It was a year of tumult, with success and major failures. Let's count down the top self-driving stories of 2024

New safety data on Waymos, made by the insurer SwissRe, shore up claims of Waymos reducing risk on the road.

GM has killed Cruise's robotaxi project. In this article, I muse about some consequences, including why Tesla should buy it, what it means for global competition and what role the DMV played in the death of Cruise and what it should think about that. Link to the article in the comments.

Read my Forbes site story at Tesla should buy Cruise

Waymo in year one made a fixed-stop campus robotaxi service with cheap parts, 15 years before Tesla's demonstration of a similar concept. Robotaxi history began here.

Instead of Uber, a Nigeria based ride-hail finance enabler will run the depots and charging. Florida has a special history with robocars, but also presents challenges.

Waymo's service area is still 80 square miles (LA to Santa Monica) but now anybody can ride. It's another milestone.

Musk won big (though thanks to Twitter it may have been no gamble.) But now will urban, blue riders avoid his robotaxis? What happens when the government flips again?

Waymo also just announced they are doing 150,000 rides/week. This internal research projects shows off some interesting abilities of LLMs and a different approach.

Waymo just closed a $5.6B funding round. Some of that will be used to grow the fleet, but is there a way to grow fleets with debt rather than equity finanancing?

Robotaxis have different charging needs than regular cars. Will they want Tesla's new promised wireless charging, or is battery swap made for them>

How do all the robotaxi contenders compare with Waymo the leader? See it all in one graphic

Tesla has said their Oct 10 "We Robot" day will be one for the history books. But they are very far from having a working robotaxi you can bet your life on. So just what can they show off to live up to the hype? I've collected various speculations on what they might show off at Warner Brothers, in hopes of not disappointing.

Read it at Forbes.com in Since Tesla has no Robotaxi, just what will they show on Robotaxi day?

Waymo might seek a backup if their planned Zeekr receives 100% tariffs from the White House, but probably not the Ioniq 5

Nuro was going to make a large fleet of custom delivery robots. Now it will licence its self-driving software stack to vehicles of all types, including passenger cars

The lastest Waymo safety data throws down a gauntlet in front of other companies to publish similar data, and helps regulators measure risk.

A short term partnership will help both companies learn. But the question of a long-term partnership is much more complex.

Waymo says it's new 6th generation driver has significantly reduced cost. A robotaxi can end up cheaper than a regular car. Here's a list what it doesn't need.

Tesla doesn't have robotaxi software yet, and it's done almost nothing on robotaxi logistics. But it might be able to launch early with a cheaper, greener Uber style ride.

Making a working self-driving car is hard, but there's a ton more to do to open a robotaxi service area. Here's an outline of the surprisingly long list of things.

Robotaxis may not look like old-school cars. What will be their key innovative features, and what is Tesla likely to show in their October concept reveal?