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.
YouTuber Josh West thought he was going to show his wife a good time by booking a Cybercab for their date night in Austin. Instead, a hard-braking episode left her with a sore neck, and then the Cybercab tried to drop them off in an empty parking lot at night. “Kind of wonky,” an amiable West says. “Definitely work left to do.”
Issues with the butterfly doors and bizarre drop-off locations cloud what is an otherwise impressive, future-forward experience.
Lyft customers hailing a ride in Waymo’s service area (which includes Downtown/Broadway, North Nashville/Germantown, East Nashville, Midtown, and South Nashville) could be matched with a robotaxi. Waymo and Lyft first announced they’d be teaming up for a robotaxi service in Music City nearly a year ago. Lyft is also handling fleet services, such as cleaning, maintenance, and EV charging, through its Flexdrive subsidiary. Customers who would prefer a robotaxi ride can also book one through Waymo’s own app.
Season two of the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League put five cars on the track this weekend, and it was going more smoothly than the series’ 2024 debut, for a while.
Unimore Racing suffered a sensor failure while leading the race on lap ten, causing it to suddenly slow down and stop on track, where the second-place Polimove car ran into it — maybe next time they’ll add training data from Hulkenberg or Hadjar.
Road Rage is a new short film in production that casts a murderous autonomous car as the bad guy — and taps into everything people already fear about AI on the road.
Some of the pro-Tesla content creators that the company invited to its closed-door Cybercab event are starting to post their first rides.
Right now, Tesla is holding a private event with a bunch of pro-Tesla influencers to celebrate the “launch” of its autonomous Cybercab vehicle. But in a break from the past, the company is not livestreaming the event. Several influencers posted on X that the company made them sign NDAs and barred them from posting any content until the event is over. Not really the sign of confidence a lot of investors were looking for!
According to the company’s newly launched Robotaxi website, children under the age of 13 are not permitted to ride in the Cybercab — even if they’re riding with an adult. Kids between the ages of 8-13 are allowed in Tesla’s Model Y robotaxis, but only when riding with an adult. And those under 8 are not allowed at all. Even stranger, the Cybercab’s compliance documents (PDF) include detailed instructions for installing child seats. Which is it, Elon?
We still have no word on when this supposed event is taking place. All we know is that it’s in Austin, which predictably has seen a surge of gilded Cybercabs hit the streets. Reuters says it’s supposed to start at 5:45PM ET, citing a Cybercab engineer’s tweet that I can’t seem to verify. Either way, we’ll be monitoring the event and will hopefully have more updates to share later today.
The robotaxi company has accrued more than 8,300 violations in San Francisco since January 2025, according to records obtained by Gazetteer. On average, that’s about 103 tickets a week. Most of the violations appear to be for parking in locations reserved for tour buses, obstructing traffic, or blocking bike lanes.
Scratch that: who leaves two pig heads in the back of a Waymo? Throw-up, leftover joints, even the occasional doo-doo — I can understand how some of these things can be left behind for the robotaxi cleaner. But pig heads?
[Bay Area Current]
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.
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.
