Autonomous Vehicles

Uber wants to become the go-to platform for operators of autonomous mobility services. Other companies like Waymo are becoming market leaders in their own way.

A partnership between Waymo and Uber launched last month brought the self-driving vehicles to the Texas capital. Data since shows Waymo accounting for 20 percent of all Uber trips in the city during the last week of March.

The travel hub has deployed 10 of the devices for 90 days in its McNamara terminal to assist passengers with mobility issues. The wheelchairs carry passengers to the gate, then return to base automatically.

The states’ departments of transportation are teaming up to test the autonomous driving technique, which uses technology to let the driver of the first truck control the speed and direction of the second.

Autonomous tractor-trailers have been hauling freight in Texas since 2021 but a human operator has ridden along — this month, one tractor-trailer will be losing its operator for the first time.

The report, which includes information on cybersecurity, is an expanded version of a self-assessment encouraged by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Trucks are scheduled to go fully driverless in April.

The technology company’s self-driving vehicles will offer rides to users of the company’s app in all or parts of four Northern California cities. People in the new service zone will be chosen from a pool of eligible app users.

As Aurora Innovation’s trucks practice a route from Dallas to Houston, they have overcome all manner of tricky scenarios. Now, the company is preparing to pull their human backup drivers from the vehicles.

Waymo, the Bay Area technology company behind self-driving taxis, is doing test drives on San Diego streets — with drivers — as part of its broader effort to refine the technology in new landscapes.

A new report details how opening Tesla’s Supercharger network to all electric vehicles could increase the total number of available charging ports, without requiring the development of new sites.

The electric, self-driving vehicles prepare to merge onto California’s 405 freeway — but have already driven 1.9 million miles in L.A., since beginning there in November. They will, for now, carry staffers only.

Jeffrey Tumlin, the recent former director of transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, explains why adaptability was key for the transit organization during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Florida city is expanding its connected vehicle program on the Selmon Expressway to push more messaging to drivers, change behavior, and possibly reward better driving with cheaper toll rates.

It’s possible the automaker’s throttling back on its robotaxi endeavor will come to be seen as a missed opportunity. But it’s definitely a sign self-driving electrified vehicles are a more complex, expensive challenge to realize than may have been thought.

After a year of trying to refocus and relaunch the robotaxi program following an October 2023 pedestrian crash, the automaker will instead shutter Cruise. GM will pivot to focus on delivering autonomous tech in personal vehicles.

His lawsuit, filed last week, alleges a Tesla in self-driving mode ran through a stop sign and broadsided his car; it’s one of the first of its kind in Oregon. The suit, however, does not list Tesla as a defendant.

The state department of transportation has done an environmental assessment and is seeking comment on proposed self-driving vehicle lanes from Ann Arbor to Detroit. One lane in each direction would be repurposed to interact with connected and automated vehicle tech.

The San Francisco-based company will partner with autonomous driving tech firm May Mobility next year to field a fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans that will be accessible through its app. Precise details and timing are not yet clear, but initial deployments will use human “safety operators,” transitioning over time to fully autonomous operations.