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Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Waymo Recalls 80% of Robotaxis for Updates as L.A.'s Service Industry Goes Cyborg
Seventy-five years ago, a new kind of drive-in restaurant opened on Beverly Boulevard in Hollywood. The Track promised to do away with carhops (and tipping) by sending food down a conveyor belt directly to waiting automobiles parked around the building. The place lasted for about five minutes until the drive-thru window was born, but employers have long dreamed of eliminating pesky humans from the workplace. Restaurants, warehouses and now taxicabs are increasingly becoming automated as robots learn our jobs. For now, robo-lattes in Glendale and bionic pizzerias in East Hollywood are a fun novelty but when the A.I. is piloting two-and-a-half tons of British luxury car down the road, things can go wrong. Waymo, owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, recently issued a recall for more than 80% of its fleet of 1,500 cars operating in Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix, and San Francisco. Those Jaguar I-Pace robotaxis are under scrutiny after several high-profile incidents found the high-tech vehicles on the wrong side of the road, slowly crashing into telephone poles or trapping customers inside while doing donuts. This is at least the third recall and software update since last year when the company reported nine collisions, according to TechCrunch. 'Driverless cars,' Waymo said in a statement. 'Reduced injury causing collisions by 81% compared to expected human performance.' A Waymo in West Hollywood recently gave a little love tap to an Uber Eats Serve bot attempting to cross La Cienega Boulevard with someone's dinner. Next year, Volkswagen plans to roll out it's retro van ID Buzz AD on L.A. streets in partnership with Uber, right as Zoox, Amazon's capsule-shaped pushmi-pullyu hits the road. The concerns are not stopping the mechanical men from their goal of eliminating the puny mortal workforce. 'The robots don't take time off,' Shahan Ohanessian, CEO of cyborg-run convenience store VenHub told NBC. 'They're working seven days a week and they don't really celebrate holidays.' He also noted that the machines recently installed in Glendale and North Hollywood are bulletproof should anyone choose to go to war with our new robot overlords.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Uber and VW Team Up to Bring Robotaxis to a US City Near You
Volkswagen and Uber are teaming up to deploy a fleet of thousands of all-electric, fully autonomous robotaxis. The companies said in a press release Thursday that the ID Buzz AD minivans will launch in "multiple" US markets over the next decade, starting in Los Angeles next year. Testing is expected to begin later this year, the companies said. Initially, however, the vehicles won't be fully autonomous. Human operators will be on board "to help refine the technology and ensure safety," the companies said in a joint statement. The fleet will be equipped with sensors and software from MOIA, Volkswagen's autonomous mobility subsidiary. Before the rollout can begin, the companies will need to secure the appropriate permits and clearances from the state of California. The collaboration marks a major step in Uber's autonomous vehicle ambitions and Volkswagen's push to commercialize its self-driving platform. It also comes at a time when more self-driving taxis are hitting the road. Waymo, the driverless division of Google's parent company, Alphabet, continues to expand into new cities, from Austin to Tokyo. According to Michael Ramsey, an analyst at the research firm Gartner, the concept of robotaxis is starting to make a comeback. "If you stretch your mind back 10 years ago, a lot of companies were pretty bullish about this technology being widespread by 2020," he told CNET. "That obviously didn't happen, but now the technology has improved and come down a lot in price. I expect that we begin to see true commercialization over the next year or two." Meanwhile, Tesla is also working on both robotaxis and a so-called Robovan -- a larger autonomous vehicle designed to transport up to 20 passengers or carry cargo. Earlier this week, Tesla tweeted that it had recently completed over 1,500 trips and 15,000 miles using its full self-driving vehicles. Its supervised ride-hailing service is already live for select employees in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area. On its earnings call Tuesday, the company said it plans to expand the service to the public in Austin as early as June. It's unclear which other markets Volkswagen and Uber are targeting. The companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Uber and Volkswagen Will Soon Let You Hop in a Shared Self-Driving Ride
Hot on the heels of their partnership announcement, Uber and Volkswagen will soon be launching shared autonomous rides, the companies said Wednesday. The initiative is slated to kick off in Los Angeles in 2026. Riders will be able to hail a fully electric, self-driving ride aboard the ID Buzz AD minivan. In April, the companies said they'll be deploying thousands of the minivans in "multiple" US cities over the next decade. Testing is slated to begin later this year, before the commercial launch in LA in 2026. Human operators will be on board the vehicles in the initial phase to ensure everything's running smoothly. "Autonomous technology will drive a safer and more affordable future for everyone, and we can't wait to expand access to it around the world," Uber said in a release. Currently, passengers in certain cities can summon autonomous vehicles through platforms like Uber and Waymo, but those rides aren't shared. Alphabet-owned Waymo operates fully autonomous rides for the general public in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, with a launch slated for Atlanta later this year. Depending on the city, you can either hail a Waymo through the company's Waymo One app or via the Uber app. Uber has teamed up with more than a dozen other autonomous vehicle companies, including May Mobility and Nuro. Shared rides could also address concerns about self-driving cars adding to traffic congestion. Critics have pointed to the "empty miles" that come with autonomous vehicles roaming around between pickups. If multiple people hop in the same car, it's more likely that there'll be someone on board. Shared autonomous rides are also a way for passengers to save money. In my experience, the cost of a Waymo in San Francisco is often slightly higher than a human-driven ride through Uber and Lyft. In cities where Uber offers rides aboard Waymo's self-driving vehicles, it says the price is comparable to a standard, non-AV ride. Shared autonomous rides take things a step further by giving you a discount -- with the cost being shared space with strangers.
