Autonomous Vehicles

Mishaps are adding to traffic and safety concerns over driverless vehicles, which zip around the city’s streets surrounded by sensors and cameras, collecting data and promising a world with fewer human interactions.

This week, the company began initial testing and data collection in Raleigh. The company is looking to expand its robotaxi service beyond San Francisco, Phoenix and Austin, where it began offering rides to passengers last year.

AV companies work to serve their bottom line, and so it will take regulation and government oversight to ensure the autonomous vehicle revolution really does improve life in cities rather than create new problems.

As Cruise and Waymo face criticism from San Francisco officials over the safety of driverless cars, data shows the robotaxis are among the leaders in crashes reported involving vehicles with automated driving systems.

Tesla Inc. failed to fix limitations in its autopilot system following a gruesome Florida crash that killed a driver in 2016, company engineers said in a lawsuit over a very similar 2019 fatal collision.

It didn’t take long for San Francisco residents to encounter traffic problems with Cruise robotaxis following last week’s California Public Utilities Commission vote to expand the driverless taxi services.

California Public Utilities Commission agreed to allow Waymo and Cruise to expand its autonomous taxi service in San Francisco, allowing the vehicles to operate citywide — any time of day — and without safety drivers onboard.

San Francisco-based Cruise has begun testing its self-driving vehicles in Atlanta. A driver will be behind the wheel in the initial phase as its cars roll through parts of downtown, Midtown and Buckhead.

Despite legislation and other forces pumping the brakes on autonomous vehicles on public thoroughfares, self-driving shuttle May Mobility officials are optimistic about the technology’s future.

The Ohio Department of Transportation and DriveOhio — an Ohio government organization focused on mobility technology — are rolling out a four-year, $8 million plan to bring these semitrucks to roads in both states.

The Cumberland Community Improvement District unveiled the Cumberland Hopper, an autonomous vehicle they are piloting for the next eight months in partnership with Beep, an autonomous transport company.

Audi will team up with Spoke Safety in Peachtree Corners, Ga., to further develop connected vehicle technologies to communicate information related to vulnerable road users like cyclists and pedestrians.

The robotaxi industry is being allowed to move too fast and break things, officials say, putting more robotaxis on streets even as they prove inept at dealing with firetrucks, ambulances and police cars.

During a demonstration flight last month at Travis Air Force base in Fairfield, Calif., an automated plane took off and landed without human assistance, offering a glimpse into the future of flight.

Last month the City Council signed off on a funding agreement with the region’s bus service to launch the driverless pilot. The $500,000 test is planned to start in late August and run through April.

State lawmakers argue that the state Department of Motor Vehicles has so badly mishandled the driverless car industry that it can't be trusted to oversee big rigs barreling down the highways autonomously.

The Dallas metro area has quietly become the new frontier for the development of autonomous trucking, with several companies from around the world setting up operations there.

For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Clubs, Krogers and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. Soon, that will no longer be the case.