The New Yorker
We’re Learning to Live with Waymos. It’s Going Weird
Waymo wants us to give up the car keys. But what are we if not drivers? Molly Fischer on the view from the back seat.
Oct 12, 2026↗ Read on The New Yorker
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Waymo wants us to give up the car keys. But what are we if not drivers? Molly Fischer on the view from the back seat.
The name change is enough for Germany's transport minister to start advocating for Europe-wide adoption of the driver assistance software.
The Xpeng robotaxi model leaves fleets to partners, betting the money in autonomy lies in selling the technology
Integration of the Volvo VNL Autonomous powered by the Waabi Driver into Warp’s network unlocks autonomy for LTL freight segment
California Senate Bill 1246, which will establish local penalties for robotaxi companies if their vehicles block first responders
Self-driving cars from Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla are studded with cameras and sensors. Some of them are pointing at riders.
Autonomous vehicle designers have to worry about riders getting frisky in public.
Scientists loaded frontier AI models into the brains of a Toyota Corolla to see if they could complete a lap of a course.
In the past month, Waymo has expanded its fleet in Texas by 49%. There are other hot spots as well.
Waymo is opening its robotaxi service to teenagers aged 13 to 17 in Nashville, its second city to offer rides to minors.
your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it.
Waymo has announced its next international location: Singapore.
NHTSA signed a cooperative agreement with SAE International to launch A2SCEND, a three-year, $5 million consortium
Automated and software-defined vehicles show why high-risk AI systems should earn freedom by proving themselves, not just promising.
The deal could net the asset-light robotaxi company more than $300 million in funding.
It makes sense for robotaxi fleets to be parked close to their customers. But, someday, it’d make sense to put housing on those sites, too.
Two young people riding in an autonomous vehicle were arrested in San Francisco after authorities allegedly found them in possession of an illegal 'ghost gun.'
Report says widespread autonomous vehicle adoption would put hundreds of thousands of private hire jobs at risk
Streets are for people, not robots. But what about the people the robots are serving? How to balance the conflicts about curb, charger and street use.
While also available through Uber, Lyft is managing Waymo’s robotaxi fleet behind the scenes, creating a partnership that could prove more durable.
Self-driving tech could prevent 580,000 deaths every year
The EV maker is betting on custom silicon to beat Tesla to Level 4 self driving
Tesla's long-awaited Cybercab update failed to dazzle investors.
Researchers found some AI driving models mirror human prejudices at crosswalks, jeopardizing public trust.
The company is about to formally launch the gold two-seater, with no steering wheel or pedals -- a move that could change Tesla forever.
The CW-Net technique explains the behavior of an autonomous vehicle, using concepts a human can easily understand. Researchers found these explanations helped drivers predict how a vehicle would behave in surprising situations.
According to the City of San Francisco, Waymo received a total of 8,309 parking tickets between January 2025 and July 17, 2026, all for illegal parking.
Waymo is in the final stages of talks to raise debt for the first time, tapping lenders including Pacific Investment Management for more than $3 billion.
Vehicle autonomy is likely to be the first mass application where AI becomes physical.
China's DiDi Autonomous Driving has begun fully driverless passenger-service trials with its latest robotaxi in selected areas of Beijing and Guangzhou.
Waymo argued that fully autonomous vehicles aren't possible without using a mix of sensors and warned that pure end-to-end AI systems aren't safe enough.
Key Insights from Automated Transportation Symposium, San Diego, CA
Much of the autonomous vehicle (AV) space is uncharted territory. However, at Waymo, with more than 200 million miles driven fully autonomously, we’re one of very few companies that can look to our past to illuminate our future. Our experience has led us to ten fundamental truths that shape how we build AI.
The funding, Gatik's largest so far, was led by Qatar Investment Authority and Koch Disruptive Technologies.
Even autonomous vehicles will have to deal with backseat drivers
TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
Together, these permits would allow up to 8,000 robotaxis to be deployed over the next 12 months.
Designed from the ground up for ride-hailing, the Ojai reimagines the vehicle cabin as a flexible, premium space for riders to make their own—a true living room on wheels. As we prepare to welcome more public riders to experience the Ojai soon, we are unveiling new in-car features designed to enhance every journey: Gemini in Waymo and a redesigned user interface.
The company’s attempt to stand on both sides of the AV debate exposes a deeper tension between protecting labor and protecting its platform.
There's no reason one of the most valuable companies in the world should get free access to a public right-of-way that residents pay for.
Bedrock Robotics said its excavators equipped with its autonomous AI system are working without human operators on three sites in Texas and Nevada.
When an Uber arrives, I don’t like to keep the driver waiting: it doesn’t feel considerate. But automated vehicles flip this dynamic on its head
Kodiak received a heavy-duty autonomous vehicle testing permit from the California DMV on August 13, 2026, authorizing operation with a safety driver.
Every milestone tells a bigger story. For Avride, surpassing 100,000 autonomous rides on Uber represents more than a number,
Tesla is testing its two-door Cybercab robotaxi while Waymo is preparing to deploy more purpose-built Ojai robotaxis for its commercial service.
The Teamsters union sued California state regulators for passing new laws that allow the testing of self-driving trucks.
Robotaxi companies are scaling their operations as they continue to run into driving scenarios that could trip up the AI driver.
NVIDIA released Alpamayo 2 Super, a 34B open vision-language-action model for autonomous driving, under a commercial OpenMDW-1.1 license
AI workloads are pushing automotive sensors harder, forcing engineers to rethink how long safety-critical systems can be trusted.
Uber has partnered with — and in some cases made direct investments in — about 30 autonomous vehicle companies over the past two years. Here's the list and the latest on the partnerships.
Under the NHTSA exemption, Zoox can deploy up to 5,000 vehicles over the next two years.
Such problems has compelled robotaxi companies like Tesla to impose penalties, including a $50 fee for minor messes
Lessons from California on Safety, VMT, and Parking. [Full PDF report available inside]
Mobileye is the latest tech partner of Stellantis.
What happens between two warehouses is usually invisible. But making that middle smarter may be one of the biggest reliability upgrades in logistics
On why the parking lot is the next frontier of autonomous infrastructure, how AVs are flying blind on private property, and the moonshot economics of merging people and packages into a single vehicle.
Washington, D.C. has become a battleground for Uber and Waymo's competing views.
Waymo has a safety record that would save lives in Chicago.
NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morrison called reports that self-driving cars had driven into emergency scenes and blocked ambulances and firefighters “unacceptable.”
Forterra has deployed more than 100 of its self-driving ATVs in conflict zones in Ukraine.
The new Zoox robotaxi has more cushioning, lighter colors, and a better microphone and speaker for communicating with Zoox Support.
Uber's bet is that controlling infrastructure in the right locations — the charging and maintenance depots — is central to winning the robotaxi battle.
Strategic multi-year partnership through Element Mobility combines operational scale, digital orchestration, and infrastructure expertise to advance autonomous mobility.
XPENG's Dr. Xianming Liu says it isn't just a car company, but a physical AI company.
Waymo has acquired a massive 5,500-acre proving ground in Arizona owned by Route 14 Investment Partners LLC, a Delaware shell company associated with Apple, according to documents filed with Maricopa County.
The company is mapping Alexandria and, soon, Arlington—right across from the power center of Washington, DC.
Waymo's next-gen Ojai robotaxi is a roomier minivan with a removable steering wheel that's cheaper to build. CNBC takes a ride as Waymo opens it to select passengers in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix.
WeRide Robobus will again provide an autonomous public shuttle service at the French Open tennis tournament showcasing next-generation driving technology.
Robotaxis coming to London pose threat to cabbies who memorize 25,000 streets to earn licenses
Brad Templeton: figuring out water depth should be easy for a car with 3D sensors and dry-weather maps, so why does Waymo keep getting it wrong?
Bryan Reimer argues that calling robotaxis 'autonomous' misrepresents the technology. Remote operators, maintenance crews, and safety staff make them highly automated service networks, not self-governing vehicles.
Uber pitches a hybrid mix of human drivers and robotaxis as more scalable than Waymo's AV-only approach, even as the two remain partners in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.
Aurora's CEO on going from a handful of driverless trucks to hundreds, and why long-haul trucking may reach autonomy at scale before robotaxis.
Robotaxis can get speeding tickets now.
A police official tells federal regulators that the tech “was deployed too quickly, in too vast amounts.”
The Humble Hauler: a fully autonomous, electric Class 8 truck for dock-to-dock freight transport.
AMD, Arm, and Qualcomm Ventures back Wayve — less about money than about the compute platforms its self-driving stack will need.
Talks, panels, and keynotes from the sold-out Mobility AI gathering on April 15, 2026.
Commercial service will follow if the U.K. government approves — testing has begun on London streets.
VW's MOIA America starts public-road testing of the ID. Buzz AD — a long regulatory road still ahead before commercial service.
SFMTA data shows how Waymo's San Francisco fleet shifts costs onto the city it operates in.