Waymo will begin fully autonomous operations with its 6th-generation Driver —an important step in bringing our technology to more riders in more cities. This latest system serves as the primary engine for our next era of expansion, with a streamlined configuration that drives down costs while maintaining our uncompromising safety standards. Designed for long-term growth across multiple vehicle platforms, this system’s expanded capabilities allow us to safely broaden our footprint into more diverse environments, including those with extreme winter weather, at an even greater scale.

In late January, an Alphabet-owned Waymo self-driving car was cruising near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, when a young child suddenly darted into the street. Waymo’s LiDAR sensors detected the student, who had just emerged from behind a parked SUV, but it was too late. Despite slamming on the brakes and slowing from 17 to six mph, the driverless car struck the child, knocking them to the pavement. Luckily, reports show that the child only suffered minor injuries, but that’s likely little comfort to parents whose children live in the growing number of cities where driverless cars operate.

Ce mouvement, révélé par une enquête de Reuters publiée le 13 février 2026, marque une nette inflexion par rapport à l’ambition tous-électriques affichée ces dernières années et s’inscrit dans un contexte de retrait progressif des investissements massifs en véhicules à batterie. Depuis fin 2025, le groupe a discrètement remis au catalogue des motorisations diesel sur plusieurs véhicules, allant des utilitaires légers aux berlines compactes et premium.

While selling private LTE and 5G networks, I visited an automotive manufacturing plant. The COO stopped the line and told me that one minute of downtime costs US$30,000 to US$40,000. Their production depends on synchronized robotics, AGVs, and real-time quality inspection running over an on-site private network. When connectivity is lost, even briefly, the line desynchronizes, and restarting can take minutes. The business impact is immediate and measurable.
That is why selling private networks was easy; The ROI conversation was trivial, but the problem was the economics. In 2026, the market counted 6,500 private networks globally with a total value of only US$2.5 billion, or roughly US$350,000 per network per year. For infrastructure that protects tens of millions in industrial value, telecom connectivity captures almost nothing. Private networks clearly work. Telecom business models do not.

L’Usine Nouvelle a réuni Sébastien Martin, le ministre délégué à l’Industrie, et Sophie Binet, la secrétaire générale de la CGT, pour débattre de la situation industrielle en France et confronter leurs solutions. Une rencontre inédite.

Deploying and commercializing fully autonomous vehicles have been harder than expected with high investments to ensure the technology is safe and public outcry after collisions forcing many to shut shop. Following a high-profile accident in 2023 when a robotaxi from General Motors’ GM.N Cruise dragged a pedestrian, regulators revoked its permit, eventually leading the company to cease operations.
But robotaxis have returned to the spotlight with Tesla rolling out its service in Austin, Texas earlier this year and CEO Elon Musk promising rapid expansion. Waymo, which has grown slowly and steadily over the years since its launch as Google’s self-driving project in 2009, has also accelerated expansion.

Waymo said the self-driving system in its robotaxis treats dead stop lights as four-way stops, just like humans are supposed to. That should have allowed the robotaxis to operate normally in spite of the massive outage.
Instead, many of the vehicles requested a “confirmation check” from Waymo’s fleet response team to make sure what they were doing was correct. All Waymo robotaxis have the ability to make these confirmation checks. With such a widespread outage on Saturday, there was a “concentrated spike” in these confirmation requests, Waymo said, which helped create all the congestion caught on video.

A Zoox spokesperson told TechCrunch the company identified some instances in which its vehicles made maneuvers that, while common for human drivers, didn’t meet its standards. For example, in an effort to avoid blocking certain intersections at a red light, the robotaxi might stop in a crosswalk. In other instances, the robotaxi made a late turn, resulting in a wide turn, according to a spokesperson’s emailed statement.

Uber said it is teaming up with Baidu's Apollo Go autonomous vehicle service to take part in a pilot program for self-driving taxi services that the British government is planning for next year. Testing is expected to start in the first half of 2026, the two companies said in social media posts.

Elon Musk, a déclaré dimanche que les robotsaxis de l'entreprise n'avaient pas été affectés par une panne d'électricité à San Francisco. "Les robotsaxis de Tesla n'ont pas été affectés par la panne de courant à San Francisco", a déclaré Elon Musk dans un post sur X.

L’incident, sans gravité et sans dommages humains et matériels, démontre s’il en était besoin que les véhicules autonomes n’en sont encore qu’à leurs débuts et qu’en cas d’imprévus, leur comportement n’est pas toujours à la hauteur de celui d’un conducteur humain. Du moins pas tant que cet imprévu n’a pas été intégré à leur système. C’est d’ailleurs la raison pour laquelle Elon Musk, concurrent de Waymo avec son système de Robotaxi chez Tesla, s’est empressé de tweeter que son service de voitures autonomes n’a pas été affecté par la panne d’électricité à San Francisco.

Ce samedi, San Francisco a été frappée par une panne d’électricité massive qui, selon Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a touché près de 130 000 clients. Cet événement a mis en relief un défi majeur rencontré par les taxis autonomes de Waymo, qui se positionnent comme les pionniers dans ce domaine : en cas de coupure de courant, les robotaxis se retrouvent immobilisés.

Un évènement d’une ampleur inédite a touché l’entreprise phare de robotaxis. Alors qu’une panne d’électricité massive a plongé une grande partie de San Francisco dans l’obscurité le samedi 20 décembre 2025, la flotte de taxis autonomes de Waymo a connu un échec technique retentissant et a obligé l’entreprise à suspendre ses services en urgence.

Tesla is rapidly expanding its supervised Robotaxi fleet in California's Bay Area, registering 1,655 vehicles and 798 drivers, up from 28 vehicles in August. The company recruits factory workers as AI operators amid regulatory hurdles and competition from Waymo. This push signals progress toward a 2025 unsupervised rollout.

Tesla is repurposing factory workers and sales staff into roles like AI operators and customer managers for its upcoming Robotaxi service, leveraging internal talent to cut costs and accelerate deployment amid regulatory and competitive challenges. This strategic shift highlights Elon Musk's efficiency-driven approach to autonomous mobility innovation.

General Motors (GM) today announced it will be rolling out support for the Apple Wallet app's digital car key feature, but it did not provide a timeframe or mention any specific vehicle models that will be compatible. GM has four main vehicle brands in the United States and Canada, including Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick.

Volkswagen has closed its Dresden plant, marking the first such shutdown in Germany in nearly 90 years, due to financial pressures, weak demand, EV transitions, Chinese competition, and US tariffs. This affects 35,000 jobs by 2030, with the site repurposed for AI and robotics research. The move signals broader challenges for Europe's auto sector.

In a recent interview, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe doubled down on his company’s decision to forgo Apple CarPlay, arguing that while the feature might benefit other automakers, it’s unnecessary for Rivian’s electric vehicles. This stance comes amid growing debates in the automotive sector about integrating smartphone ecosystems into car infotainment systems. Scaringe suggested that Rivian’s proprietary software provides a more seamless and integrated experience, one that aligns closely with the unique demands of electric vehicle ownership.