Autonomous Vehicles

In our new world of generative AI, autonomous vehicles and more, everything does not always work out as planned.

Waymo, a leader in self-driving car technology, is currently seeking permission to roll out its AI-driven taxi in New York City, with a safety driver behind the wheel at all times.

Torc, an autonomous long-haul truck company, received the money from the Michigan Strategic Fund. It will be part of what’s estimated at a nearly $5.6 million investment, to create the center in Ann Arbor Township.

Democratic members of the state Senate and House of Representatives have asked the automaker to delay the launch of its self-driving, ride-hailing service until new autonomous vehicle regulations arrive Sept. 1.

The unofficial competition to put driverless taxis on the road is picking up speed. Zoox opened a production facility this week in California’s Bay Area. Waymo already offers paid rides in a few cities.

Officials this week approved contributing $1.75 million in state transit funding to the $3 million project. That means driverless Ford passenger vans are a go, in a 12-month trial with Florida-based company Beep.

The autonomous vehicle firm, a sister company to Google, will begin road trips this summer to test and explore its offerings in Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Fla. In Houston, about 10 vehicles will be on the road.

Waymo has gotten a green light to run its autonomous vehicle fleet in nearly all of San Jose, marking the first time in the city's history that a commercial driverless service can operate on its streets.

Documents indicate the autonomous vehicle company, a subsidiary of Alphabet, recalled 1,212 of its self-driving creations in 2024. Its latest software has addressed the issue, the company said.

Since it opened in 2022, Tuas Port in Singapore has moved 10 million containers with minimal human effort thanks to 200 fast-charging autonomous electric vehicles.

A crash April 4 involving a driverless Zoox taxi and an electric bicycle didn’t result in any injuries. Data suggests autonomous vehicle companies are still learning as they gain experience, but experts expressed confidence in the technology.

Autonomous vehicle technology has moved past the idea and testbed stage to meaningful deployments in cities across the country. The U.S. is a market leader in this area but policies must keep pace, industry observers said.

The center, operated by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, will be the central operations center for its growing fleet of autonomous transit vehicles. JTA will deploy 14 electric AV shuttles downtown by early summer.

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.