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Alphabet's Waymo robotaxi unit won approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to expand service to parts of Los Angeles and the Bay Area, according to a notice posted to the regulator's website on Friday. "Waymo may begin fared driverless passenger service operations in the specified areas of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Peninsula, effective today," the release said. In mid-February, Waymo initiated a voluntary recall filing notice with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, saying it would fix software issues. The latest notice applies to the commercial ride-sharing service Waymo One. WATCH: Crowd burns Waymo in San Francisco

Persons: Alphabet's, Waymo, Apple, Elon Musk's Tesla, Cruise robotaxis Organizations: California Public Utilities Commission, San, National, Traffic Safety Administration, California Department of Motor Vehicles, General Motors, Cruise, Palo Locations: Los Angeles, San Francisco Peninsula, Phoenix, California, Palo Alto, San Mateo County, San Francisco

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWhat it's really like to ride in Cruise and Waymo robotaxis on San Francisco streetsSelf-driving cars without safety drivers behind the wheel have flooded San Francisco streets. In August, General Motors-owned Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo were granted permission to expand operations, allowing people to hail a driverless car like they do for an Uber. But the launch has been plagued by problems. CNBC's Deirdre Bosa tested out both company's robotaxis and spoke with city officials and Cruise CEO, Kyle Vogt, to see how the launch is going for the city and what's next.

Persons: Alphabet's Waymo, CNBC's Deirdre Bosa, robotaxis, Kyle Vogt Organizations: General Motors, Cruise Locations: Cruise, San Francisco, what's

In this article UBERGOOGLGM Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTSelf-driving cars have flooded San Francisco streets, and many of them have no safety drivers behind the wheel. The cars have driven into firefighting scenes, caused construction delays, impeded ambulances and even meandered into active crime scenes. "There have been 75 plus incidents," said San Francisco fire chief Jeanine Nicholson. San Francisco city attorney David Chiu said, "there are still some glitches that need to be worked out." "The idea that thousands of vehicles could be hitting our streets in short order is what gives us concern."

Persons: Alphabet's Waymo, Jeanine Nicholson, David Chiu, Chiu Organizations: General Motors Locations: San Francisco, Francisco, Russian

☆ China's capital city is letting the public take fully driverless robotaxis — and has bigger rollout plans, startup Pony.ai says
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesBEIJING — China's capital city is taking swift steps to allow robotaxi businesses to grow. As of Tuesday, the suburban Beijing city district of Yizhuang is officially letting local robotaxi operators — primarily Baidu and startup Pony.ai — charge fares for fully autonomous taxis, with no human staff inside. "We have very high confidence ... maybe only in three years, our full driverless vehicles are going to be running over the whole Beijing city," he said in an interview with CNBC on Monday. Out of more than 200 robotaxis that Pony.ai operates in the region, only about ten are currently fully driverless, Zhang said. Beijing city did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

Persons: Ning Zhang, Beijing's, Zhang, Yin Yong, Pony.ai, Baidu, Alphabet's Waymo, Pony.ai's Zhang, —, Leswing, Lora Kolodny Organizations: Visual China, Getty, BEIJING, Baidu, CNBC, Daxing International, robotaxis, General Motors, California Department of Motor Vehicles, Beijing Daxing, Google Locations: Beijing, Yizhuang, Pony.ai, Yizhuang district, Daxing, U.S, San Francisco, California, China, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai

☆ Self-driving car company Cruise agreed to reduce its driverless fleet by 50% after a spate of recent crashes. San Francisco officials previously pushed for a slower rollout of robotaxis.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Lloyd Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

City officials previously told Insider the approval would be "premature." Cruise, a self-driving car company, agreed to slash its driverless taxi operation in San Francisco by half on Friday following reports of two separate crashes involving its vehicles. One Cruise vehicle also drove into wet concrete at a construction site. Another collision occurred that evening, in which another vehicle ran a red light "at a high rate of speed," the company told Insider. Tilly Chang, executive director of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), previously told Insider that her agency believes approving the permits would be "premature."

Persons: Alphabet's Waymo, Darcie Houck, robotaxis, Cruise, San Francisco, Tilly Chang, Chang, We've, Joe Castiglione, SFCTA's, CPUC, Castiglione Organizations: California Department of Motor Vehicles, DMV, California Public Utilities Commission, CBS, City, San, San Francisco County Transportation Authority Locations: California, San Francisco, San Francisco County, —

☆ Cruise will reduce robotaxi fleet by 50% in San Francisco while California DMV investigates ‘incidents’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In an aerial view, Chevrolet Cruise autonomous vehicles sit parked in a staging area on June 08, 2023 in San Francisco, California. Cruise will reduce its robotaxi fleet by 50% in San Francisco, the California Department of Motor Vehicles told CNBC. "The DMV is investigating recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco," a DMV spokesperson said in a statement. In addition to the crash with a firetruck, one Cruise vehicle reportedly got stuck in concrete, and an autonomous vehicle with a passenger got hit by a driver. Last weekend, a slew of Cruise vehicles stalled and slowed traffic outside an outdoor music festival.

Persons: Alphabet's Waymo, Cruise, Greg Dietrerich, Dietrerich, — CNBC's Lora Kolodny Organizations: Chevrolet Cruise, Cruise, California Department of Motor Vehicles, CNBC, General Motors, San, DMV, Cruises Locations: San Francisco , California, Autonomous, San Francisco

☆ 28-year-old self-made billionaire started his self-driving car company in his parents' garage—now he's worth $1.6 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

When Austin Russell was a 17-year-old high school student, he founded Luminar Technologies, which makes laser sensors that can help self-driving cars detect nearby objects. Now 28, Russell is the world's youngest self-made billionaire, according to Forbes, as Luminar competes with major companies like Tesla and Alphabet's Waymo. But self-driving cars aren't exactly commonplace on American roads, meaning Russell and Luminar have a lot of work ahead of them, despite their lofty valuations. How it differs from Tesla's approachElon Musk's Tesla also seeks to popularize self-driving cars, and Musk's approach to the technology is entirely different. Lidar could potentially change that, Russell says: Cameras can be helpful "for certain use cases," but lidar is "a huge step forward."

Persons: Austin Russell, Russell, Waymo, —, Luminar, Elon Musk's Tesla, Mario Herger, Herger, Tesla Organizations: Luminar Technologies, CNBC, Forbes, Benz, Volvo, Stanford University, Thiel, Washington Post Locations: Orlando , Florida, U.S

☆ Volkswagen to launch self-driving vehicles in Texas by 2026
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Hyunjoo Jin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO, July 6 (Reuters) - Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said on Thursday that it plans to launch autonomous, or self-driving, vehicles for ride hailing and goods delivery services in Austin, Texas by 2026. The company took over nearly 100 people from Argo, as well as its hub in Austin where Argo was testing autonomous vehicles. "The big aim is that we bring fully autonomous vehicles to the market as a commercial, scalable product," said Christian Senger, a Volkswagen board member who oversees development of autonomous driving. Volkswagen joins GM's Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo in testing autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, known for the least restrictive regulations on self-driving cars. But Tesla, Cruise and Waymo and other firms have missed their targets to launch self-driving cars and their vehicles have had difficulty in handling rare and unforeseen driving situations.

Persons: Argo, Christian Senger, Cruise, We're, Katrin Lohmann, Hyunjoo Jin, Rashmi Organizations: FRANCISCO, Mobileye, Volkswagen, Argo, Volkswagen ADMT, Companies, Thomson Locations: Austin , Texas, Austin

☆ Go check out these video clips of driverless cars blocking buses and trains in San Francisco
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Dashcam footage obtained by WIRED shows driverless cars in San Francisco blocking buses and trains. In one video, a light-rail train carrying San Francisco Giants fans hit its brakes before almost colliding with a driverless car operated by GM's Cruise. It reportedly took seven minutes for the driverless car to be taken off the track. Another video obtained by Wired shows an eastbound 54 bus being blocked by a driverless car from Alphabet's Waymo. To see the footage and read more about the presence of driverless cars in San Francisco, check out the Wired report here.

☆ Bill Gates says self-driving cars will be as revolutionary as the PC after riding in one
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

He said the "tipping point" for autonomous vehicles will happen within 10 years. Today, no personal vehicles can drive themselves, though some companies have started offering autonomous-taxi rides in certain cities. Gates believes personal vehicles will get self-driving capabilities only after the tech comes to long-haul trucking, deliveries, taxis, and rental cars. He predicts that autonomous vehicles will eventually be cheaper than regular ones. And he expects that autonomous vehicles will save people time (that they would otherwise be driving) and help the elderly and people with disabilities get around.

☆ Elon Musk's self-driving car project is on a road to nowhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Elon Musk has made developing autonomous driving technology one of Tesla's fundamental goals. "Today it's financially insane to buy anything other than a Tesla," Musk said at an event touting the carmaker's autonomous-vehicle development in 2019. That revolutionary software update never came, and by 2022 the goalpost for bringing self-driving cars to the masses had shifted to 2023. Full Self-Driving is far from actually being self-driving, some sayDespite its branding, Tesla's Full Self-Driving Beta currently requires total driver supervision, just like cruise control or smarter features like Autopilot. Likewise, McGehee says self-driving cars need a combination of overlapping sensors — whether that's cameras, radar, lidar, or ultrasonic sensors — to move through the world safely.

☆ Alphabet's Waymo cuts 137 jobs in second round of layoffs this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 1 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) self-driving technology unit, Waymo, laid off 137 employees in its second round of layoffs in 2023, the firm told Reuters on Wednesday. Including the latest job cuts, the division has let go of 8% of its workforce, or 209 employees, this year. Investors and industry watchers have been concerned as to how billions of dollars have been poured in the self-driving technology sector in a short span of time to commercialize it. Alphabet said in January it would slash 12,000 jobs, which will affect a large number of employees who support experimental projects. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and David Shepardson; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Elon Musk has promised self-driving Teslas for years. Experts say it's not even close.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Tim Levin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is in advanced talks to invest in Gatik, a California-based autonomous driving startup, as part of its cloud partnership with the company, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Microsoft plans to invest over $10 million in a financing round that values Gatik at more than $700 million, the sources added. As part of the deal, Gatik will use Microsoft's cloud and edge computing platform Azure in developing autonomous delivery technology for trucks. Like other big tech companies, Microsoft has recently been putting funds into self-driving technology. In November, Ford and Volkswagen shut down their self-driving technology unit, Argo AI, saying that creating self-driving "robotaxis" would be "harder than putting a man on the moon."

This is the first time Cruise has acknowledged the long-term need for remote human operators. Truly autonomous vehicles are far behind the optimistic rollout schedules predicted just a few years ago. In a June interview on YouTube, Musk said developing self-driving cars was "way harder than I originally thought, by far." Over time, those people will act as "air traffic controllers," supervising a growing number of autonomous cars. "Even decades from now you will not get to 100% truly autonomous vehicles," Kaveh added.

☆ Baidu's robotaxis don't need any human staff in these parts of China
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-08 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Chinese tech company Baidu announced Monday it can sell some robotaxi rides without any human staff in the vehicles. BEIJING — Chinese tech company Baidu said Monday it has become the first robotaxi operator in China to obtain permits for selling rides with no human driver or staff member inside the vehicles. The local government approvals allow Baidu's Apollo Go robotaxi business to eliminate the cost of human personnel in some instances. But the Chinese capital still requires human staff to sit in the robotaxi with passengers. In the U.S., Alphabet's Waymo and General Motors ' subsidiary Cruise can already run public robotaxis with no human staff in the vehicles.

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