Robotaxi

Self-driving Waymo car kills dog amid increasing concern over robotaxis [title]

This weekend, as videos of robotaxi malfunctions began appearing on social media, opponents say they are seeing their fears realized.

Robotaxis aren’t perfect. But neither are humans. Some 46,000 people perished on America’s roads last year, a toll that far exceeds that of most other developed countries.

San Francisco authorities and the company Cruise have offered conflicting accounts of an incident in which the fire department said two of the company’s robotaxis delayed an ambulance transporting a patient with critical injuries who later died at a hospital.

Toyota Motor Corp. will begin a self-driving transportation service in Odaiba, Tokyo, this summer using the technology of Level 4 autonomous driving — automated driving under certain conditions — with the aim of starting a driverless robotaxi business in the future, sources said.

Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous vehicles or, colloquially, robotaxis, have been driving the streets of San Francisco in some form since 2009 and have been operating commercially since last August.

Companies must not only prove that robotaxis are safe and reliable, but also need to secure tens of billions of dollars more in capital investment. Margins are also notoriously thin and the costs of operating a robotaxi service at scale are largely untested.