Robotaxis and the Companies Building Them
Who is actually driving without a driver: Waymo, Tesla, Zoox, the Chinese operators, the truckers, and the one that fell — where each stands and how it got there.
Waymo: From the Google Self-Driving Car Project to Robotaxi Service
How Google's 2009 project became the largest driverless robotaxi operator in the United States: the timeline, the cities, the vehicles and what sets it apart.
8 min readTesla Autopilot, Full Self-Driving and the Robotaxi Plan
The difference between Autopilot, FSD (Supervised) and Tesla's robotaxi service, why the naming has drawn regulators' attention, and what the Cybercab is meant to be.
8 min readCruise: The Rise and Fall of GM's Robotaxi
How Cruise went from the first paid driverless rides in San Francisco to a suspended permit, a fine and a shutdown in fourteen months, and what the industry took from it.
8 min readZoox and the Purpose-Built Robotaxi
Amazon's Zoox built a vehicle around the idea of no driver at all: what it is, how it is regulated without a steering wheel, and where it is going.
6 min readDriverless Trucks: Aurora, Kodiak and the Freight Corridor
Why long-haul trucking may be automated before city driving, who is running trucks with no one in the cab, and what still stands in the way.
7 min readChina's Robotaxis: Baidu Apollo Go, Pony.ai and WeRide
The other robotaxi industry: how Baidu, Pony.ai and WeRide built large driverless services in Chinese cities, and how their approach differs from the American one.
7 min read