Votes were nearly unanimous to reign in autonomous vehicle companies in their birthplace.

Read more at Forbes.com in California Bill Bans Self-Driving Trucks. San Francisco Supervisors Block Waymo. Does Luddism Reign?

It's surprisingly common to see articles and videos from Tesla fans who believe that Tesla FSD is a contender -- even the leader -- in self-driving development. The reality is it's still not even in the race compared to other players. In this video, I pretend to be a super Tesla FSD fan and I give the reasons they commonly give for feeling that Tesla rules the roost, but in a way that makes the flaws in those arguments more apparent.

Waymo now serves a large contiguous area in Phoenix, and is doing 10,000 rides/week. But it's not a car replacement yet, which it needs to be.

Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Hits 2 Million No-Driver Miles And Expands Phoenix Robotaxi Zone. Can It Replace Your Car?

Robotaxis are sometimes not acting well when meeting fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. Here's a look at some incidents, what could be done better, and how to manage it. Includes exclusive Waymo's-eye view of police interaction

Read more at Forbes.com in What Should Happen When A Robocar Meets An Emergency Vehicle, To Avoid A Paradox Of Safety?

Tesla's crash data seem amazing, but the reality is very different and many have been misled by the numbers. In actuality, there's no strong case that Teslas are much safer with Autopilot on

Read more at Forbes.com in Tesla Again Paints A Very Misleading Story With Their Crash Data

Many companies are looking to make self-driving trucks. Einride feels they are the best path to electric trucks, and that's the best way to reduce emissions.

Read more at Forbes.com in Einride s Self-Driving Goal Is Medium-Haul Electric Trucks, Not Long Haul. Here s Why.

Chinese companies have been expanding their operation of robotaxis with no employee aboard Baidu Apollo (sometimes called the Google of China) has expanded in Whuhan, Chongqing and Beijing and AutoX has expanded to Shanghai.

Read more at Forbes.com in Baidu, AutoX Expand Uncrewed Robotaxi Operations In China - Will The World Catch Up?

San Francisco Muni decided to study problems caused by robotaxis, possibly hoping to gather data to oppose them. Instead, their data shows they are doing amazingly well and should end the debate.

Read more at Forbes.com in Transit Study Reveals Robotaxis Causing Surprisingly Little Disruption On Streets

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt has released an explanation of the cause, or proximate cause, of their crash last week with a San Francisco Muni bus.

Read more at Forbes.com in GM s Cruise Robotaxi vs Bus Crash Caused By Confusion Over Articulated Bus; They Say It s Fixed

Austin, TX, April 1 2023 - Tesla announced today that it's new low-cost car, known as the Model 2, will not come standard with a steering wheel or pedals. That's not because it will only work with Tesla's "Full Self Driving" system, but rather because they have been made virtual, through AI and the interior camera used for driver monitoring.

The mandatory report reveals the bus was slowing to a stop and wasn't doing anything odd when the Cruise hit it. This really shouldn't happen

Read more at Forbes.com in Cruise DMV Crash Report Suggests Their Car At Fault In Hitting Bus

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A Cruise Robotaxi, apparently with nobody aboard, has rear ended a San Francisco Muni bus on March 23. Nobody was injured and damage to the bus was modest, but more severe to the front bumper of the Cruise. Another Cruise blew through caution tape and hit downed Muni trolley power lines. It does not look good.

Read more at Forbes.com in Cruise Cars Crash Into San Francisco Muni Bus And Tangle In Fallen Trolley Wires

Today, Waymo released an extension of their previous safety frameworks where they promote what they call a "Case Credibility Assessment" — a way of examining whether any safety case is strong and should be believed. It's a complex situation, but the larger question is just who these safety cases are for, and how they will interpret them. In particular, what will regulators do?

Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo Makes A New Safety Case And Challenges All To Also Do So - But Is It Right?

Here's the new Podcast issue. Michael Sena has been writing the newsletter "The Dispatcher" for 10 years commenting on future transportation issues. He's much more skeptical about robotaxis and BEVs than I am, which makes a discussion much more engaging.

Tesla has done their investor day. No big announcements but tons of detail. About 20 minutes after it ends (it's still going at 4:50pm) Mario Herger and I will do a live post-show stream looking at highlights of the program.

Waymo has released impressive detailed safety data on their first million miles of operation with no safety driver. Cruise also just hit 1M miles but has less data to offer. I dig into Waymo's data and what it means.

Read more at Forbes.com in Waymo And Cruise have Both Hit 1M Miles With No Driver, But Waymo Publishes Detailed Safety Data

The unusual thing about the Zoox is it is symmetrical -- it drives the same forwards and backwards. Now it's finally out on public roads. That's a good time to discuss whether it would be good for other, traditionally designed robotaxis to drive backwards for short stretches to get out of tight spots, to turn around, and to quickly get out when they discover a fire crew that will otherwise break their widows.

Driving is the hard problem. But doing pick-up and drop-off turns out to have a lot of complications and it was not at the top of the todo list, so some companies are having issues with it with cities. We see some hints of this in Waymo's Superbowl-related service, too.

Read more at Self driving cars have trouble with Pick-up/Drop-off, and for the Superbowl on Forbes.com