Rapid developments in the robotaxi business: the robotaxi company Waymo, some of whose vehicles are also used by Musk’s ride-hailing service Uber, has raised billions from investors and now wants to expand its offering to other US cities.
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But that’s not all. This week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla is already testing autonomous cabs on the roads. Musk spoke about this in a webcast on Tesla’s quarterly results. According to this, Tesla employees in coastal areas can request self-driving Teslas using an app. For safety reasons, however, there is currently still a driver behind the wheel who can intervene in an emergency. Musk talks about the test run in minute 19 of the webcast published on Wednesday:
Musk: Robotaxis as early as 2025?
How safe the test operation of Tesla’s robotaxis on the roads is remains questionable. Tesla does not have an official permit for operation in California. The situation with the safety driver is also unclear. Some drivers from Musk’s Uber service also rely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving technology, which has already led to an accident. In the webcast, Musk expects his autonomous cabs to start operating in California and Texas as early as next year, even if the approval process in California is much more difficult. Musk’s driving service Uber is currently cooperating with Waymo in some US cities by requesting Waymo vehicles via the Uber app and carrying out the journeys.
Waymo itself raised 5.6 billion US dollars in new capital in its latest financing round. On Friday, the company announced the end of its largest financing round to date in a blog post. Backers include the tech group Alphabet and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Waymo offers its self-driving cabs in four cities in the United States. Waymo also wants to use the new money to expand into other cities.
Waymo almost unrivaled so far
So far, Waymo has mainly been active in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, while in Austin and Atlanta the company is cooperating with Uber. In the future, the company also hopes to offer its service in Washington and New York.
So far, Waymo has hardly any competition in the field of autonomous cabs. The company Cruise had to stop its service for a year and pay a fine of millions after an accident involving a pedestrian. Cabs have been back on the road in individual US cities since April, but not solely computer-controlled. If Musk’s plans in the field of robotaxis and autonomous driving work out, a second robotaxi technology will be driving on US roads next year, enriching the market and competition.
(nen)
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This article was originally published in
German.
It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.
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