environments, and regulators want to be sure that robotaxis won’t add to the chaos. As the first robotaxi company approved for airport trips, Zoox will have its work cut out for it.
The occasional trillionaire is betting his company on a stripped down, camera-only, steering-wheel-free two-seater. How safe is safe enough?
The robotaxi company said today that it will start accepting its first public riders in three new cities. Customers will be invited to ride on a rolling basis before the service is opened up to everyone. The announcement marks Waymo’s first public rides in the new state of Colorado. And the company says it now has over 4,000 vehicles in its commercial fleet across 14 cities. Here are the service area maps for all three cities.
Hat tip to investor Reilly Brennan, who noted in his Future of Transportation newsletter that Waymo software engineer Reed Morse has been beefing with Tesla fans on X over sensors and service area maps. Morse said Tesla is “mostly bluffing” its way through its upcoming Cybercab launch. It’s just more evidence that despite being the undisputed leader in driverless robotaxis, Waymo still feels the need to point out the fallacies in Tesla’s approach to robotaxis.
NBC News identified 43 videos that appear to show Tesla drivers asleep at the wheel, 17 of which were posted this year alone. This is, of course, a well-worn problem for Tesla, which has tried to curb the trend with stricter driver monitoring systems. But drivers are easily subverting these guardrails with sunglasses, allowing them to continue sleeping despite eye-tracking technology.
