Learn
Plain-language explainers on autonomous vehicles: the technology, the terms, and the debates. Start here to read the field more clearly.
Research
CMU's Navlab autonomous vehicle project begins. Its converted van later runs ALVINN, a neural network that teaches itself to steer by watching a human drive.
Carnegie Mellon's Navlab (a.k.a. ALVINN)
Research
Germany's Ernst Dickmanns turns a Mercedes van, VaMoRs, into a camera-guided machine that drives itself on the Autobahn. Through Europe's Eureka PROMETHEUS program, his cars go on to handle real motorway traffic at up to 130 km/h, changing lanes and passing on their own, a landmark years ahead of its time.
Ernst Dickmanns' VaMoRs research van
Research
Carnegie Mellon's Navlab 5 drives itself from Pittsburgh to San Diego, steering for 98% of the roughly 2,800-mile trip while a human works only the throttle and brake. Dubbed No Hands Across America, it proves self-steering vision could hold a real highway clear across the country. See the original CMU project page
Carnegie Mellon's Navlab 5
Since 1999, IPO 2014, acquired by Intel 2017, partially spun out 2022 (IPO)
Since 2003, IPO 2010
DARPA race
Mojave Desert. No team finished. The starting gun for the modern field.
Stanford's Stanley - winner of the 2005 desert race
DARPA race
Stanford's car crosses the desert first and takes the $2M prize.
Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm - came in second on the desert race
DARPA race
Robot cars obey traffic laws in a mock city for the first time.
Carnegie Mellon's Boss - winner of the 2007 Urban Challenge
Google's modified Toyota Prius
Autonomous car
Google's self-driving project begins, road testing a fleet of Toyota Prius cars.
Since 2013 - acquired by Delphi (later Aptiv) 2017
Since 2013 - acquired by GM 2016, program stopped December 2024
Since 2014 - acquired by Amazon 2020
Since 2014
Since 2015 - acquired by Apple 2019
Since 2015 - acquired by Aurora 2020
Google's Firefly
Autonomous car
First purpose-built car with no steering wheel and no pedals hits public roads.
2015 - 2020 (shut down)
2015 - 2024 (exited US)
Tesla's Model S, the first Autopilot car
Autonomous car
Tesla switches on Autopilot with an over-the-air update, giving tens of thousands of Model S owners assisted highway steering, automatic lane changes, and self-parking overnight. It is the boldest bet yet on the incremental path: ship driver assistance to real customers and improve it with fleet data, the opposite of Google's all-or-nothing.
2016 - 2022 (shut down)
2016 - 2023 (shut down)
Cruise's Chevy Bolt AV
Autonomous car
Cruise opens driverless robotaxi rides to the public in San Francisco.
Since 2016 - acquired by Uber 2016, shut down 2018
Since 2016
Since 2016
Spun off Alphabet at December 2016
Since 2017
Since 2017
Since 2017
Since 2017 - acquired by Cruise 2021
Since 2017, IPO 2024
Public response
The first recorded case of a pedestrian fatality involving a self-driving car, an Uber test vehicle. Read the full account
Delivery robot
Starship Technologies begins commercial sidewalk deliveries with its six-wheeled robots.
Since 2018
Autonomous car
These cars were unicorns, spotted in the wild but never officially acknowledged. Media reported that Project Titan was officially closed in February 2025.
Autonomous car
All-electric Jaguar I-PACE robotaxis enter Waymo's fleet.
Autonomous car
Purpose-built shuttle with no manual controls. Never launched; the program was abandoned in July 2024.
Since 2020 (developing since 2017 at Yandex)
Delivery robot
Four-wheeled sidewalk delivery robot. Serve Robotics spins out as an independent company.
Since 2021
Delivery robot
Nuro's third-generation driverless delivery vehicle, built for goods, not passengers.
Autonomous truck
Einride's cab-less, electric Pod begins full-time autonomous duty for GE Appliances in Selmer, Tennessee, shuttling finished goods on short-haul logistics runs.
Public response
Now out on real streets, self-driving cars get swept into a wider public reckoning over how tech companies operate, meeting curiosity, suspicion, and pushback all at once.
Autonomous truck
Class 8 semis running the Aurora Driver suite begin commercial driverless freight along the 240-mile Interstate I-45 corridor between Dallas and Houston, the first driverless heavy trucks on US public highways. BTW, we have a thing for production lines.
Autonomous car
Bidirectional, purpose-built, four-wheel steering. Public robotaxi service begins.
Autonomous car
Two-seat purpose-built robotaxi enters production.
Autonomous car
Sixth-generation purpose-built robotaxi begins carrying public riders. It also sharply improves unit economics, essential as Waymo prepares to scale and spread the service to more cities.
No one knows how the future will unfold. Our answer is to come together as professionals, to share ideas and sharpen our understanding of where this is all heading. This community is where the conversation meets the road.