Beijing granted the latest autonomous driving permits to two robotaxi operators -- Baidu Inc and Pony.ai With the permits issued by the head office of the Beijing High-Level Automated Driving Demonstration Area, the two companies will provide up to 10 autonomous vehicles each in a designated area of 60 square kilometers in Yizhuang, a southern suburb of Beijing. A human safety operator will now sit in back seats in such vehicles to ensure safety. In April, both Baidu and Pony.ai received permission to offer driverless robotaxi services on open roads in Beijing with no human safety operator behind the steering wheel. However, at the time a backup driver should be seated in the front passenger seat to take manual control in case of an emergency.

Waymo is rolling out its driverless robotaxi service in Phoenix for members of the Alphabet-owned company's'trusted tester' program - but users can't share their experience on social media and must sign a nondisclosure agreement. The company calls these trips'rider only' to signify that's there's no human behind the wheel and people who hail them will be ferried around in a Jaguar I-Pace EV in downtown Phoenix. Trusted testers are prohibited from sharing their experiences on social media or with journalists and they must sign a nondisclosure agreement. Waymo is rolling out its driverless robotaxi service in Phoenix for members of the Alphabet-owned company's'trusted tester' program User who participate in the trusted tester program can't share their experience on social media or with journalists and must sign a nondisclosure agreement Back in May, Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said at a TechCrunch event that the company had begun allowing its own employees to hail rides without drivers in downtown Phoenix. Waymo has allowed local residents to apply to be trusted testers since 2017, but the service still had human safety operators behind the wheel until October 2020 when the driverless effort was officially launched.