Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
🚕 Mercedes Joins Forces With Bosch To Develop Self-Driving Taxis. “The pact between the world’s largest maker of premium cars and the world’s largest automotive supplier forms a powerful counterweight to new auto industry players like Uber UBER -2.21%↓ and Didi which are working on self-driving cars with a business model geared toward clients who want to use rather than own cars.”
🏛 Robotaxi Regulators Say Tesla Hasn’t Contacted Them About Plans Teased by Elon Musk. “Elon Musk said this month he plans to unveil a Tesla robotaxi this summer, but Arizona, California and Nevada regulators said Tesla hasn’t applied for permits it would need.”
😮 China’s Didi Aims for 1 Million Robotaxis on Its Platform by 2030. “The company last month completed a more than $500 million fundraising round for the autonomous driving unit, led by SoftBank Group‘s Vision Fund 2.”
🤞 People Are Afraid of Self-Driving Cars — Can the Industry Change That? “The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) represents Cruise, Waymo, Zoox, Motional, and others released something it’s calling its ‘TRUST Principles,’ which is basically an action plan for dealing with these negative headlines and spiraling poll numbers.”
👌 Waymo Begins Robotaxi Testing in Atlanta. “Over the next few months, Waymo will deploy a handful of cars driven manually by humans to gather mapping data and get familiar with Atlanta’s environment.”
🤔 Waymo, Cruise and Zoox Inch Forward Ahead of Tesla Joining Robotaxi Race. “Waymo, the autonomous driving child of Alphabet Inc., expanded its paid-fare service to Los Angeles this past Wednesday. It had already been offering free rides to Angelenos, but this was a major sign of confidence that the service is robust enough to charge for, adding a third metropolis to San Francisco and Phoenix.”
🤦♂️ 6 Waymo Robotaxis Block Traffic to San Francisco Freeway On-Ramp. Well, hell.
