Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Amazon, unveiled a new look for its boxy, bidirectional robotaxi, calling it the "next evolution" of the vehicle intended for mass production. The company is currently operating a free robotaxi service in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Austin, and Miami while it waits for the federal government to approve its request for an exemption from safety rules that require production vehicles to have traditional controls, like steering wheels and pedals.

While other robotaxi operators have typically relied on vehicles with familiar nameplates for their fleets, Zoox is unique in its embrace of a purpose-built …

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A Fatal Crash and a Disputed Cause A Tesla tore through the brick front of a home in

Against all odds, the Tesla Cybercab is in production. And while Elon Musk's company may not have a very coherent plan for the tiny, autonomous two-seater, it's still taking the necessary steps to certify the EV's legitimacy. As such, Tesla recently filed paperwork with the Environmental Protection Agency that reveal many of the Cybercab's specs, including its weight, battery size, and preliminary range estimates.

What these documents reveal is the lightest, most range efficient vehicle Tesla has ever produced - and quite possibly one of the most efficient EVs ever produced.

The EPA filings confirm the Cybercab runs on a single front-mou …

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Uber One, meet Waymo Premier.

The robotaxi operator announced a new $29.99-a-month premium tier for riders who want a more elevated and exclusive autonomous experience. The invite-only membership service is aimed at Waymo customers who use the service most frequently, offering them a number of perks, including priority pickups, 10 percent cash back on every trip, early robotaxi access in new cities, and up to five free cancellations a month.

Waymo Premier will be initially offered to select riders in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, the company said. The program will scale to new cities as Waymo continues to expand; the company h …

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Waymo has a lot of experience building virtual systems to help its autonomous vehicles better understand the real world. It built realistic 3D worlds to better anticipate natural disasters and unpredictable edge cases. It created a virtual representation of a hyperattentive driver to test against its own autonomous vehicles in a series of simulated scenarios to see which is better at crash avoidance.

Now, in a new research paper published today in Nature Communications, Waymo describes a new computer-based cognitive model that explains how human drivers make split-second decisions to avoid crashes. The company thinks the new model will serv …

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