Two for the price of one today. Story #1:
Robotaxi leader Waymo on Wednesday announced that its driverless vehicles will begin transporting passengers in Nashville, Tennessee, next year while heading in a new direction by teaming up with Lyft instead of its recent ride-hailing partner Uber.
The Nashville plan calls for robotaxi ride requests to initially be limited to Waymo’s own mobile app before expanding on to Lyft’s app later next year.
Waymo’s decision to work with Lyft in Tennessee’s biggest city means its robotaxis will now be available on the apps of the two largest ride-hailing services in the U.S.
As part of earlier expansions, Waymo is already dispatching robotaxis through Uber’s app in Atlanta and Austin, Texas. Electric automaker Tesla has been testing a limited driverless service in Austin in an attempt to fulfill an ambitious plan that CEO Elon Musk has been pursuing for the past decade.
Even if it’s in only one city, getting Waymo’s industry-leading robotaxis on its app could help Lyft continue its recovery from the pandemic restrictions that decimated demand for rides. Uber bounced back from the pandemic more quickly, a comeback that has been reflected in both its financial results and market value, which has tripled since the end of 2019. Lyft’s stock price, in contrast, remains about 50% below where it stood at the end of 2019. As part of its turnaround efforts, Lyft hired former Amazon executive David Risher as its CEO two years ago.
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Since starting in Arizona, Waymo’s robotaxis have provided more than 250,000 trips in cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, as well as Austin and Atlanta. Waymo, which began in 2009 as a secret project within Google, also plans to expand into Dallas next year.
The partnership with Lyft is interesting, as Lyft has not been much of a player in this space so far. They’re supposed to have an autonomous offering in Austin at some point, but I haven’t heard much lately. Waymo is way ahead of Tesla in where it is offering service and in how many rides it is providing, but that could change in the longer term. And we’re waiting to see what the Zoox effect will be. Waymo’s press release is here, and Reuters and Engadget have more.
Houston-based Bot Auto, an autonomous trucking company, has completed its first test run without human assistance. Bot Auto conducted the test in Houston.
“The truck operated seamlessly within its defined operational domain with no one in the cab or remote assistance, navigating real-world traffic conditions,” the company said in a news release. “The run was executed at sunset, successfully navigating day and night operations.”
Bot Auto, a transportation-as-a-service startup, added that this milestone “serves as a validation benchmark, demonstrating the maturity and safety of Bot Auto’s autonomy stack and test protocols.”
The successful test comes two years after Xiaodi Hou, a globally recognized expert in autonomous vehicles, founded Bot Auto.
“This validation run is a meaningful step, but it’s a waypoint, not the destination,” Hou, CEO of Bot Auto, added in the release. “Success is simple: Autonomy must beat human cost-per-mile, consistently and safely. And at Bot Auto, humanless means no human — not in the driver’s seat, not in the back seat, and not behind a remote joystick.”
For several months, Bot Auto has been conducting autonomous trucking tests on a Houston-to-San Antonio route. In the coming months, Bot Auto will operate its first commercial cargo run without human assistance between its Houston and San Antonio hubs.
I’m aware of other companies aiming for driverless truck operations on I-10; that second link is about our old friend and current conqueror of I-45, Aurora. I had not heard of Bot Auto before seeing this story. Not their fault, as their news page notes, there have been a couple of stories in the Houston Chronicle in the past few months. Some days you get the driverless truck, some days the driverless truck gets you. Those of you out west on I-10, keep your eyes open for a Bot Auto truck.