In a bizarre (or hilarious) late-night episode that underscored public unease with autonomous vehicles, several men climbed onto stalled Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco’s Marina District and began attacking them. They then started sitting and climbing on them, and are one point began doing back flips off the driverless cars while a crowd cheered. City […]
Waymo Says You’re Not Getting its Footage Without a Warrant
Waymo is quietly drawing new boundaries over how authorities access data from its autonomous vehicles. The company said it will reject any requests that are not backed by a legal request such as a warrant or court order. The move is one of several signaling a growing tension between innovation, privacy, and law enforcement power. […]
Waymo Gets First Driverless Car Permit in NYC
Waymo has become the first autonomous vehicle operator to secure a permit to test self-driving cars on the streets of New York City, the state’s department of transportation said in announcing the news. The New York City Department of Motor Vehicles approved Waymo’s application, allowing the company to conduct limited testing of its autonomous vehicles […]
Tesla’s Nightmare Continues As Musk Warns of “Rough Quarters”Ahead
Tesla’s second-quarter earnings paint a grim picture: falling profits, slumping sales, and a reputation hit that keeps on hurting. The all-electric carmaker reported net income of $1.17 billion, down 16.3% from the same period in 2024. Revenue fell 12% to $22.5 billion from $25.5 billion a year earlier, marking Tesla’s second consecutive quarter of declining […]
Tesla and Google’s Robotaxis Still Really Aren’t That Autonomous
Tesla’s impending robotaxi service comes with a whole list of caveats you’ll need to agree to before you huddle into the backseat of its autonomous vehicles. Or, perhaps they’re not really that autonomous. The first Tesla Model Y Cybercab services will be limited to select participants (including Tesla influencers), but even then drivers can expect […]
Waymo’s Driverless Cars Revealed to Be Narcs as Cops Use Them to Probe Crimes
Well, that didn’t take long. Cops are now using videos recorded by Waymo self-driving cars to assist them in their investigations. If you live in a city where robotaxis are prevalent (i.e. San Francisco or Los Angeles), this likely means you have a good shot at inadvertently ending up in the background of some sort […]
Waymo Considering Using In-Vehicle Cameras to Sell Ads and Train Its AI
The privacy risks posed by the artificial intelligence industry are slowly coming into view. Alphabet’s robotaxi business, Waymo, says it may use videos of passengers captured by in-vehicle cameras to sell ads and train its AI models. TechCrunch reports that the unreleased policy was originally spotted by reliable software researcher Jane Manchun Wong, who posted […]
Robotaxi Expert Suggests Elon Musk Will Try to ‘Fake’ Cybercabs in June
John Krafcik, the former CEO of the robotaxi company Waymo from 2015-2021, knows a thing or two about the driverless vehicle industry. And when he says that Tesla CEO Elon Musk might use some extremely shady tactics to fake the launch of his own robotaxi service this summer in Austin, Texas, people stand up and […]
San Francisco Hit Waymo With Hundreds of Traffic Citations in 2024
San Francisco has found a nice new revenue stream: Hitting self-driving Waymos with traffic citations. The city cited Waymo vehicles 589 times in 2024 for a grand total of $65,065 in penalties. The violations ranged from blocking street traffic to parking in prohibited areas. Google-owned Waymo operates 300 vehicles in San Francisco that are available […]