Tag Archives: Waymo

Toyota: Steady and Slow. . .

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. . .well, maybe it won’t outright win the race, but its approach to technology sure seems like the right one. . . .

By Gary S. Vasilash

You may recall that not long ago Toyota was being chastised for being insufficiently aggressive in pursuing an electric vehicle strategy. It seemed as though Toyota would be like a vehicle abandoned by the side of the road, striped and desolate.

It isn’t that it wasn’t putting EVs on the road. Just not enough of them. And not just with the sort of capability that would be expected of Toyota. So went part of the criticism.

Akio Toyoda was considered backward for taking an approach that would have powertrains suited to varying needs, whether it is a straight ICE, a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, a battery electric, or even—in exceedingly limited quantities at least—a hydrogen electric setup.

Turns out that this steady approach is actually one that is winning in the market.

According to Kelley Blue Book in Q1 2025 there were 296,227 EVs sold in the U.S.

That’s from 25 brands.

In Q1 2025 Toyota (including Lexus) sold 110,225 hybrids. That’s about 37% of the number of all the EVs sold by all of those other companies. And while those brands are struggling to make money from EVs, presumably Toyota isn’t putting hybrids under the hoods of a mulitude of vehicles because it isn’t making money selling them.

So doing what it is doing powertrain-wise is probably not a bad decision on Toyoda’s part.

Another area where Toyota wasn’t as visibly bullish as some other companies is in autonomous driving.

No real analogue to Cruise Automation or Argo AI.

There was (and is) the Toyota Research Institute, but they were doing other things, too.

And now there is no Cruise Automation. No Argo AI.

And this week Waymo and Toyota announced they’ve “reached a preliminary agreement to explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.”

Waymo is clearly the leader in the U.S. in autonomous driving tech, with the company offering rides in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.

Also this week May Mobility, an autonomous vehicle tech company, and Uber announced a partnership that will have autonomous vehicles available for ride-hail in Arlington, Texas, by the end of the year.

The vehicles for the Arlington program?

Toyota Sienna minivans. (They’re hybrids.)

Toyota is a strategic partner in May Mobility.

Toyota Sienna hybrid minivans will be used in the Uber/May Mobility deployment in Arlington, Texas. (Image: Uber/May Mobility)

Self-Driving Is Desirable. So Is Cake Without Calories.

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By Gary S Vasilash

The “Consumer Attitude’s Around Autonomous Vehicle Technology Survey” indicates that there is a solid base of consumers who are ready to spend money to buy self-driving capability for their next vehicle.

Perhaps.

That is, there is a blur between advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving, even though the survey conducted for Ghost Autonomy, a developer of autonomous driving software, provides definitions of both, with ADAS including “automatic emergency braking, blind spot and pedestrian detection, lane keeping assist, surround view, parking assist, driver drowsiness detection and gaze detection” and autonomous driving technologies based on the SAE five levels, but claiming “L3-L5 is considered fully autonomous driving that does not require human backup,” which is not the case, because L3, while it lets the driver do other things, also requires that the driver be capable of reassuming, well, driving.

BMW Pesrsonal Pilot L3: yes, a driver is still required to regain control when needed. (Image: BMW)

For example, BMW has launched “BMW Personal Pilot L3,” which will be available to purchasers (adding 6,000 euros to the sticker) of the BMW 7 Series—in Germany only.

According to BMW this system provides “Level 3 capability as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers,” and it “allows drivers to redirect their focus to other in-vehicle activities when travelling at up to 60 km/h (37 mph) on motorways with structurally separated carriageways.”

However, the driver “still has to be ready to reassume the task of driving at any time – i.e. as soon as the situation on the road requires them to or the stretch of road suitable for using the BMW Personal Pilot L3 comes to an end.”

In other words, “human backup.”

According to the Ghost Autonomy survey, 52% of those who have experienced self-driving (which arguably would be those who have ridden in a Cruise or Waymo vehicle, as FSD’s name notwithstanding, Tesla’s product isn’t self-driving, at least not within the existing classification, and it actually requires that the driver keep hands on the wheel) would “consider buying a car with full autonomy sooner if the technology was available today,” which is sort of a moot point because (a) it isn’t and (b) its not likely to be anytime soon.

What’s more, those “drivers who’ve experienced self-driving,” 78% of them, are willing to pay $5,000 or more upfront. Arguably this will be a lot more than $5,000 because the aforementioned BMW system would be about $6,600, and the Tesla FSD package (“Your car will be able to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention and will continuously improve”) adds $12,000 to the sticker.

One finding in the survey that is certainly laudable is that when asked to rank the factors considered when they purchase their next vehicle they are:

  1. ADAS
  2. Keyless or phone-based entry and start
  3. Premium infotainment screen and sound
  4. Premium interior/exterior trim
  5. EV/battery powertrain

Yes, safety systems rank first.

But one wonders whether that answer isn’t analogous to what people say at the dentist office when asked about their brushing and flossing habits.

Who is going to say even on a survey that awesome audio is more important to them than safety?

Driving Done Remotely

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Imagine being driven in an autonomous vehicle that’s being controlled by someone who is remote

By Gary S. Vasilash

Most companies that are developing autonomous driving technology for vehicles—companies like Waymo and Argo AI and Cruise—are doing so such that the autonomous vehicle is. . .autonomous.

The sensors and the processors and the actuators necessary to making a given vehicle drive without human input are all embedded in said vehicle.

Teleoperation in Berlin. (Image: Vay)

Sure, the vehicle may access the cloud every now and then for an update of some sort (e.g., perhaps for some information regarding location), but otherwise autonomous is as autonomous does.

But then there’s a company out of Berlin named Vay.

Vay’s approach to autonomy is different.

Vay has developed a “teledriving” system.

This means that there is a “teledriver.” Someone who is not in the vehicle but who is in control of the vehicle.

Think of it, perhaps, like an air traffic controller combined with someone who is playing some version of Forza.

Vay co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe: “As our system does not rely on expensive 360-degree lidar sensors, and is therefore comparatively inexpensive, our way of rolling out driverless vehicles will not only enable consumers to experience driverless mobility sooner, but also provide a highly scalable solution that can be integrated into every car.”

It seems that the plan is learn from the teleoperation so that they will be able to roll out autonomous features gradually.

Vay has vehicles operating in Berlin right now, but there are safety drivers on board. The company believes that they will be able to operate fully teledriven next year.