This is The Takeaway from today’s Morning Brief, which you can sign up to receive in your inbox every morning along with:
Where the great transformation from gas-powered cars to EVs has hit some serious roadblocks, the push into robotaxis continues to gain momentum.
Tesla, again on the downswing for its vehicle deliveries, is on the upswing, aiming to overhaul ride-hailing like it did the auto industry.
Uber is wheeling and dealing, touting more than a dozen partnerships, with plans to operate robotaxi services in 10 markets by the end of 2026.
Alphabet’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo is seeking new funding at a valuation of at least $100 billion. And other players like Amazon’s Zoox have launched early rider programs before a making a bigger splash in the nascent market.
Similar to AI, the robotaxi market has a certain Wild West appeal. Startups and legacy names are scrambling to claim turf even as the revenue model, regulatory environment, and consumer appetite remains uncertain.
Companies are convinced people yearn for a self-driving future with less traffic, fewer crashes from human error, and the ability to do something else while behind the wheel.
On top of that, robotaxis attempt to solve an economic pothole tied to car ownership. People only use their vehicles for a fraction of the time they own them. It’s hard enough knowing that our increasingly unaffordable $50,000 machines shed value from the second we buy them.
Plus, they just sit there. Why not replace the concept of relying on a mostly unused but crucial depreciating asset for a no-strings-attached, on-demand substitute?
At some point, perhaps this year, we’ll find out whether people actually want this future as much as the companies think.
Tempering consumer enthusiasm is the flip side of that Wild West appeal. Fender benders, crashes, recalls, weird incidents, and other embarrassing bumps on the road to a full self-driving destination.
On the weekend before Christmas, a widespread power outage in San Francisco took traffic lights across the city offline. Human drivers had to navigate the mess using their judgment, but autonomous vehicles, specifically Waymo’s vehicles, halted in the middle of roadways. Videos circulating on social media showed the vehicles blocking traffic at intersections with their hazard lights blinking.
After the San Francisco mayor’s office contacted the company about the AI-fueled gridlock, Waymo suspended the ride-hailing service in the area before resuming operations the following day. While there were no accidents or injuries reported from the outages, a different kind of damage had been done.
