Autonomous Cars

Momenta will deploy its autonomous vehicles on Uber’s ridehailing platform starting in 2026, initially with safety drivers on board. For availability, Uber is only saying they’ll be in “international markets outside of the US and China.”

Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle company has “reached a preliminary agreement” with the world’s largest automaker “to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies,” according to a just-published blogpost. Does that mean we’ll soon be getting driverless Rav4s? Too soon to say, but the agreement also includes Woven, which is Toyota’s autonomous subsidiary. And the announcement specifically mention’s Toyota’s expertise to enhance next-generation personally owned vehicles (POVs)” — which we know is on the mind of Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles proposed updating its autonomous vehicle regulations to include testing heavy-duty trucks. California currently allows light-duty autonomous vehicles, but not ones weighing over 10,001 pounds. Labor groups have tried passing legislation requiring human safety operators in autonomous trucks, but California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed the bill twice.

Users on the Uber app can sign up to gain early access to the robotaxi service, which will take people across 65 square miles of Atlanta, including Downtown, Buckhead, and Capitol View. Waymo says “select riders” who join the waitlist “may get access to Waymo rides ahead of the public launch.”

KTLA reports that the walk-up window remained open on Monday night while the Waymo failed to exit a Chick-fil-A in Santa Monica, CA, as shown in this video posted by TMZ.

The Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company said it was bringing its retrofitted test vehicles to Los Angeles, equipped with safety drivers, as it gets closer to launching a public service. Zoox now operates test vehicles in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, and Miami. And it plans on launching publicly in Las Vegas and San Francisco later this year. LA is already has one robotaxi service operated by Alphabet’s Waymo — though its unclear when Zoox will make its vehicles available to the public there.

Security researcher Jane Manchun Wong has discovered another hidden Waymo gem, this time related to the robotaxi operator’s use of footage from its interior cameras to train generative AI. According to a screenshot of an unreleased privacy policy, Waymo is offering customers the opportunity to opt-out from having their “personal information,” including “interior camera data associated with your identity,” to train generative AI models. Waymo uses this data to “tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests.” Coming soon to a robotaxi near you?

The ridehail company’s partnership with AV developer WeRide is launching in Dubai, after several months of successful trips in Abu Dhabi. The vehicles still include safety drivers and won’t be fully driverless until later this year, Uber says. Uber is also working with Waymo in Austin, Texas, and has several other AV partnerships in the works.

This perfect billboard was spotted in LA by The Curbivore (which crossed my radar via Glenn Mercer’s Car Charts). My hat’s off to the Law Brothers’ pun game. And the fact that this photo was taken from a Waymo vehicle is just the cherry on top.

Waymo has been testing the new vehicle for months now, but always with camouflage. Now it seems like the wrapping is coming off, thanks to this video captured by YouTube channel “I Love Vehicles.” As some Reddit users noted, the rear lidar in particular could prove tempting to folks looking to do some chin-ups.

The federal team in charge of overseeing the safety of autonomous vehicles was already pretty small: only about seven people total, according to the Washington Post. But now the Elon Musk-led cuts have eliminated three of the seven. That’s probably good for Tesla, which aims to launch a robotaxi service this summer.