Autonomous Cars

Waymo is going to start manually testing its vehicles in four new US cities: Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. Waymo plans to start by deploying manually driven vehicles, then fully autonomous ones, followed by select passenger trips, and finally, a public robotaxi service. (The company is already is driving autonomously with a safety driver in Philly.) Waymo has signaled it hopes to launch in over 20 cities in the coming years. Of course, not every city is welcoming the robotaxis with open arms.

Uber customers can now be matched with a robotaxi operated by Avride in a small, 9-square mile section of Dallas. The vehicles, Hyundai Ioniq 5s, still have safety drivers for now as part of a phased introduction, with fully driverless operations coming later. The fleet will also be small at first, but will grow to “hundreds” over time, the company says. This is Uber’s latest robotaxi deployment in the US, following the partnership with Waymo in Austin and Atlanta.

I’ve said this before, but as Waymo continues to scale and grow, we’re going to see more of this kind of stuff. Last month, it was a beloved neighborhood cat who was killed after running underneath a Waymo in San Francisco. This week, one of its robotaxis wandered into the middle of a police arrest in LA. Waymo confirms its car briefly intruded on a police standoff while ferrying a passenger, but that it cleared the scene in 15 seconds.

Earlier this week, Waymo announced that it would soon be operating fully driverless vehicles in five new cities: Miami, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and Orlando. Today, they’re adding three new cities to the mix: Minneapolis, Tampa, and New Orleans. The company plans to start by deploying manually driven vehicles, then fully autonomous ones, followed by select passenger trips, and finally, a public robotaxi service. The vehicles will be Waymo’s fifth-generation Jaguar SUVs, with the option to add sixth-gen Zeekr and Hyundai vehicles in the future if the company deems fit.

The Alphabet-owned robotaxi company announced plans to start operating fully autonomous vehicles in five new cities: Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. Only employees and “friends and family” will be able to take trips initially, but Waymo expects to let public customers use its robotaxis sometime in 2026. Add these to the cities the growing list of markets where Waymo says it expects to launch, including San Diego, Boston, New York City, Washington, DC, Denver, Detroit, Seattle, London, and Tokyo.

Waymo said it would make a donation to a local animal rights group after one of its robotaxis killed a beloved bodega cat named KitKat, KRON4 reports. According to Waymo, the cat darted under the vehicle while it was pulling away from picking up a passenger. But according to a 311 complain, the robotaxi did not slow down, swerve, or attempt to avoid the cat. This isn’t the first furry friend to perish under a Waymo — a small dog was killed in 2023. (Waymo said the collision was unavoidable.)

It’s the latest streaming music channel you can link to while riding in a Waymo robotaxi, after Spotify and iHeart. And the absence of a human driver means you can play all your guilty pleasure tracks without fear of judgement. What song do will you be blasting next?

Amazon’s robotaxis are headed to our nation’s capital for testing. Zoox cites DC’s complex streetscape, plus its weather mix, as among its reasons for wanting to test there. The vehicles will be from Zoox’s testing fleet of retrofitted SUVs — which means no toaster-shaped fully autonomous vehicles for now.

Kubota recently revealed the prototype, which runs on hydrogen fuel cells and can cultivate a field without any human supervision. Interestingly, here in the US, John Deere’s autonomous tractors still feature a cab for human operation. I guess they haven’t gone full robot yet.

Politico reports that the company is seeking ridehailing permits from San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose airports. But this is a bit like putting the robo-cart before the horse. Tesla still hasn’t acquired permits from California’s DMV to operate a fully driverless robotaxi service in the state. Instead, it has safety monitors in the driver seat in all its ridehailing vehicles in the state.