The Driverless, Robo-Taxi's Are Here! Are you still unsure? Or is it a hard "No"

These 5 companies are leading the self-driving race & might help you change your mind on adapting to the future of driverless vehicles.

If you were to tell someone you were getting into a car with no driver, just a decade ago, they would look at you like you were insane; and possibly even consider checking you into a facility.

Well, with all of the recent talk about Elon Musk and Tesla's self driving taxi's arriving soon, it's not as insane as some once thought.  Many are surprised to hear how far ahead the world is already in the realm of driverless vehicles. Did you know that there are already 5 companies around the world and/or in the US that have already began this new venture?

Take a look:

• Waymo, an Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, has actually been available in the US since 2020 starting in Phoenix, Arizona. It is now available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas as well. They are electric Jaguars equipped with cameras and sensors. Maybe you have seen them around. Waymo says the self driving cars avoid high-severity collisions better than human drivers and has fewer insurance claims and injuries. 

  
  

• Cruise, approved to operate a commercial robotaxi service in San Francisco. 

  
  

• Baidu and Pony.ai, granted permits to deploy robotaxis without safety drivers in a 23 square mile area in Beijing's Economic-Technological Development Area. 

  
  

• Verne, a two-seat, self-driving electric car approved for use in several cities, including Manchester in the UK and cities in Germany. 

  
  

• Apollo Go, is a robotaxi service operated by Baidu - a Chinese tech company that is a current leader in the robotaxi industry - providing about 826K rides in the first quarter of 2024. It is operating and testing in multiple cities in China, such as: 

  - Wuhan, Apollo Go has a fleet of 500 robotaxis that covers about half of the city's population. Wuhan was the first city in China to issue pilot licenses for autonomous vehicles and open public test roads to the city center. 

  - Beijing, Apollo Go has a driverless airport transportation service in Beijing, which connects urban roads and highways to Beijing Daxing Airport.  The driverless vehicle's are in full swing and with Elon Musk and Tesla's robotaxi almost set to be released, what does that mean for companies such as Uber and Lyft? Mark Mahaney, a lead internet analyst who focuses mainly on tech growth for RBC capital markets investments, was recently on CNBC and stated, "Even with the robotaxi concerns I still like Uber. I think we're going to look back on this 2 or 3 years and say that Uber actually won from the emergence of robotaxis and I know this is going to take a long time before we see robotaxis roaming around Manhatten, but we're seeing them in San Francisco, so just wait." Mahaney didn't go into great detail as to why he thinks Uber will outperform even with his belief of the robotaxi expansion, but we can possibly speculate that he may think that robotaxi companies will operate directly with Uber in the future. This is a real possibility and if it is the case, you may need to get comfortable with a humanless taxi driver named A.I., not the retired Hall of Fame basketball player.

Comment below iand tell us your experience with self-driving vehicles!