Robotaxi

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled today his vision for a “fun, exciting future,” filled with autonomous vehicles from his company, without steering wheels or drivers, as well as humanoid robots that will walk among us.

Elon Musk has unveiled what he said was a robotaxi capable of self-driving, predicting it would be available by 2027, about a decade after he first promised an autonomous vehicle.

Turning heads as they cruise past office buildings and malls, driverless taxis are slowly spreading through Chinese cities, prompting both wariness and wonder.

China's tech companies and automakers have poured billions of dollars into self-driving technology in recent years in an effort to catch industry leaders in the United States.

GM subsidiary Cruise on has said it plans to get its self-driving cars back on the road without human drivers after suspending robotaxi service late last year due to safety concerns.

Vehicles driven by humans are out gathering mapping data in the Arizona city of Phoenix, which has been amenable to testing of autonomous cars deployed by Cruise and Google's Waymo.

To the believers, the oft-promised autonomous car revolution is "clearly happening" — they point to the myriad displays at the Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas that defy the industry's bad headlines.

"Companies are deploying robotaxis in larger scale than before and in more cities," insisted Kersten Heineke, partner and codirector of the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility.

California authorities have taken a major step forward in expanding driverless taxi services in San Francisco, giving the green light for operators Waymo and Cruise to compete with ride-share services and cabs.

California regulators on Thursday gave a robotic taxi service the green light to begin charging passengers for driverless rides in San Francisco, a first in a state where dozens of companies have been trying to train vehicles to steer themselves on increasingly congested roads.