Robotaxi

Starting today, the fully autonomous Waymo One ride service is available exclusively to customers in Austin, Texas through the Uber app. Today’s news builds upon Waymo’s existing partnership with Uber and is a milestone in the robotaxi startup’s expansion to new cities around the US.

There are still many questions surrounding the plausibility of full-fledged autonomous robotaxi operations around the world, but Waymo, one of the current leaders in the segment, is putting at least one stigma to rest. A new study conducted with the help of reinsurance provider Swiss Re used hundreds of thousands of liability claims to demonstrate that robotaxi vehicles using the Waymo Driver platform deliver significantly higher safety performance than vehicles operated by a human driver.

Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit Waymo is going overseas for the first time and testing its tech in Japan. In early 2025, the company will begin testing its Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in Tokyo, with plans to stay in the region for the foreseeable future.

Tonight on Quick Charge, we wonder if the upcoming Tesla Cybercab could actually benefit from growing a few pedals. Meanwhile, Tesla Supercharger customers are getting a better deal this week, and there’s a new, $2 billion solar project coming on line in southern California.

As promised, robotaxi developer Waymo is expanding its Waymo One service to new US cities. The latest on its service map is Miami, which will see a start of robotaxi testing operations next year before Waymo opens up public rides to all customers. ¡Hasta pronto, Miami!

Tesla has started offering lease buyouts on all its vehicles, allowing customers who lease a Tesla to purchase their vehicle at the end of the lease term. But this represents a pullback from its previous autonomous vehicle ambitions.

Apollo Go, tech company Baidu’s autonomous robotaxi service, will reportedly expand its services to Hong Kong before the end of 2024. Hong Kong marks the next city in mainland China where Baidu’s robotaxis may be operational as the company continues to grow as the leader in autonomous public rides in the country.

On today’s episode of Quick Charge, Hyundai doesn’t care if incoming President Trump kills the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit, California’s planning to offer an EV tax credit of their own, and there’s a massive new solar project in Texas prairie land.

Waymo has opened up its driverless taxi service to everyone in Los Angeles, without need for an invite code or waitlist, but it still remains with the same service area it had before and doesn’t yet cover the whole area around LA.

Autonomous robotaxi developer Zoox has shared its latest progress update, which includes expansions into its second commercial market—San Francisco. The company has begun testing its proprietary robotaxis in the region and already has some specific neighborhoods in mind where it will want to begin offering driverless rides.

Rideshare network Lyft has enlisted the help of self-driving and ADAS technology provider Mobileye to establish the widespread commercialization of autonomous vehicles to large fleet operators.

After getting a hefty $5.6 billion in fresh capital last week, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit Waymo is now reported to be valued at more than $45 billion.

Robotaxi developer Waymo has closed an oversubscribed Series C funding round totaling $5.6 billion. Alongside an expanded partnership with Uber, the funds will help the rideshare company expand its Waymo-One robotaxi service throughout current and additional cities in the US.

Last night, Pony.ai, one of China’s most prominent names in autonomous driving and robotaxi rides, filed an IPO prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). If approved, the robotaxi company intends to trade on the Nasdaq.

Tesla is gearing up for its October 10 Robotaxi unveiling, which will take place at Warner Bros. Studio, and it’s currently running a fleet of (normal) cars around the lot to map the area.

But one of the cars, photographed late yesterday by a lot employee, stands out – and it stands out because it seems to be a heavily-camouflaged version of the heretofore-not-seen Robotaxi.

Tesla held its quarterly report yesterday, and stated that six major products would be ready for action next year. This would suggest that Tesla has a truly historic year coming up for it, set to disrupt trucking, affordable EVs, sportscars, taxis, driving in general, and, oh, just all human work.

But we’ve heard all this before, and forgive us for saying that it seems slightly more likely that the boy is crying wolf.

While some self-driving tech companies are dialing back their development or scrapping certain vehicles altogether, Waymo is pushing forward thanks to the financial support of parent company Alphabet Inc. (Google), which just committed to a fresh investment totaling five billion dollars.

Tesla’s robotaxis could have a self-cleaning feature, electric semi trucks are taking off in Canada, NIO is busting sales records globally, and ExxonMobil is mining 100,000 metric tons of lithium. All this and more on today’s episode of Quick Charge!

On today’s episode, Mate Rimac beats Tesla to the Robotaxi punch, Porsche recalls 31,000 electric Taycan models, Fred helps find the best tires for your Tesla Model 3, and we go Back to the Future with an electric DeLorean restomod. All this and more, on YouTube’s ONLY show about EVs: Quick Charge!

Autonomous technology developer Zoox shared its latest milestone in a blog post today, expanding its unique driverless robotaxi operations in California and Nevada. The growth includes a broader net of available autonomous routes, longer hours in different weather conditions, and higher top speeds… all without pedals!

Waymo has announced that it will start offering fully autonomous ride-hailing services to the general public in Los Angeles starting tomorrow, March 14th, and that Austin, Texas will open up “later this year.”