The self-driving taxi revolution is here

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illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on The Economist or enjoy below: 

🗞️ Driving the news: Autonomous taxis are moving from pilot projects to real urban transport systems, as fleets from Waymo, Cruise (revived under new leadership), Zoox and others expand across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, with launches planned in London and Tokyo
• After decades of research, the technology is now operating at commercial scale, offering fully driverless rides and reshaping how cities think about safety, congestion and mobility

🔭 The context: The breakthrough follows thirty years of development since Carnegie Mellon’s first hands-off cross-country drive in 1995
• Progress accelerated with advances in AI, lidar and high-resolution mapping, though rollout has been uneven due to accidents, regulatory pushback and differing state rules
• Recent years brought both rapid deployment and high-profile stumbles, including temporary suspensions after crashes, driving companies to strengthen safety protocols and data transparency

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Widespread autonomous mobility could significantly cut emissions if fleets are electrified and shared, replacing inefficient private car use and smoothing traffic flows
• Improved safety could reduce thousands of road deaths annually
• Yet energy impacts depend on fleet management and charging strategy, and the transition risks widening inequality if robotaxis displace public transport or add empty miles

⏭️ What’s next: Waymo plans major fleet expansions in 2026; regulators in California, the UK and Japan are preparing new safety frameworks; and cities are exploring integrations with public transit
• Industry consolidation is expected as capital needs grow, while policymakers weigh carbon requirements, data governance and road-use pricing to manage autonomous congestion
• The next two years will determine whether robotaxis become a backbone of urban mobility or a niche service

💬 One quote: “It’s the first time autonomous driving feels less like a demo — and more like a system people actually rely on”

📈 One stat: Waymo now records over 100,000 fully driverless rides per week across its active U.S. markets

See on illuminem’s Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of Alphabet (Waymo), and its peers like Amazon (Zoox), and General Motor (Cruise)

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