'Are we on fire, dude?' When a Waymo ran over a firework Waymo passengers in San Francisco got the ride of their life over the July 4th weekend — when their car ran over a lit firework. The riders appear to have filmed the incident from the back seat as they approached an intersection with people lighting illegal fireworks. The autonomous vehicle then drove into the hazard. Passenger Rose Peterson told local affiliate ABC7 the incident was terrifying. You May Also Like "The more me and my fiancé were talking about it, something really bad could have happened to us, something bad could have happened to the people around us," Peterson said. "It was a very scary situation." The video caught one of the passengers uttering the remark: "Are we on fire, dude?" This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed. A Waymo spokesperson told Mashable there were no injuries or vehicle damage. The company has also contacted the rider about their well-being. "We're committed to keeping our riders safe and earning the trust of the communities where we operate," the spokesperson said in a statement. "We take situations like this seriously and are committed to evaluating and learning from these events." Elsewhere in San Francisco on July 4, Waymo cars stalled when they lost power amidst heavy traffic congestion. Drivers reported being trapped in an hours-long traffic jam as they waited for the autonomous vehicles to be towed. Topics Self-Driving Cars Social Good Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at
Jul 6, 2026 · via mashable.com
Can China repeat its EV success with robotaxis? In Beijing's Yizhuang district, driverless vehicles have become a common sight. Robotaxis weave through traffic alongside ordinary cars, while autonomous delivery vans glide along the inside lane as they carry packages to collection points. The district has become one of China's testing grounds for autonomous driving, with companies including Baidu, WeRide and Pony.ai operating commercial robotaxi services within designated areas. Booking a ride requires little more than opening an app. Within minutes, a robotaxi pulls up with nobody behind the wheel. After confirming the journey on a touchscreen, the vehicle merges into Beijing's dense traffic, navigating buses, cyclists, scooters and pedestrians with little hesitation. The technology is still evolving. But a bigger question now looms: can Chinese companies turn robotaxis into another sector they dominate globally, as they have with electric vehicles (EVs)? Riding China's EV boom China's autonomous driving companies already have a powerful advantage - the industrial ecosystem that helped turn the country into the world's largest EV market. Unlike Tesla, which designs much of its technology in-house, China's self-driving industry is built around a network of companies. Established carmakers including BYD, Chery, Geely, and SAIC build the cars, while specialist firms develop the software. Autonomous vehicles rely on many of the same batteries, sensors, chips and onboard computers as electric cars. Because those supply chains already exist at enormous scale, companies can develop technology faster and at a lower cost. "What you see is a pace of innovation and adaptation in the Chinese EV industry that I don't think is matched anywhere else around the world," says Kyle Chan, a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution. "China's EV capacity doesn't just stop there. It actually spills over into other related industries through something that I call these overlapping
Jul 6, 2026 · via bbc.com
4th Of July Gridlock Causes Self-Driving Cars To Die While Stuck In Traffic
By iHeartRadio
July 6, 2026
Several Waymo vehicles were left stranded on San Francisco streets after their batteries drained amid heavy traffic during Fourth of July celebrations. As reported by NBC News, videos showed at least a dozen stationary Waymo vehicles, many of them Jaguar I-PACE models, lined up following a city-sponsored fireworks display from the Golden Gate Bridge.
The congestion, caused by a high volume of travelers and unplanned road closures, led to some vehicles running out of power and needing to be towed. A Waymo spokesperson noted that the company is evaluating ways to improve resilience during major traffic disruptions. The San Francisco Standard reported that Waymo's roadside assistance team worked to clear the vehicles, coordinating with local authorities and emergency services.
One incident involved a Waymo vehicle catching fire after driving over fireworks, though no injuries were reported. The event reignited debates about the readiness of San Francisco's streets for driverless cars during major events. Mayor Daniel Lurie, who supports autonomous vehicles, acknowledged the traffic issues and stated that the city will discuss improvements with stakeholders to ensure smoother experiences in the future.
Jul 6, 2026 · via iheart.com
- United States - / - Semiconductors - / - NasdaqGS:AMD AMD (AMD) Enters Autonomous Driving Through Turing Inc. Partnership - AMD (NasdaqGS:AMD) has partnered with self-driving technology startup Turing Inc. to expand into the autonomous vehicle sector. - Turing Inc. is adopting AMD's AI accelerators in its autonomous vehicle systems. - AMD Ventures has invested in Turing Inc., marking AMD's first significant commercial entry into the autonomous driving market. For AMD, the move into autonomous vehicles through Turing Inc. adds a new use case alongside its existing data center and gaming lines. Investors watching the growth of AI hardware now have another end market to track, one that is closer to the edge of the network and inside vehicles rather than in centralized facilities. As this partnership develops, attention may focus on how AMD's AI accelerators perform in real world driving environments and how widely Turing Inc. deploys them. The outcome could help shape expectations for AMD's role in other edge AI applications that rely on similar compute architectures. Stay updated on the most important news stories for Advanced Micro Devices by adding it to your watchlist or portfolio. Alternatively, explore our Community to discover new perspectives on Advanced Micro Devices. 2 things going right for Advanced Micro Devices that this headline doesn't cover. Quick Assessment - ❌ Price vs Analyst Target: AMD trades at US$517.82 versus a consensus target of US$512.27, around 1% above analyst expectations. - ❌ Simply Wall St Valuation: Shares are described as trading about 28.1% above estimated fair value, which points to an overvalued status. - ✅ Recent Momentum: The stock is up 11.0% over the last 30 days, showing firm short term momentum into this Turing Inc. announcement. There's only one way to know the right time to buy, sell or hold Advanced
Jul 6, 2026 · via simplywall.st
Autonomous vehicles will turn commuting from a driving task into a passenger experience. At higher automation levels, the system handles the driving while people ride, although fully universal Level 5 vehicles are not yet available for consumer purchase. This shift matters because the average commute is often “lost time.” When riders no longer need to watch traffic, steer, brake, park, or stay alert every second, the car becomes a private media room, work pod, gaming space, or relaxation cabin. Entertainment Will Move From Phones to the Whole Cabin Entertainment in autonomous vehicles will not be limited to a phone screen. Future cabins can use large displays, spatial audio, voice control, mood lighting, connected apps, and personalized profiles to create a living-room-style experience on the road. Passengers may stream movies, follow live sports, listen to immersive music, join video calls, read, shop, or play games. McKinsey has already noted that time once spent driving could become time for video calls, films, work, or relaxation. Online Slots Could Become Part of Mobile Passenger Entertainment Online slots could fit into this new commute economy because they are already designed for short, mobile-friendly sessions. A passenger in a self-driving ride could play casual casino-style games during a 20-minute trip, provided local laws allow it and responsible gambling tools are in place. For example, Booming Games slots are promoted as video slot content made for casino operators and mobile access, while Wildz Casino lists slot, jackpot, live casino, and table game categories in its online gaming library. Cars Will Become Personalized Digital Spaces Autonomous vehicles will know more about passenger preferences than traditional cars. A rider could enter the vehicle and instantly continue a podcast, resume a series, open a cloud game, adjust the seat, lower the lights, and choose quiet mode. Shared robotaxis may
Jul 6, 2026 · via theweeklydriver.com
After EV Batteries, China Wants To Dominate Car Brains Too Several Chinese carmakers are developing their own smart-driving chips, aiming to cut costs, move faster, and rely less on third parties. - Chinese EV makers are designing their own smart-driving chips to cut costs and rely less on suppliers. - BYD, NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto want more control over the hardware behind driver assistance. - In-house chip design could make Chinese EVs cheaper, smarter, and faster to develop. The first part of China’s electric car rise was about batteries, an industry it now dominates. Cheaper, better batteries made at an enormous scale helped turn companies like BYD from regional players into global juggernauts with their eyes on legacy automakers. Now, Chinese carmakers are looking at the next expensive EV part: the chips that power advanced driver-assistance systems and increasingly automated driving features. Gasgoo says 2026 looks set to be a major year for Chinese automakers developing their own smart driving chips. BYD, NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto all have in-house chip design projects in progress because advanced driver-assistance hardware is becoming increasingly important—and too expensive—to leave entirely to suppliers. The industry shift is bigger than propulsion. Cars are increasingly becoming software-defined machines, and in China specifically, advanced driver-assistance features are quickly trickling down from expensive flagship models into much cheaper mainstream EVs. That puts pressure on carmakers to make the hardware cheaper, more efficient, and more closely tied to their own software. The most advanced cars available in China are rolling sensor platforms, running cameras, radar, lidar in some cases, driver-monitoring systems, and increasingly ambitious assisted-driving software. The chip that processes all of that is becoming increasingly important, and automakers want more flexibility, independence, and savings by no longer outsourcing this technology. BYD is the cleanest example of how
Jul 6, 2026 · via insideevs.com
LOXO secures DXC investment to scale its autonomous logistics technology 6 July 2026 LOXO, a Bern-based start-up developing a Level 4 autonomous driving solution for commercial vehicles, has entered a strategic partnership with US technology group DXC Technology, which includes an investment, to industrialize autonomous logistics. LOXO has entered a strategic partnership with DXC Technology that includes an investment by the US group, following successful trials of its autonomous driving solution for commercial vehicles. The two companies will combine LOXO’s technology with DXC’s engineering and systems-integration capabilities to industrialize autonomous logistics. LOXO has developed the LOXO Digital Driver, a vehicle-agnostic Level 4 autonomous driving solution for commercial vehicles, meaning the system can operate without a human driver within defined conditions. The technology has been validated through deployments on public roads across Europe and is designed to support scalable logistics use cases. DXC Technology is a US-listed enterprise technology and consulting company with around 115,000 employees, including nearly 50,000 engineers and consultants across 70 countries, and reported revenue of USD 12.87 billion for its 2025 fiscal year. Through the partnership, the two companies aim to pair LOXO’s Level 4 autonomy platform with DXC’s systems integration and global enterprise delivery experience. The collaboration is intended to create a repeatable model for deploying autonomous solutions at scale, helping logistics operators address rising costs, driver shortages and growing operational complexity while shortening time to market.
Jul 6, 2026 · via ggba.swiss
Last updated: March 31, 2026 Why Your Next Car Won’t Drive Itself – But Your Taxi Might The self-driving future has begun, just not in the way many expected. While private cars are evolving slowly but surely with relevant safety gains expected on our streets by 2035, autonomous fleets are already scaling in cities from Hamburg to San Francisco to Shenzhen, reshaping the global race for mobility. In San Francisco, one in four ride-hail trips is now completed without a human driver. In Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Pony.ai's robotaxis averaged 26 rides per vehicle per day during the Chinese New Year holiday — double the rate typically achieved by a human taxi driver. In Hamburg, a fleet of 280 highly automated vehicles carries hundreds of thousands of passengers every month across a 270 km² service area. The autonomous revolution has arrived, but it is appearing in the vehicles you summon on an app. Autonomous Mobility: Proof of Concept Achieved Autonomous mobility — vehicles that can drive themselves without human involvement — has cleared its proof-of-concept phase. The harder contest, scaling that technology in a way that is safe, trusted and genuinely useful, is only just beginning. It seems now that the car you will drive in 2035 will be less of a revolution than an advanced evolution of the one you have today. According to the World Economic Forum, it will be safer, more connected and more assisted — but still recognizably a car built around a human driver. The Forum projects that only 4% of new personal vehicles sold in 2035 will have Level 4 capabilities, the threshold at which a car can drive independently within a defined domain. That is a clear recalibration from the more optimistic forecasts of the previous decade, when some industry voices, like Elon Musk
Jul 6, 2026 · via allianz.com
Gasgoo Munich- On July 2, the 2026 Shanghai International Low-Carbon Smart Mobility Exhibition opened its doors at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. M-Hero took center stage at the Dongfeng Motor booth, showcasing its flagship 917 alongside the all-new M817—a "luxury intelligent off-road SUV"—to illustrate a new path of green, low-carbon, and smart innovation in the off-road sector. Image credit: M-Hero The highlight of the display, the new M817, is an all-scenario luxury intelligent off-road SUV designed for the mass market. Officially launched on June 27, the lineup features five configurations—Mate, Mate+, Max, Max+, and Ultra—with an official guide price ranging from 299,900 to 399,900 yuan. It is equipped with a 62.5 kWh CATL off-road flagship "Xiaoyao" extended-range battery and a 2.0T hybrid-specific engine. The vehicle offers a CLTC pure electric range of 301 km and a comprehensive range of 1,450 km, enabling low-carbon daily commutes and long-distance travel without range anxiety. Fuel consumption at low battery levels is as low as 6.99 L/100 km. Leveraging an 800V high-voltage platform and 6C supercharging, charging from 30% to 80% takes less than 10 minutes. On the intelligent front, the new M817 integrates five Huawei solutions: Qiankun Autonomous Driving System, HarmonyOS Cockpit, Qiankun Vehicle Cloud, Qiankun Vehicle Control, and Whale Fin Communication. In terms of autonomous driving, the M817 is the first off-roader to launch with the new-generation Huawei Qiankun ADS 5, featuring multiple evolutionary upgrades. Meanwhile, the M-Hero 917—as China's first luxury electric off-roader—deeply integrates military off-road genes with smart EV technology. It achieves a dual-power layout with both pure electric and extended-range options, balancing high-performance off-roading with low-carbon environmental travel. It is priced between 637,700 and 739,000 yuan. The model simultaneously features the M-Hero Off-Road Architecture (MORA), M-Hero MEGA POWER, and the M-Hero All-Terrain System (M ATS), boasting
Jul 6, 2026 · via autonews.gasgoo.com
GlobalData blog: Why L2++ might be the bridge between hype and reality for Autonomous Vehicles
The Stuttgart Autonomous Vehicle Tech Expo 2026
At Messe Stuttgart, the 2026 Autonomous Vehicle Tech Expo (6/23-25) brought together OEMs, suppliers, and regulators for three days of tech showcases, talks, and debate. The consensus across the sessions GlobalData attended seemed to be that the technology is close to r....
At Messe Stuttgart, the 2026 Autonomous Vehicle Tech Expo (6/23-25) brought together OEMs, suppliers, and regulators for three days of tech showcases, talks, and debate. The consensus across the sessions GlobalData attended seemed to be that the technology is close to r....
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Jul 6, 2026 · via marklines.com
Autonomous vehicle laws kill Car accidents kill 100 Americans every day. But now an amazing solution is available: self-driving cars. Robotaxis like Google-owned Waymo, for example. Passengers who try them, like them. Wherever robotaxis are allowed, ridership increases fast. Two years ago, there were 50,000 trips per week – today 500,000. “The car did a better job than if somebody was driving!” says a passenger in my new video. Waymo claims its cars are “10 times safer” than human-driven ones. I wouldn’t believe that if insurance companies, with their own money at stake, didn’t agree. Reinsurance News reports Waymo’s had an “88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims.” “We have the data,” says Adam Thierer, author of “Permissionless Innovation.” “94% of all accidents are attributable to human error … We can address one of the leading killers of Americans!” Unfortunately, some politicians say you shouldn’t be allowed to try robotaxis. New York state senator Luis Sepulveda wants a law that says motor vehicles for hire “shall not be … operated by an automated driving system without a human driver … seated behind the steering wheel and engaged in the task of driving.” He says the state must protect immigrant taxi and Uber drivers who live in his district. “I cannot support something that is going to almost overnight lead to loss of jobs of over 100,000 people.” “Even if he isn’t needed?” I ask. “Even if he’s worse than the machine?” “I don’t think that having an individual in a vehicle would be worse than a machine,” says Sepulveda. “That’s just wrong,” says Thierer. “Humans get drunk, drowsy, distracted. Say what you want about robots, they don’t get drunk.” Sepulveda responds: “Waymo is going to make billions of dollars – let them pay
Jul 6, 2026 · via minotdailynews.com
Several Waymo vehicles had to be towed away after the company said their batteries died while they were stuck in heavy San Francisco traffic amid Fourth of July celebrations. Video verified by NBC News showed at least a dozen stationary Waymo vehicles, many of them Jaguar I-PACE models, lined up on a street following a city- and county-sponsored fireworks display from the Golden Gate Bridge. Another video showed more vehicles at a standstill at an intersection filled with people. One of the vehicles was on a flatbed truck. The company noted that there was heavy traffic in the area following fireworks celebrations. “Major traffic disruptions, a high volume of travelers, and unplanned road closures contributed to unexpected congestion,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson said Waymo’s roadside assistance team worked to clear the vehicles, adding that the company is “evaluating ways to strengthen Waymo’s resilience in major traffic disruptions.” Rose Peterson told NBC Bay Area she was in a Waymo ride leaving the area when the car kept driving while someone lit fireworks on the street. “We were pulling up to a four-way stop and this guy was shooting off a firework in the middle of the road, and then our Waymo starts driving, and we’re like, ‘Wait, what’s happening?’” she said, adding that no one in the car was hurt. Dave Guingona told the station he spent nearly two hours in standstill traffic until a number of Waymo vehicles were cleared from a roadway. “We realized people were getting out of their cars, yelling and screaming at these Waymos because there were no drivers,” he said. A Waymo vehicle caught fire after it drove over fireworks someone had set off, according to the company, which said no injuries were reported. In December, Waymo briefly paused service
Jul 6, 2026 · via nbcnews.com
Turing Completes $174MM Series A Round, $79MM raised in the extension round Tokyo, Japan, July 6, 2026 – Turing, a leader in end-to-end (E2E) autonomous driving, has raised $79MM in its Series A extension round—comprising $43MM in equity from AMD Ventures, Mitsubishi Corporation, MUFG Bank, SUPERMICRO, and other investors, together with a $36MM loan facility with MUFG Bank. Combined with the $95MM first close announced in November 2025, this brings the total raised in Turing’s Series A round to $174MM. Turing is a startup on a mission to make fully autonomous driving a reality. Using camera feeds as input, the company is building an end-to-end (E2E) autonomous driving system that handles perception, decision-making, and vehicle control within a single unified model. Turing is also developing a physical foundation model that interprets its surroundings—pedestrians, road signs, traffic signals, and road conditions—in natural language, allowing the system to respond flexibly to complex driving situations. By owning the entire stack—from model development to vehicle integration—Turing aims to bring fully autonomous driving into the real world, where vehicles perform driving tasks in place of human drivers across a wide range of real-world conditions. The funds will be used to expand the company’s computing infrastructure, build out its commercial operations for real-world deployment, and hire the talent needed to accelerate these efforts. Turing will continue to strengthen both its R&D and commercial operations as it works to bring fully autonomous driving developed in Japan into the real world. Investors and Financial Institutions Participating in This Round | Equity Financing | AMD Ventures, BIPROGY Inc., DataDirect Networks, Inc., GMO Internet, Inc., Mitsubishi Corporation, MUFG Bank, Ltd., Super Micro Computer, Inc., TOKYO ELECTRON DEVICE LIMITED | | Loan Agreement | MUFG Bank, Ltd. | ※ Listed in alphabetical order Comment from Turing CEO Issei Yamamoto Fully autonomous
Jul 6, 2026 · via tur.ing
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Jul 6, 2026 · via news.futunn.com
Waymos ran into trouble during yet another a major San Francisco event, with apparently dozens of the robotaxis disrupted by gridlock from the city’s Fourth of July celebration — and one driving directly through an exploding firework. A video circulating on social media shows a Waymo rolling into a detonating firework in a Mission District intersection, with colorful smoke visible around the white vehicle and a passenger asking whether the car was on fire (opens in new tab). Waymo told CBS (opens in new tab) that no injuries were reported, that the vehicle was unscathed, and that the company reached out to check on the rider. Gridlock and congestion during the holiday celebrations caused broader problems for the fleet. Waymos were reported blocking roadways elsewhere in the city, and the snarled traffic left some cars stuck for hours. A few ran out of power and had to be towed. Clips of the stalled cars and the firework encounter quickly made the rounds online, drawing thousands of reactions and reigniting a debate over whether San Francisco’s streets are ready for driverless cars during major events. One user said he was trapped behind Waymos for four hours by the Palace of Fine Arts. Another said his kids were stranded for just as long until tow trucks arrived to load up the idled robotaxis. Waymo operates 577 robotaxis and provides roughly 500,000 paid rides a week across 10 cities. In a statement, the company said: “extreme traffic congestion in northern San Francisco disrupted normal operations for several Waymo vehicles,” and that its roadside assistance team worked with local authorities to clear vehicles from the area. A Waymo spokesperson said the company’s priority “is keeping San Francisco moving safely, especially during major city celebrations,” and that its team “worked quickly to clear our vehicles
Jul 6, 2026 · via sfstandard.com
We took a self‑driving car on the road for 100 days to see how it handled itself – these are the mistakes it kept making In March, Jensen Huang, chief executive of computer chip giant NVIDIA, declared the “ChatGPT moment” for self-driving cars had arrived. In Australia, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) system is already available on public roads. Waymo is exploring robotaxi operations in Australia. The question is no longer whether autonomous driving will arrive, but whether Australia is ready to operate it safely, efficiently and sustainably. This raises an infrastructure question: can roads, bridges and intersections designed for human drivers also be understood by machines? Over the past 100-plus days, my colleagues and I have used a Tesla Model Y with FSD every day on Queensland roads. We recorded more than 500 safety-critical events where the system required driver intervention or revealed an important limitation in how it interpreted the road environment. To make some of these observations useful beyond our own research, we initiated White Box Autonomy as a public archive of events where autonomous vehicles hit problems in real-world conditions. Two things stood out. First, the technology is already far more capable than many people realise. In many cases the vehicle handled the driving task smoothly, with a precision that is hard for a human driver to match. Second, it is also less capable than many people assume. It occasionally struggled with situations human drivers handle almost automatically, making mistakes that were surprising and sometimes dangerous because they weren’t the kinds of errors an experienced driver would make. Where the system struggled There is a small bridge in my neighbourhood that I had barely noticed before. Like most drivers, I simply drove over it without thinking too much. But almost every time Tesla FSD approached it, the
Jul 6, 2026 · via news.uq.edu.au
San Francisco’s Fourth of July celebration along the city’s waterfront quickly turned into hours of gridlock, dangerous fireworks incidents and a surge in emergency calls. Thousands packed Crissy Field to watch fireworks launched from the Golden Gate Bridge. But once the show ended, it wasn't exactly a smooth ride home. Watch NBC Bay Area News free wherever you are While many left with great memories. Others found themselves stuck for hours in gridlock, caught in a massive backup involving dozens of Waymo cars, while firefighters across the city were responding to fires and serious fireworks injuries. For Rose Peterson, the ride home after San Francisco's Fourth of July fireworks took an unexpected turn. “We were pulling up to a four-way stop and this guy was shooting off a firework in the middle of the road, and then our Waymo starts driving, and we’re like ‘Wait, what’s happening?’,” she said. No one inside was hurt, but Peterson says the experience left her questioning how autonomous vehicles respond in unpredictable situations. “I definitely think it needs to be more sensitive of anything that can come into the path of the road,” she said. Local That wasn’t the only challenge after the show. As thousands left Crissy Field and the Presidio, traffic came to a standstill. Among those stuck was Dave Guingona, who had friends visiting from the Philippines and wanted to show them a memorable Fourth of July in San Francisco. “Five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes went by, then we realized people were getting out of their cars, yelling and screaming at these Waymos because there were no drivers,” he said. He says nearly two hours later, Waymo employees finally began driving the vehicles out. “They had a great time, but this is what they’re going to remember for the rest
Jul 6, 2026 · via nbcbayarea.com
Waymo looking into vehicles driving over fireworks in San Francisco, including 1 that caught fire Waymo is evaluating a couple of incidents on the Fourth of July in San Francisco in which its autonomous vehicles drove over fireworks, including one that caught fire. The company said an unoccupied vehicle drove over a small firework in the street and caught fire. No injuries were reported and the fire department and local authorities helped put the fire out and remove the vehicle from the road. A video on social media from a Waymo rider showed another vehicle driving over what the company called an illegal firework in the street. Waymo said no injuries were reported in that incident and the vehicle was not damaged. The company added that it has reached out to the rider to check in on them. Some Waymos also had their operations disrupted on July Fourth due to traffic. A spokesperson said its roadside assistance team cleared the vehicle from the area. The spokesperson added that it is evaluating and learning from events like this. The company said it's committed to keeping its riders safe and earning the trust of the public. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie's office issued a statement about the traffic in the city Saturday night, saying safety was the top priority. "We understand that with more than 100,000 people in the area, some people experienced delays getting home, and we will have conversations with our public and private partners to ensure the experience is smoother next time," Lurie's office said in the statement.
Jul 5, 2026 · via cbsnews.com
In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Zoox, Waymo, Uber, XPENG, Tesla, Bosch, Cariad, Valeo and NHTSA. In this Article Zoox Details Production Robotaxi Design Autonomous mobility developer Zoox has unveiled the production-intent iteration of its purpose-built, bidirectional robotaxi, introducing targeted cabin and exterior modifications derived from early fleet deployment testing and feedback from 500,000 riders. The structural and aesthetic revisions establish the finalized baseline for the company’s upcoming commercial assembly pipeline. Zoox plans to initiate volume manufacturing at its dedicated serial production facility in Hayward, California, with the capability to ramp output up to 100 vehicles per week to support regional ridehailing fleet expansions later this year, subject to regulatory clearance. Interior modifications focus on cabin comfort, materials durability, and usability within the vehicle’s symmetrical, carriage-style seating configuration. The color, material, and finish palette has been transitioned to a lighter, monochrome design featuring aloe green seating alongside stone-grey flooring and structural trim to minimize visual distraction. Ergonomic adjustments include increased cushioning and re-contoured geometry across all passenger seats and headrests. Functional cabin interfaces were similarly updated, incorporating high-contrast component surfaces to prevent passengers from misplacing personal items, stabilized fluting on wireless device charging pads, expanded cup holder dimensions, and higher-luminance touchscreens. Exterior modifications optimize physical visibility and acoustic communication pathways for public road interactions. The vehicle’s proprietary bidirectional color-rotating reflectors have been repositioned to enhance external classification of the robotaxi’s operational orientation. The primary entry interface integrates an upgraded microphone and speaker hardware array to expand two-way audio throughput. These acoustic enhancements are engineered to streamline audio communication between passengers and remote operations, while providing clearer external messaging channels for general road users, support personnel, and first responders. Waymo Ends Phoenix Robotaxi Deal Uber Waymo terminated its long-running autonomous vehicle partnership with Uber in Phoenix, Arizona, completely withdrawing its
Jul 5, 2026 · via autoconnectedcar.com
Q&A: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on how AI will transform autos Park City, Utah – If the early 20th-century auto revolution was sparked in Detroit by entrepreneurs like Ford, Dodge, and Sloan, the early 21st century has brought a new, digital auto revolution on America’s West Coast right out of a science fiction novel. At its forefront are entrepreneurs like Sergei Brin of Google, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Rivian’s RJ Scaringe. “I think it's the most exciting time in human history,” Scaringe said at the media launch of his Tesla Model Y fighter, the electric R2, in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains. “We happen to be alive at this moment in human history, where we are creating intelligence that can do tasks humans can do.” With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, computer chips, and electronics, these entrepreneurs envision a robot-driven future that will not only transform the automobile, but also the workplace in which they are made. “There's going to be thousands of people collaborating alongside these robots,” Scaringe said. “They're going to take a picture: ‘Hey, check this out. My coworker's name is Phil, and he's a robot.’” Brin pioneered the Waymo robot car ferrying passengers on U.S. streets. Musk brought point-to-point hands-free driving to his Tesla model lineup and is transforming his factories to build humanoid robots. Scaringe, who has raised over a billion dollars for his company, Mind Robotics, said robotics is transforming Rivian. Not only will the R2 drive itself, but an AI-driven revolution is at our doorstep. Detroit News auto columnist Henry Payne sat down with Scaringe and other media representatives at a recent roundtable to discuss. Detroit News: You started a robotics company? Scaringe: Yes. The company was formed late last year ... focused on developing extremely capable robots with human-like skills to do manufacturing. We've
Jul 5, 2026 · via detroitnews.com