Daimler and Bosch to launch AI-powered taxi service next year
Free driverless service will debut in California

Mercedes parent company Daimler and car supplier Bosch have announced that they are launching an autonomous taxi service in California.
The trial, to begin next year, will take the form of a ride-hailing service, with passengers transported in self-driving shuttles.
The German motoring giant will provide the vehicles, while Bosch will supply sensors and controls for the car’s autonomous features.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The two companies will also use driverless artificial intelligence (AI) systems provided by US-based technology firm Nvidia, says Engadget.
Nvidia’s Drive Pegasus AI platform can handle more than 320 trillion operations per seconds, and the companies believe this should be enough to provide level 4 or 5 autonomy - meaning the car would be capable of navigating a city without any input from the occupants.
During the pilot programme, each vehicle will be sent out with a safety driver to take over in the event of an emergency, reports Reuters.
To hitch a ride with the shuttles, customers will be able to access an app developed by Daimler that will offer a selection of pre-determined routes, the news site says.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The service will be free to use during the trial period, and the two firms are currently negotiating with cities in California to sign up for the pilot.
Daimler ultimately aims to build a driverless public transport infrastructure to compete with the likes of Google’s Waymo and the Volkswagen Group.
The Mercedes-owned company announced a partnership with Uber last year, but the ride-hailing giant scaled back its involvement in driverless vehicles after a person was struck by one of its test cars in Arizona in March.
Daimler teamed up with Bosch in April 2017 to begin developing a driverless vehicle, says the BBC. The two firms have been given the green light to trial test vehicles in both Germany and the US.
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetime
Feature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’
Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Philadelphia’s Calder Gardens
Feature A permanent new museum
-
Is the UK government getting too close to Big Tech?
Today’s Big Question US-UK tech pact, supported by Nvidia and OpenAI, is part of Silicon Valley drive to ‘lock in’ American AI with US allies
-
Google: A monopoly past its prime?
Feature Google’s antitrust case ends with a slap on the wrist as courts struggle to keep up with the tech industry’s rapid changes
-
South Korea's divide over allowing Google Maps
Talking Points The country is one of few modern democracies where the app doesn't work
-
Google avoids the worst in antitrust ruling
Speed Read A federal judge rejected the government's request to break up Google
-
Is AI killing the internet?
Talking Point AI-powered browsers and search engines are threatening the death of the open web
-
Unreal: A quantum leap in AI video
Feature Google's new Veo 3 is making it harder to distinguish between real videos and AI-generated ones
-
Google's new AI Mode feature hints at the next era of search
In the Spotlight The search giant is going all in on AI, much to the chagrin of the rest of the web
-
Is Apple breaking up with Google?
Today's Big Question Google is the default search engine in the Safari browser. The emergence of artificial intelligence could change that.