Can China repeat its EV success with robotaxis? In Beijing's Yizhuang district, driverless vehicles have become a common sight. Robotaxis weave through traffic alongside ordinary cars, while autonomous delivery vans glide along the inside lane as they carry packages to collection points. The district has become one of China's testing grounds for autonomous driving, with companies including Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai operating commercial robotaxi services within designated areas. Booking a ride requires little more than opening an app.

Amazon Zoox's latest robotaxi looks (marginally) less like a toy car Amazon Zoox's latest robotaxi looks (marginally) less like a toy car The company said it will soon begin large-scale production of its autonomous vehicle. Zoox, the self-driving startup that Amazon purchased in 2020, has showed off the new version of its autonomous vehicle that it says was designed for large-scale production. While it still looks like the old version the company introduced in 2020, the new vehicle comes with changes that improve its comfort for riders and make it easier to interact with. The company relocated the vehicle's bidirectional reflectors for better visibility and made them rotate colors to better distinguish its front from its rear, seeing as the robotaxi has a boxy form factor. It also gave the speaker and microphone on the door two-way audio capabilities to enable communication between riders and road users, as well as between first responders and Zoox support.

First global rules adopted for self-driving cars, U.N. says Safety concerns and costs have long slowed progress on autonomous vehicles. The first global regulations for fully autonomous vehicles were adopted Wednesday, a U.N. agency said, establishing uniform international safety requirements that could pave the way for larger-scale rollouts of self-driving cars. Safety concerns and the cost of developing next-level systems have long slowed progress on autonomous vehicles. As self-driving cars have begun to hit the road in a growing number of cities, the fragmented national approaches to regulation have spurred manufacturer fears that vehicles developed for one market could be blocked from others. In a bid to address that issue, a meeting of the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations at the United Nations in Geneva decided to introduce a global regulatory framework for vehicles equipped with fully autonomous driving systems (ADS).

Technology Vehicles Self Driving How can self-driving cars see better? Make their sensors more human. Human-eye inspired sensors could help autonomous cars handle changes to light. More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week.

It might not feel all that different from older World Cups--for better or worse. Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary offering robotaxi rides in 11 US metros right now, says it's ready for the FIFA World Cup . Match attendees can catch driverless rides to six of the 16 North American venues: stadiums in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The sprawling football event, expected to attract some 6.5 million visitors to the continent over more than a month, could prove an exciting close-up for Waymo . The company says it's serving half-a-million paid rides a week--paltry stuff compared to the likes of ride-hail giants Uber and Lyft, but more impressive once you remember that the things don't have drivers.

The pale-blue Ojai vehicles will start picking up members of the public in California and Arizona today. Starting today, Alphabet self-driving vehicle developer Waymo will start picking up members of the public in its new Ojai vehicles (pronounced "oh hai")--pale blue boxy minivans studded with sensors and complete with steering wheels, even though they're designed to travel without drivers. For now, the rides in these new cars, which can be summoned through Waymo's app, will be free. It's been a long road for the vehicle, first announced by Waymo in 2021 and tested on public streets since 2024. It's also a weird time for Waymo: The self-driving-vehicle company, which is trying to expand quickly across the US and the world, shut down service in six US cities last week due to issues with how its vehicles react to flooding.

Best Power Banks Best Smart Rings Routers vs. Modems Choose the Right Laptop Smart Sprinklers Deals Delivered The company is mapping Alexandria and, soon, Arlington--right across from the power center of Washington, DC. Self-driving cars aren't yet permitted to operate in Virginia. But Alphabet-owned Waymo began transporting its cars to the state last week, a Waymo representative told Virginia officials, to map Arlington and Alexandria, in the northern part of the state. For most autonomous vehicle companies, mapping, or the creation of sensor-aided and ultra-precise digital representations of streets and the features around them, is the first step required to launch a local robotaxi service. Drivers will operate the mapping vehicles for now, Waymo says.

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Waymo is recalling thousands of its self-driving cars in the US over a software issue that could allow vehicles to drive into flooded roads. According to a letter posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) website on Tuesday, the voluntary recall affects nearly 3,800 robotaxis that use the company's fifth and sixth-generation automated driving systems. It follows an incident on 20 April in San Antonio, Texas, where an empty Waymo vehicle entered a flooded road and was swept into a creek. The company, which hopes to be operating a robotaxi service in London by September, said it was working on additional software safeguards, according to CNBC. The BBC has contacted Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, for comment.

"I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn't really ready," one police official told federal regulators last month. Emergency first-responder leaders told federal regulators in a private meeting last month that they were frustrated with the performance of autonomous vehicles on their streets--that city firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics are forced to spend time during emergencies resolving issues with frozen or stuck cars. One fire official called them "a safety issue for our crews as well as the victims." WIRED obtained an audio recording of the meeting. Officials from San Francisco and Austin, where Waymo has been ferrying passengers without drivers for more than a year, said the vehicles' performance is getting worse.