Robotaxi

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.”

An independent investigation that probes the madness that ensued at Cruise after one of its robotaxis dragged a pedestrian 20 feet in San Francisco last October has been released. In it, you’ll find everything from blaming it on the internet to hush-hush culture to what went wrong with the automated vehicle itself.

Eight months after announcing plans to enter the US market, European teledrive service Vay has officially begun commercial operations of its remotely operated EVs in fabulous Las Vegas. Customers can now order a car delivered directly to them without a driver in the vehicle, hop in, drive off, and use it as long as they’d like.

It’s gone from bad to worse for robotaxi company Cruise in the fallout of the October incident involving a pedestrian. The company has now announced it is laying off 900 workers, one day after firing nine executives. Meanwhile, rival company Waymo pulls out ahead with new services.

General Motors has fired “nine key people” at robotaxi company Cruise amid the fallout from an accident involving a pedestrian in San Francisco. The incident – and the uncovered details that have dealt a massive blow to an industry that relies on trust from the public and regulators – has already forced the company’s founder and CEO Kyle Vogt to resign.

Amid the fallout from the accident involving a pedestrian in San Francisco, robotaxi company Cruise cofounder Kyle Vogt has stepped down from his role as CEO. 

Six months after sharing initial plans to expand to the US and begin remotely operated journeys in Las Vegas, Vay has successfully driven its teledrive vehicles on public roads in Sin City without a human present inside. Check out the video below.

The news has been epically bad for Cruise robotaxis these past few weeks. GM’s driverless car subsidiary has announced a round of layoffs this week, with the CEO Kyle Vogt reportedly telling employees in an all-hands meeting. Plus, investigations have dredged up some incriminating news that the software’s algorithm had trouble detecting children.

GM’s Cruise autonomous taxi service is pausing driverless operations everywhere after having it’s license suspended in California on Tuesday.

Waymo and Uber have rolled out a partnership in Phoenix wherein riders who order an Uber within Waymo’s service area might get picked up by a driverless Waymo vehicle, rather than a human-driven Uber car, starting today.

Autonomous robotaxi startup Pony.ai continues to expand the reach of its autonomous operations – this time venturing outside of China into the NEOM development of northwest Saudi Arabia. The company announced a new joint venture with NEOM today that includes an $100 million investment to establish a local presence and implement robotaxi rides across the Middle East.

A press release from Cruise, GM, and Honda says that the three companies plan to launch a robotaxi joint venture in Japan starting in 2026. No word if the vehicles will play charming little MIDI tunes when they pick you up, but we can dream.