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Rep. Scott Perry introduces legislation to repeal Biden mandate requiring auto manufacturers to install driver impairment monitoring technology in new cars.

Amazon's Zoox recalls self-driving vehicles amid emergency response issues The Amazon subsidiary company Zoox has said that it will recall its fleet of 105 autonomous vehicles in the United States. The technology company announced the recall on Friday due to mounting concerns that the vehicles may not detect heavy smoke and could impede emergency personnel. Zoox said on Friday that on June 20 an unoccupied Zoox autonomous vehicle encountered heavy smoke that obscured an active emergency fire scene. The Zoox vehicle entered the scene, then braked hard while attempting to steer away, before coming to a stop. The Zoox vehicle, under teleguidance, reversed, after which first responders placed traffic cones at the scene, blocking two of the three lanes.

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Loons, gulls, puffins, and petrels are some of the 100 species of birds that can both fly and swim. These diving birds can plunge in water to swim after prey, and then leap back into the air to fly away. Now, inspired by these naturally aquatic aviators, engineers at EPFL and MIT have designed a robot that can swim underwater, and flap out of the water to continue flying through air, much like diving birds. The "flapping-wing aerial-aquatic vehicle," or FAAV, weighs less than 300 grams and is designed to help scientists study the mechanics that enable diving birds to fly through air and water. The robot has a central body, or fuselage, two flexible, flapping wings, and a steerable tail.

Tesla Says It's Building a Wheelchair-Accessible Robotaxi A Tesla representative at a DC hearing said the vehicle is "an active product being built." The Tesla Cybercab is not wheelchair accessible, but the company says it's actively developing a wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. Tesla is building a wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle, a Tesla representative told lawmakers in Washington, DC, on Monday. "We are in development for a purpose-built, wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle," Tesla senior policy advisor India Herdman told members of the DC City Council on Monday, during a hearing focused on a controversial bill that could allow robotaxi services to operate in the District. "We know that paratransit can be very difficult, and people who are confined to wheelchairs permanently should still be able to move around freely, so that is an active product being built by Tesla in Texas," she said.

In at least two places, Uber has pushed a policy that could give it an advantage over developers of self-driving cars. The company says it's fighting monopolies. A decade ago, then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick said he saw autonomous vehicles as an existential threat to the ride-hail company's business model. "What would happen if we weren't a part of that future? Then the future passes us by," Kalanick told Business Insider .

Self-Driving Cars Are Interfering With First Responders. NHTSA administrator Jonathan Morris called reports that self-driving cars had driven into emergency scenes and blocked ambulances and firefighters "unacceptable." The head of the top US road safety agency cautioned autonomous vehicle developers in a letter Wednesday about what he called an "unacceptable" pattern of driverless cars interfering with the work of law enforcement and other first responders. "To state it bluntly: An AV that cannot safely interact with first responders is a danger to the general public," Jonathan Morrison, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), wrote in a letter that he described as a "call to action" for technology developers. Morrison wrote that NHTSA has documented a " clear pattern" of interference over the last few months, including incidents in which the vehicles drove into active emergency scenes, blocked ambulances and firefighters, and didn't respond in situations involving flashing lights, fire, and traffic cones.

The agency is giving autonomous vehicle makers until the end of July to figure out a solution. The US Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is demanding action from autonomous car makers after identifying a clear pattern of driverless AVs interfering with law enforcement and other first responders over the past months. Jonathan Morrison, the agency's administrator, wrote a letter addressing the developers and issuing a call to action. Emergency situations are not rare or edge cases, he wrote, so he wants AV developers and operators focus their resources on fixing the issue immediately. While the NHTSA didn't give specific examples, there have been news about self-driving vehicles getting in the way of ambulances and fire trucks, like in the image above, for years.

Waymo passengers were terrified as a driverless car drove into lit fireworks on a San Francisco street during Fourth of July celebrations. No injuries were reported.