Quoting the text from the authors at Our World in Data:
After only two years, California’s driverless taxis now transport passengers for more than four million miles per month. Although they still make up only a fraction of taxi trips in the state, they are expanding quickly.
This chart shows the monthly distance traveled in driverless trips in California. It measures the total number of passenger-miles, summing up the distance traveled by all passengers.
In August 2023, California regulators fully approved self-driving taxi services in San Francisco for companies Cruise and Waymo. However, Cruise stopped operating in late 2023 due to safety and regulatory issues, so the recent growth reflects only Waymo’s service.
Trips stayed under half a million miles per month until mid-2024. But since then, growth has taken off. Within a year, usage multiplied eightfold, climbing past four million miles by May 2025, the latest data available.
Posted by cgiattino
1 comment
This is so cool to see. From the perspective of economic value, you supposedly pay less for the service, because the car is electric and doesn’t pollute the air, no driver that requires salary or health insurance, better traffic management and arguably safer than most taxi drivers.
On the other hand – people are losing jobs because of that. Which can affect the local economy. Human interaction is absent. Electric autonomous cars are expensive to make and require insurance for potential damages from car crash and vandalism. And last but very important moral aspect – if something happens and someone dies, who is taking the responsibility for the death
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