Table Of Content
- Waymo, Cruise and Zoox Inch Forward Ahead of Tesla Joining Robotaxi Race
- Autonomous vehicles
- Waymo will launch paid robotaxi service in Los Angeles on Wednesday
- More from this stream Self-driving cars: Google and others map the road to automated vehicles
- Watch: Driverless taxi torched by mob in San Francisco
The service works similarly to other ride-hailing smartphone apps such as Flywheel, Lyft and Uber, except that Waymo’s vehicles have no human drivers present. Riders follow instructions on the app and through the vehicle’s sound system, though Waymo workers can assist remotely. Last year the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into Cruise vehicles’ tendency to brake hard and suddenly, in a few cases causing rear-end collisions. We’ve also seen robotaxis struggle with completely normal traffic situations and fail to adapt to changing road conditions, in one case driving into wet concrete. Cruise and Waymo already offer limited commercial services in San Francisco. If the CPUC grants Cruise and Waymo its final permits, the two companies will be able to charge for all rides, expand hourly operations and service area, and add an unlimited number of robotaxis to their fleets.
Waymo, Cruise and Zoox Inch Forward Ahead of Tesla Joining Robotaxi Race
Self-driving car startup Cruise ran into trouble after pedestrian crash - NPR
Self-driving car startup Cruise ran into trouble after pedestrian crash.
Posted: Sat, 30 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also has a bigger appetite for risk than most of the other companies working on self-driving technology. Musk's willingness to put unproven technology on public roads may accelerate Tesla's progress even as it creates a greater risk of fatal accidents. In one, they were part of a group of cars stopping slowly for a red, and they were rear-ended. In another, as a light turned yellow, another car cut in front of them and then braked hard. Human driven cars have a police-reported crash about every 500,000 miles so this is in line with that number, but with blame on the other vehicles, the Waymo’s record surpasses human performance. And it's reasonable to have concerns about this tech as it rolls out.
GM's Cruise, Waymo led California in test mileage in 2023 - Automotive News
GM's Cruise, Waymo led California in test mileage in 2023.
Posted: Sun, 04 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Autonomous vehicles
Running the largest driverless taxi service could give Waymo access to more real-world driving data and operational experience than any other company has, which could allow it to further improve its software and maintain its lead. It is not entirely clear from the crash descriptions if the Waymo driver could have gone above and beyond to prevent the crash that wasn’t its fault. Waymo has in the past touted that their Waymo driver tries to do this and has succeeded many times. One of the promises of good robocars is that not only will they less frequently be the cause of crashes, but they will do extra to prevent crashes that are caused by others.
Waymo will launch paid robotaxi service in Los Angeles on Wednesday
It’s not uncommon to see drivers trying to speed past cautious Cruise cars and slow-going Waymos; many will honk at AVs that stall on the roads, and one of our reporters narrowly avoided getting hit by an angry driver during a Cruise ride this week. The former startup is on pace to have 2,000 employees and to commercialize a ride-sharing service in the coming years. The goal is to launch in San Francisco and optimize for the complicated, urban streetscape, on the reasonable assumption that any service should be where the riders are and that scaling Cruise to new markets should be focused on similarly dense cities. Many AV proponents, including some tech executives and venture capitalists, are quick to paint people resistant to robot cars as Luddites, afraid of technology.
Blocking first responders and other risks
Come and hear from today’s leading mobility entrepreneurs on what it takes to build and innovate for a more sustainable future. Save up to $400 when you buy your pass now through September 18, and save 15% on top of that with promo code STATION. Gogoro recorded a net loss of just $5.6 million, which is way down from a net loss of $121.1 million last year, which was primarily due to a one-time $178.8 million listing expense for its SPAC merger in 2022. In adjusted terms, Gogoro recorded $12.9 million, which is up from $9.3 million in Q2 2022. Yellow, a Nashville-based trucking company, filed for bankruptcy and has plans to shutter. The company had received a $700 million loan from the Trump administration in 2020.
We’ve seen many stories of these vehicles sometimes being honked at, or even needing rescue by a physical driver, and thus causing lane blockages. These incidents are annoying, but traffic blockage is also done very frequently by human drivers. It makes sense to tolerate it while developing these technologies as long as people are not being hurt — and these statistics are what can demonstrate where people are getting hurt. During the “safety driver onboard” phase of development, the safety record of responsible companies was generally very good, with the obvious exception of Uber and its negligent safety driver. Now Waymo is making the case that they have done the same with rider-only and uncrewed operations.
Cruise said it has roughly 300 vehicles operating at night and 100 during the daytime in San Francisco. Opponents to the expansion are urging caution and incremental growth. They’re also calling for more transparent data sharing from the AV companies. Today, AV companies are only required to report collisions and not the many incidents of bricking.
More from this stream Self-driving cars: Google and others map the road to automated vehicles
In a series of tweets, Waymo noted that its California data is less important to the company than its Arizona results, as well as its progress in other places, such as Detroit. Cruise is an independent company, based in San Francisco, that was acquired by General Motors in 2016 for about $1 billion all-in and is now, after several investment rounds, worth nearly $20 billion. Sometimes it's schadenfreude about a big hyped thing that falls flat. Sometimes it's just a sense that the tech we all depend on may be harming us in ways we don't understand and can't control. TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, taking place in San Francisco on September 19–21, is where you’ll get the inside scoop on the future of mobility.
Watch: Driverless taxi torched by mob in San Francisco
Rivian gained positive momentum in the second quarter as it ramped up EV sales, narrowed losses, reduced costs and shored up its supply chain. The company also raised its production guidance for the year from 50,000 to 52,000 vehicles and said it expects its adjusted earnings guidance for the year to improve to a loss of $4.2 billion. Bird has been trying to bring down costs, and it seems to be working. The company recorded a net loss of $9.3 million in Q2 2023, compared to $320.3 million in the same period of 2022.
Now, after a barrage of safety concerns and incidents with Cruise self-driving cars in recent months, the landscape looks starkly different. Cruise has paused all public road operations – both supervised and manual, laid off contractors and recalled nearly 1,000 robotaxis after a pedestrian collision. In October, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Cruise's deployment and testing permits for its autonomous vehicles, effective immediately, and last week, GM announced it would significantly cut spending on Cruise in 2024. Supporters of robotaxis have countered that human drivers have a terrible safety record, with traffic deaths topping 40,000 a year in the U.S. Waymo has not reported a death or serious injury from its technology, and Waymo vehicles appear to be generally more observant of traffic laws than human drivers are, according to journalists who have ridden in them.
Now think of billions of miles of experience – close to seven orders of magnitude difference. Riding in a Waymo felt almost like taking a normal Uber, awkward rideshare driver talk not included. It arrived right in front of the Safeway, took us on a slow and careful ride—not unlike driving with your grandmother—and felt surprisingly smooth for a robotaxi.
Two-wheeler battery-swapping company Gogoro reported revenue of $87.2 million in Q2, down 3.8% YoY and up 0.2% on a constant currency basis. Of that revenue, $33.3 million came from its battery-swapping service, predominantly active in Taiwan, which is up 9.5% YoY. Serve Robotics, the autonomous sidewalk delivery robot startup that spun out of Uber’s acquisition of Postmates, is going public via a reverse merger with a blank-check company. [On top of that], being able to add rain, for example – all right, you're safe enough when you're driving through good weather, through this tight intersection with a speeding agent.
No comments:
Post a Comment