All articles tagged with #autonomous cars
The Verge spent about an hour riding Tesla’s wheel-free Cybercab in Austin, an experience that shows a future of autonomous lounges with a spacious interior and a big touchscreen, but is dampened by butterfly-door quirks, awkward drop-off spots, long wait times, and a self-driving system that isn’t fully confident, all amid regulatory scrutiny as Tesla plans broader rollout.
The Verge reports that Tesla’s Cybercab, designed as a fully autonomous vehicle with no manual controls, appears to include a secret, staff-only manual-control interface: a virtual joystick on the central display (a square in the lower-left with a forward/reverse toggle, plus stop, horn, and door controls) that riders have seen in the first weeks of launch. Intended for fleet workers to nudge the robotaxi in tight spaces, this control system is not described as public-ready and could be used by depot staff or responders; its purpose beyond internal use remains unclear.
Tesla unveiled the two‑seat Cybercab at a private Austin event with NDA embargoes and no livestream, while just 45 Cybercabs are registered in Texas and about 256 unsupervised robotaxis are active across six cities; a sale date remains undisclosed as the company presses forward amid scrutiny and rival developments like Waymo.
Tesla says its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) fleet has surpassed 10 billion miles, crossing the threshold Elon Musk set for “safe unsupervised” driving, but the system remains a Level 2 feature that requires a human driver to supervise. Musk had suggested roughly 10 billion miles of training data would be needed before unsupervised access, and liability questions—given Tesla’s owner-liability stance—remain unresolved. The company notes past crashes and legal cases, while gradually expanding unsupervised robotaxi use in Dallas and Houston (with Austin showing a mix of supervised and unsupervised vehicles). Tesla has signaled unsupervised access could come only when legally permissible, leaving customers waiting as thresholds continue to move.
Tesla reported Q1 2026 revenue of $22.4 billion and net income of $477 million (up 16% and 17% year-over-year) but missed Wall Street revenue expectations. The company also outlined plans for a first ‘large-scale’ Optimus robot factory ( Fremont line designed for 1 million robots per year, with Gigafactory Texas ready for a 10 million‑robot output) and continued work on the Dojo 3 AI computer, underscoring a shift toward AI and robotics alongside ongoing robotaxi efforts and traditional car sales.
Waymo is launching a pilot program to share pothole location data it collects with select cities through Google’s Waze for Cities platform, enabling real‑time pothole mapping to speed repairs and improve safety for both human and robot drivers. The pilot, starting in the San Francisco Bay Area and expanding to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta, uses sensor data from Waymo’s fleet to identify potholes (about 500 already identified) and aims to broaden to other street conditions while presenting Waymo as a city partner amid regulatory tensions.
Waymo announced a $16 billion investment round led by Dragoneer (with new backers Sequoia and DST Global) valuing the company at about $126 billion, to expand its robotaxi service to at least 20 new cities in 2026 and into overseas markets. The funding will fund more vehicles to grow its fleet beyond the 2,500 robotaxis in six US cities, despite the high costs of sensors, remote monitoring, and maintenance. Waymo remains one of the few firms with paid, fully driverless rides in the US and hints at possible IPO activity next.
Waymo is launching its driverless robotaxi service in Denver next year, starting with testing vehicles on the streets to understand the local environment, amid ongoing debates about the safety and impact of autonomous vehicles.
A recent demonstration of Tesla's Full Self-Driving software in Austin, Texas, showed the vehicle repeatedly failing to properly respond to school bus signals and hitting child-sized mannequins, raising safety concerns about the readiness of fully autonomous cars for public roads. Tesla has delayed the rollout of its Cybercab and emphasized safety precautions, but critics and previous incidents highlight ongoing issues with the system.
Tesla analyst Dan Ives believes that the focus should be on delivering the Model 2 rather than the Robotaxi, stating that fully autonomous cars may not be viable until 2030. Wedbush Securities emphasizes the importance of more affordable electric vehicles in the current market, with plateauing demand and concerns about EV prices and range anxiety. Elon Musk refuted reports of shelving the $25,000 EV and announced the unveiling of the Tesla Robotaxi, which will be similar to the $25,000 EV but without a steering wheel. Musk estimated that the next-generation vehicle production would start in the second half of 2025 at Giga Texas.
Cruise, the driverless car subsidiary of General Motors, released a report stating that an adversarial approach taken by its top executives toward regulators led to the grounding of its autonomous cars nationwide. The report, compiled by a law firm, found that the executives had failed to fully explain a crash in San Francisco where a Cruise vehicle dragged a woman 20 feet, leading to a suspension of Cruise’s license to operate. The company is currently under investigation by the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, state agencies, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warns of the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), including the development of killer robots, AI software making fatal decisions, the creation of bioweapons, malfunctions in autonomous cars, and the exacerbation of public health crises. While some experts believe that Terminator-like machines overthrowing humanity is possible in the future, others argue that the real dangers lie in AI software and its potential flaws. The government report also highlights concerns about AI's role in spreading health misinformation and aiding the circulation of killer microorganisms.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to launch an in-depth investigation into Qualcomm's acquisition of Autotalks, an Israeli chipmaker specializing in auto safety. The deal involves chips for vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications, enabling cars to communicate with their surroundings. The FTC's scrutiny comes amid concerns about corporate consolidation in emerging technologies. The European Commission is also investigating the deal, as it would combine two major suppliers of V2X semiconductors in the European Economic Area. The acquisition has faced opposition from anonymous complainants, including chipmaker MediaTek. Critics worry that Qualcomm's dominance in the V2X market could lead to higher prices, reduced quality, and less innovation in traffic-safety systems for vehicles.
A group in San Francisco called the Safe Street Rebels is placing traffic cones on Waymo and Cruise autonomous cars to disable them, as a protest against the expansion of self-driving services in the city. The group argues that residents never consented to being used as "human guinea pigs" and have concerns about pedestrian safety and the potential for traffic congestion. Waymo and Cruise have criticized the actions as vandalism and unsafe behavior, highlighting their safety records and community initiatives. The Safe Street Rebels plan to continue their protest leading up to a meeting with the California Public Utilities Commission.
A former Apple software engineer, Weibao Wang, has been charged with stealing Apple's autonomous technology for a Chinese self-driving car company. Wang worked on Apple's Annotation Team and had "broad access" to databases which could only be accessed by 2,700 of Apple's 135,000 employees. Wang has been charged with six separate counts involving the theft or attempted theft of Apple's "entire autonomy source code," tracking systems, behavior planning for autonomous systems, and descriptions of the hardware that was behind the systems.