The writer is a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative
Get ready, Europe. The robotaxis are coming. This year, Londoners could see driverless cars from China’s Baidu and Waymo, the self-driving subsidiary of Google’s Alphabet. Tensor Auto and GreenMobility are planning to launch autonomous cars in Copenhagen while Stellantis and Pony.ai want to do the same in Luxembourg. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has voiced her support: “Self-driving cars are already a reality in the United States and China. The same should be true here in Europe.”
She is right about the first part. Autonomous rides are available in Chinese cities like Beijing and Wuhan and in the US, where I live, driverless cars from Waymo, Zoox and Tesla navigate the streets of cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin. Waymo is reported to provide 450,000 paid trips per week.