As robotaxis become a more familiar sight on the streets of Los Angeles, Tesla has taken a step that could bring it closer to building its own fleet of self-driving electric vehicles, the California Public Utilities Commission confirmed last week. In November, Tesla applied for a permit that would allow the electric vehicle manufacturing giant to deploy transportation services with company-owned vehicles and human drivers. The permit would be required for Tesla to advance to autonomous cabs. Chief Executive Elon Musk has long made clear his ambitions for a robotaxi service powered by Tesla vehicles, though his company has been criticized by the U.S. government's highway safety agency for making statements that its vehicles can drive themselves. To be sure, the automaker is still a long way off before it can launch a service.

There's no easy fix to America's supply chain problem, but a major issue is a lack of drivers. Now a new type of scanner called 4-D LiDar offers a possible solution, which could be a huge step forward for self-driving cars and trucks. Anyone who has ever been temporarily blinded by high-beam headlights from an oncoming car will be happy to hear this. Audi's lighting tech can be focused enough to project images on a wall. U.S. highway safety regulators are about to allow new high-tech headlights that can automatically tailor beams so they focus on dark areas of the road and don't create glare for oncoming drivers.

The days of drivers sneaking dangerous downward glances at directions on their phones may soon come to an end. Automakers are poised to introduce technology on new cars, trucks and SUVs that projects directions onto the windshield and draws a circle around pedestrians or deer on the roadway. Depending on the vehicle, these augmented reality windshields may also display vehicle information, identify ice patches and, eventually, serve as a screen for entertainment purposes when self-driving cars become a reality. Brands poised to debut the technology include Kia, Hyundai, Cadillac and Audi. Advocates say that the windshields show how technology can be used to reduce driver distraction, keeping drivers' eyes on the road instead of darting toward an infotainment screen or phone.

The incoming Biden administration is expected to increase regulatory oversight of electric and self-driving cars and trucks. FreightWaves spoke to a few investors and analysts in the mobility and freight tech space, as well as the CEOs of a couple of autonomous trucking and delivery companies, about what they expect from a Biden presidency. Electric vehicle uptake in the United States has been tied to strong pollution reduction mandates and purchasing incentives found in Europe and Asia, said Reilly Brennan, partner, TrucksVC. "A Biden administration likely moves some of our policies closer to what we see in other parts of the world," he said. Among the incentives Brennan sees coming down the pike is an "EV for clunkers" scheme as soon as next year, promoting and supporting people who turn in their vehicles for zero-emissions cars and trucks.

Autonomous vehicles were supposed to make human drivers obsolete. But the coronavirus pandemic is exposing how a technology designed to be human-free still relies on a large workforce of contract laborers at almost every level. The Verge reached out to 10 autonomous vehicle developers to find out what they were doing in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Almost all of them said they would be grounding their fleets for at least several weeks as they monitor the spread of the virus. But the fate of human backup drivers who ride around in the vehicles is less certain.

Lyft, the second largest ride-hailing service in the U.S., once helped disrupt the taxi industry. Now, the company is working hard to avoid being disrupted itself as self-driving cars turn from sci-fi into reality. According to Taggart Matthiesen, vice president of product at Lyft's Autonomous Group, the company has assigned around 400 of its engineers to work on two distinct self-driving initiatives. One is the "open platform" where Lyft connects passengers with semi-autonomous vehicles created by its partners, including Aptiv in Las Vegas and Alphabet's Waymo in Chandler, Arizona. The other is Lyft's effort to create its own self-driving systems, work that it does primarily at Level 5, its sizable lab in an unassuming office park in Palo Alto, Calif.

General Motors announced plans to close three assembly plants, one each in Michigan, Ohio and Ontario before the end of 2019. Cruise Automation's Dan Kan and Kyle Vogt pose for a photo with General Motors' Dan Ammann at Cruise Automation offices in San Francisco, Calif. on Nov. 20, 2018. General Motors is moving its No. 2 executive, company President Dan Ammann, to be CEO of its self-driving unit, GM Cruise, as it aggressively pushes to bring the robot cars to market next year. Starting Jan. 1, Ammann, 46, takes the helm of Cruise. Cruise cofounder, Kyle Vogt, 33, stays to lead technology development as Cruise president and chief technology officer.

It turns out that, whether it's Waymo's self-driving cars or the many auto manufacturers relying on tech from Intel Corp.'s INTC -1.27% Mobileye, so-called "autonomous" vehicles are cheating, in a way. This is also true of models that are already commercially available, such as Cadillacs with Super Cruise. Rather than perceiving the world and deciding on the fly what to do next, these autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles are comparing their glimpses of the world with a map stored in memory. The incredibly detailed maps they rely on are what engineers call a "world model" of the environment. The model contains things that don't change very often, from the edges of roads and lanes to the placement of stop signs, signals, crosswalks and other infrastructure.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world's top-selling automakers, has decided to go with Google's Android operating system to run its dashboard information and entertainment features. The change, which won't roll out until 2021, means that users will get Android features such as Google Maps, Waze and the hands-free Google Assistant, without having to connect a phone. They'll also be able to download auto-specific apps, such as those that find and pay for parking spaces, from the Google Play Store. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world's top-selling automakers, has decided to go with Google's Android operating system to run its dashboard. The change, which won't roll out until 2021, means that users will get Android features such as Google Maps, Waze and the hands-free Google Assistant, without having to connect a phone.

Elon Musk is reportedly launching an investigation into an employee who sabotaged the company. Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, speaks on the final day of the 68th International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, on Sept. 29, 2017. Elon Musk has called lidar a crutch. The Tesla CEO believes he can build self-driving and semi-autonomous cars without relying on the technology, which uses lasers to help the cars map and navigate their surroundings. Instead, Tesla has looked to cameras and radar -- without lidar -- to do much of the work needed for its Autopilot driver assistance system.