Autonomous technology | Inside the driverless age

At CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2026 in Las Vegas, a person sits blindfolded in a self-driving private mobility chair because it calmly navigates a crowded conference corridor. Around him, a LiDAR-equipped, voice-controlled scooter threads its manner via clusters of staring guests, whereas an autonomous robotaxi declares its arrival not with a horn, however with glowing LED initials projected from a halo on its roof.

None of it feels futuristic in the outdated sci-fi sense. It feels oddly informal, virtually playful.

For the first time since the early 2020s, electrical automobiles took a again seat at CES, whereas autonomous automobiles (AVs) surged forward. Across conference halls and demo zones, the message was unmistakable: the driverless age has grow to be a actuality. The query hanging in the air was whether or not 2026 may be the breakout 12 months for robotaxis.

But whereas Las Vegas hosted the spectacle, the actual testing floor lay elsewhere: on strange streets, amid pedestrians, reckless drivers, supply vehicles, and typically, unpredictable human behaviour. To perceive what this future appears like when it collides with every day life, I’m going to not a conference corridor however to 2 cities quietly dwelling inside the experiment: Austin and Las Vegas.

Austin skyline
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

From conference halls to metropolis streets

My sojourn begins one night in Austin after I stumble upon Jeff, an area information, as he walks down South Congress Avenue together with his cohort. “This is the most Instagrammable mural in Austin,” he says, pointing to a bland peach-coloured wall graffitied throughout which, in purple, are the phrases ‘I love you so much’.

“The most Instagrammable mural in Austin”
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

I inform him that I’m visiting from Dallas to check the AVs that appear to be crawling throughout the metropolis. Jeff appears as much as ask: “And did you risk getting into one?”

“Yes, I did. Many times,” I reply. I had spent the entire day stepping out and in of Waymo robotaxis (extra on that later).

Jeff appears shocked at my audacity to journey in a automobile that drives by itself.

“On these Texan streets!” he exclaims. “I drive a truck, and I still feel unsafe!”

I point out offhandedly that I felt secure driving in these automobiles.

“Till they’re not…!” Jeff says, waving goodbye.

Indeed, not all the alerts have been reassuring. Recently, a Waymo robotaxi struck a baby close to an elementary faculty in Santa Monica, triggering a federal security investigation. The youngster sustained minor accidents, however the incident serves as a reminder that even in the present day’s most superior autonomous techniques can battle in advanced, unpredictable environments equivalent to faculty zones.

Navigation panel in a robotaxi
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

Test mattress for autonomous vehicles

Austin has quickly advanced into one in every of the greatest tech hubs in the U.S., attracting large names, together with Meta, Google, Oracle, Tesla, Snap, and Apple. If authorities initiatives to spice up progress exterior conventional centres draw corporations to Austin, the promise of decrease prices of dwelling, cultural openness, job surplus, and adaptability to work remotely post-pandemic have seen tech employees flock right here from Silicon Valley.

Austin can also be the place many AV corporations are testing their fleets. At least three — Zoox, Tesla, and Waymo. I’m decided to strive all of them.

But the place can I spot one? The lodge receptionist directs me to Rainey Street, a residential neighbourhood turned laid-back nightlife hotspot. On a Friday night time, the boundaries between the place the eateries finish and the highway begins have blurred. Vehicles navigate this confusion fastidiously, transferring in light hiccups.

“Look!” my companion factors. It is a Tesla with a vacant driver’s seat. An individual is in the entrance passenger seat, fastidiously monitoring the environment, able to take over in case the automotive does one thing humorous. I stand gaping as the automotive slickly navigates the pedestrians round it.

Spotting a tesla
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

The subsequent morning, as I sit at breakfast, I spot a Chinese-origin man at the subsequent desk carrying a Tesla T-shirt. Michael seems to be a Tesla worker of seven years. Over bland espresso and crusty muffins, I describe to him my first encounter with a driverless Tesla.

“You’ll see more of those in the coming years,” says Michael. “But did you notice that the RoboTaxi logo was scratched off the car?”

I hadn’t. I ask him why.

“That’s because we were seeing a backlash. Both against Elon Musk, given his political affiliations, and against our driverless cars in general. So, Tesla started removing the RoboTaxi logos. Otherwise, people were hitting these cars.”

I later study that many in Austin have expressed fears about the reliability and security of autonomous automobiles, significantly Tesla’s, which have reportedly didn’t cease at hazards or cease indicators. But I’m nonetheless decided to journey in a single.

Riding a Tesla RoboTaxi requires prior registration. Ours hasn’t come via. So, we determine to hail the subsequent greatest various, a Waymo robotaxi.

Alphabet’s autonomous driving division, Waymo started testing in Austin as early as 2015. It now operates a number of totally autonomous, all-electric Jaguars throughout roughly 90 sq. miles of the metropolis.

The Waymo vehicles are white sedans with a big spinning unit on prime, which is a 360-degree Light Detection and Ranging sensor (LiDAR) that makes use of laser beams to create an in depth 3D map of the environment. I order one via the Uber app. It arrives and neatly parks beside me. I unlock it and start the journey solely via the app. Inside, it’s luxurious and quiet. Through the interface, I direct the automotive to begin, and as soon as it does, it appears like being in a traditional taxi, aside from the lacking driver. The steering wheel twists and turns as the automobile follows the route displayed on a big display in the center of the dashboard.

A Waymo automotive
| Photo Credit:
iStock/Getty Images

It seamlessly merges into Austin’s visitors. Locals don’t even flip their heads when one passes. By the finish of my two-day Austin keep, I’ve taken eight Waymo rides, feeling safe in every.

Two paths to autonomy

After the CES conversations and my first encounters, I attain out to Chinmay Chaudhary who works at Stellantis, the mother or father firm of manufacturers equivalent to Jeep, Chrysler, and so on. He provides a grounded, industry-facing perspective on why AVs behave so otherwise relying on who builds them.

When I describe my Waymo rides, he instantly frames them not as a technological marvel however as a enterprise mannequin. “Waymo is more of a fleet ownership model. You can only avail it in specific towns where they run currently,” he says. In different phrases, Waymo doesn’t promote autonomy to people. It deploys it selectively, metropolis by metropolis, avenue by avenue. That selectiveness, he explains, is exactly why the expertise feels so polished. “Waymo is specifically based out of a geofence network. It performs better in a closed vicinity where everything is mapped.” Seen via that lens, it is sensible that the Waymo is executing on a script rehearsed endlessly on Austin’s streets.

Inside a driverless cab
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

This contrasts with Tesla’s method, Chaudhary factors out. “Tesla’s is like a personal ownership model. You can buy the car out of the showroom and start using it,” he says. Where Waymo centralises threat and management, Tesla distributes it by putting experimental autonomy immediately into the fingers of particular person drivers and onto unmapped streets. That openness could clarify each Tesla’s scale and the anxiousness surrounding it. “It’s not that one technology is better than the other,” Chaudhary cautions. “It’s how well you master it.”

Beyond Austin

While in Austin, I spot a couple of Zoox vehicles, that are Toyota Highlanders retrofitted with radars and cameras, every with a security driver, identical to Tesla’s AVs. Founded in 2014, Zoox was acquired by Amazon in 2020, bringing yet one more tech big into the self-driving race.

Legacy automakers throughout the world have been quietly constructing their very own paths to autonomy. Mercedes-Benz, as an illustration, is rolling out autonomous driving in the U.S. this 12 months, utilizing Nvidia Drive AV, an AI software program, permitting drivers to take their eyes off the highway beneath particular circumstances. Nissan has been testing autonomous mobility companies in Japan, whereas Baidu already operates giant scale robotaxi fleets throughout a number of Chinese cities.

The technology stays costly, with the sensor and computing stack on every automobile estimated to value about $100,000 over the automotive’s base value. Still, there’s a rising sense in the U.S. that it’s now in a race as China’s AV sector is outpacing rivals in deployment pace.

As an Indian in America, I discover myself fascinated by the many Indians shaping this {industry} from inside the U.S. Ashok Elluswamy, vice-president of Tesla’s AI software program, has come beneath on-line scrutiny for arguing that the “obvious” answer to Tesla’s long-running self-driving challenges lies in its camera-only method, dismissing the want for extra sensors equivalent to LiDAR. At Uber, one other Indian, Balaji Krishnamurthy, has stepped in as chief monetary officer, taking up from Prashanth Mahendra Rajah, at a second when robotaxi investments are transferring from experimentation to execution.

“Zoox is taking different approaches in different cities,” Michael, the Tesla worker, tells me. “In Austin, it’s retrofitting vehicles and is still in testing mode. But if you want to see the full promise of Zoox, go to Las Vegas.” I’m intrigued sufficient to try this.

Zoox started testing retrofitted automobiles close to its Las Vegas headquarters in 2019. It took a daring new route in 2023 by launching futuristic, purpose-built robotaxis. Last 12 months, it formally launched its public robotaxi service. It at the moment operates on restricted stretches of the Strip, providing a managed surroundings with predictable visitors. Rides are free for now, with Zoox providing the service without charge whereas it gathers real-world suggestions and awaits approval to start charging passengers.

At one in every of 5 pickup spots the place Zoox vehicles could be hailed, I wait. Soon, a minivan-shaped automobile rolls up. It drives bi-directionally, that means it has no entrance or rear. Its sliding doorways, designed to minimise the threat of hitting close by objects, opens to disclose a four-seater structure.

After I’m seated, the automotive doesn’t budge. It retains reminding me to lock my seatbelt, although I have already got completed so. Then, a human voice comes via a speaker on the roof. “I suggest you remove the bag from the seat. It’s interfering with our sensors,” the voice says. I accomplish that, and the automotive begins to maneuver.

Waymos on the avenue
| Photo Credit:
Nitin Chaudhary

“Do you monitor what happens inside the car?” I ask.

“No, not always. Only when there’s an issue,” the faceless voice says.

This realisation is discomfiting. To operate, these AVs want a view of the streets, sidewalks, and the folks transferring via them. It is, in impact, a type of god’s-eye imaginative and prescient. Always on, all the time watching. These vehicles are additionally recording and retaining visible and site information. How lengthy that information lives, who controls it, and beneath what circumstances it may be accessed and by whom stays murky. Without clear guardrails, these AVs threat changing into cell surveillance techniques.

The Zoox automotive begins to maneuver gently. No hiccups, no jolts. Unlike the retrofitted vehicles, it has no steering wheel or pedals, simply the clean confidence of a system constructed from scratch. Zoox completes a five-mile loop and brings me again to the place I began.

In the future

In Vegas, one other imaginative and prescient of the future is unfolding 40 ft beneath floor. The Vegas Loop, a community of slim tunnels (roughly 12 ft broad) dug by Musk’s Boring Company, now shuttles passengers between stations in Tesla automobiles. At one Loop station, accessed by way of an elevator, I watch a neat line of Teslas selecting up passengers and taking pictures off into the tunnels.

Rodrigo comes to choose me up in his Tesla Model S. He eagerly explains to me Musk’s imaginative and prescient: the Boring Company would construct the infrastructure, and Tesla taxis would run via it. “The long-term plan,” the taxi driver says, “is to transition the Vegas Loop to fully autonomous Tesla robotaxis. We won’t need human drivers then.”

“What about your job, and those of other drivers?” I’m wondering aloud.

Rodrigo shrugs. It is a shrug of uneasy acceptance. The silence that follows lasts lower than a minute; my cease arrives beneath 10 minutes and prices lower than $5, a visit that will have in any other case taken half-hour in floor visitors.

I emerge from the tunnel into the chaos of Vegas. My journey is coming to an finish. Despite all the warnings and fears of jobs being misplaced, I really feel surprisingly optimistic. It is a future that holds the promise of a frictionless-commute world. As Stellantis worker Chaudhary put it earlier, the query is not which technology is superior, however who will grasp and scale their chosen path first.

The author is a U.S.-based skilled with an curiosity in journey and tradition reporting.