How Robotaxis Are Making Headway, Glitches and All

How Robotaxis Are Making Headway, Glitches and All It’s one of those technologies that were always around the corner but never arrived. Now it has, kind of... For well over a decade, big technology companies have pitched robotaxis as a way to move people around cities more safely and efficiently. Since 2018, they have been deployed on a small scale, with the US and China leading the way. Over the past year, users in Croatia, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh have been able to hail self-driving cabs, and London may follow soon. But progress has been slower than expected as robotaxi developers struggled with a variety of logistical challenges and regulatory hurdles. These must still be overcome before the vehicles can displace traditional taxis on a significant scale. When Google announced a self-driving car research project in 2010, the company’s engineers described a utopian future in which people would be liberated from driving so they could pursue more useful or less mundane activities while traveling. The implication was that driving can be a chore and private cars an unnecessary and expensive burden, even if they are sometimes a source of enjoyment. In this interpretation, mass car ownership will inevitably make way for networks of self-driving cars that can be hired for single journeys immediately, anywhere and at any time.