Business & Tech DMV Now Hammering Out Rules for Self-Driving Trucks to Come to California The next frontier of the self-driving car movement is likely to be self-driving commercial trucks, and the California DMV is creating the rules right now for the testing of autonomous semi trucks.
Business & Tech Amazon-Owned Autonomous Taxi Company Zoox Begins Offering Public Rides Zoox, whose funny-looking, steering-wheel-free, four-seater robocars have been roving about San Francisco for a while now, is now launching its first program to give rides to the general public.
Business & Tech Get Ready for Uber Robotaxis to Start Rolling In SF Next Year In partnership with an electric car company and an autonomous tech company, Uber is getting back into the robotaxi business, ten years after its first rushed attempt to put autonomous vehicles on the road.
SF News Feds Launch New Tesla Probe After Several Cars Run Red Lights, Veer Into Traffic in Self-Driving Mode NHTSA opened its third probe into Tesla of the year. The agency said it's received 58 reports of the manufacturer’s "Full Self-Driving" system ignoring red and green lights, veering into oncoming traffic while changing lanes, and using the incorrect lane to turn or go straight.
Business & Tech Tesla Opens Up Robotoaxi App to All In SF, But Can They Even Do That? Tesla is pushing ahead with its Robotaxi service in SF, despite what we thought were a lot more regulatory hurdles that, as far as we know, Tesla's autonomous taxis have not actually gone through.
Business & Tech Some Joker Does Flips Off a Waymo, Sets Off Chain of Events That Confuses and Stalls Three Waymos We’ve heard of orange cones stopping a Waymo, but one fellow found that climbing onto the hood of a Waymo and doing a backflip will stop it too, but the halting of three Waymos in the Marina was likely just due to hooliganism.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Tesla Driver Appears to Nap on MacArthur Maze, Sparks Outrage The former Delta pilot who was arrested for child sexual abuse at SFO in July appeared in court Friday; it's been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast; and a Tesla driver appeared to be snoozing behind the wheel last week.
Business & Tech Video: SF Man Climbs on Top of Waymo, Beats It With His Belt, Eventually Smashes Windshield A South of Market pedestrian made his feelings known about a self-driving Waymo this week, climbing onto the vehicle’s hood, beating the automobile with his belt, and eventually smashing its windshield (because he was standing on it).
Business & Tech Tourist In SF For Conference Ends Up Stuck In Weird Waymo Garage Limbo "This was like, out of a science fiction movie," says attorney Darren Findling, describing a brief ordeal he had during his first-ever Waymo ride on Monday morning in San Francisco.
Business & Tech You Might Be Able to Buy and Own Your Own Self-Driving Waymo Someday If you’ve ever wanted to own your own self-driving Waymo vehicle, and are willing to shell out a great deal of money for it, parent company Google/Alphabet says it may eventually start selling those vehicles to the public.
Business & Tech Waymo Eyeing Expansion Into San Jose, and Also Much of the South Bay You might soon be able to take a Waymo all the way from SF to San Jose, as the self-driving robotaxis are apparently already halfway through their bureaucratic quest to win approval to operate in San Jose, plus much of Santa Clara County.
Business & Tech Lyft Claims It Will Launch Self-Driving Cars Next Year, Though Only in Dallas Eight years after Lyft’s first claim that they would have self-driving cars, the rideshare company just made their latest declaration that these robotaxis are right around the corner, with “right around the corner” meaning “next year,” and only in Dallas.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Claims Tesla Will Have Self-Driving Robotaxis This Year, Which He Has Claimed in Five Previous Years This is at least the fifth time that Elon Musk has declared he’d have self-driving cars this year, though if it ends up being true, at least they would start rolling in Texas and not San Francisco.
SF News Two Stalled Waymos Gummed Up Lurie’s Chinatown Inauguration Party, But Cops Just Jumped In Them and Drove Away Police can apparently now hop into stalled, confused Waymo robotaxis and drive them away manually, and this reportedly happened twice Wednesday night at Mayor Daniel Lurie’s inauguration party.
Business & Tech Turns Out Blind People Really Love Taking Trips in Waymo’s Self-Driving Robotaxis Here’s one demographic that does not loathe the robot cars driving around San Francisco, as blind people have rave reviews for Waymo’s dedicated features to accommodate people with visual impairments.
Business & Tech Waymo Takes Another Step Toward Entering Airport Taxi Market Waymo could have one of its biggest fights to date on its hands as it pushes toward providing rides between San Francisco and SFO — but a permit process is underway to allow the company to begin mapping the airport for that purpose.
Business & Tech Cruise Fined $500,000 for Filing False Reports to Feds After Pedestrian-Dragging Incident Yet another hefty fine for the self-driving robotaxi company Cruise for sweeping things under the rug after one of its cars dragged an SF pedestrian 20 feet, as the US Department of Justice has hit them with a $500,000 fine for falsifying reports on the incident.
Business & Tech Feds Probing Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ Mode After Pedestrian Killed, Plus Multiple Other Crashes Amidst several reports of Teslas in “Full Self-Driving” mode having crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one crash that killed someone, a federal road safety agency is now investigating whether the Tesla technology might be to blame.
Business & Tech Tech Bros Try to Help Waymo Entangled With Muni Bus, Leave Behind Stalled Waymo A new viral video shows a stalled Waymo getting entangled with a Muni bus this weekend, and when a gaggle of tech bros coming from an industry party try to help, they seem to just make things worse.
Business & Tech Feds Issue Consent Order to Cruise With $1.5 Million Penalty Stemming From Last October's Injury Crash Almost exactly one year after a high-profile crash on San Francisco's Market Street in which an automated Cruise vehicle dragged a woman for 20 feet before stopping, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a fine and a consent order to the GM-backed company.
Business & Tech Of Course a Waymo Got In the Way of Kamala Harris's Motorcade on Nob Hill Friday Night You can't even get a (vice) presidential motorcade through the streets of San Francisco these days without tripping over a self-driving taxi.
SF News Waymo Gets Tagged With Rider (and Little Dog) Still Inside in Mission District The latest SF anti-self-driving car shenanigans were captured on a now-viral video where a team of taggers gangs up on a Waymo and tags the bejesus out of the vehicle, while a passenger and a little dog are stuck nervously inside.
Business & Tech Beleaguered Self-Driving Car Company Cruise Teams Up With Uber for Their Comeback Bid Robotaxi company Cruise currently has its California permits suspended, but they are definitely plotting their comeback, and just announced they’re partnering to offer self-driving Cruise rides on the Uber app.
Business & Tech Waymos Infuriate SoMa Neighborhood With Cacophony of 4AM Horn-Honking In today’s episode of robot cars seeming to be very confused, we have the story of a SoMa parking lot that gets taken over by Waymos every night, and keeps the neighborhood awake as the cars incessantly honk horns at each other around 4 am.
Business & Tech Waymo Expands Robotaxi Service Onto the Peninsula, But Still Can’t Drive to SFO or on 101 Effective today, the self-driving taxi cars of Waymo are giving paid rides into Daly City and Colma, but they still can’t drive on US 101 or I-280, and they cannot drive you to the SF International Airport.
