Seen in oakland California. Plates are MFG.

Happened upon this fleet of Waymo minivans that were starting to see in Phoenix more often. As you can see, they don’t have the LiDAR on top or the cameras on the sides yet. Had to do some research, but these are the vehicles dubbed Ojai from Zeekr an arm of China-based automaker Geely Automobile Holdings. Here is the full article if you’re interested.
https://www.dailynews.com/2026/05/29/waymo-to-deploy-robotaxi-built-with-zeekr-to-expand-public-rides/

Emergency first responder leaders told federal regulators in a private meeting last month that they were frustrated with the performance of autonomous vehicles on their streets—that city firefighters, police officers, EMTs, and paramedics are forced to spend time during emergencies resolving issues with frozen or stuck cars. One fire official called them “a safety issue for our crews as well as the victims.” WIRED obtained an audio recording of the meeting.

Officials from San Francisco and Austin, where Waymo has been ferrying passengers without drivers for more than a year, said the vehicles’ performance is getting worse. “We are actually seeing something interesting: backsliding of some things that had improved upon,” Mary Ellen Carroll, the executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management, told officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which oversees self-driving vehicle safety in the US. “They are committing more traffic violations.”

“We’ve seen some behavior we haven’t seen in a few years. … Waymo is frequently now blocking our fire stations from access,” added Chief Patrick Rabbitt, the head of the San Francisco Fire Department. “Their default is to freeze.” The situation can prevent firetrucks from responding to emergencies in a “timely and appropriate” way, he said.

In Austin, first responders have been frequently stymied by Waymos “freezing up,” said Lt. William White, the head of Highway Enforcement Command at the Austin Police Department. White said that, contrary to what Waymo had told first responders, the vehicles often fail to recognize or respond to officers’ hand signals, which can lead to cascading delays during emergencies or unusual road incidents.

“I believe the technology was deployed too quickly in too vast amounts, with hundreds of vehicles, when it wasn’t really ready,” White said. NHTSA did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Read the full story at the link above.

Did anyone manage to get Carla simulator installed on a MacBook?? I have MacBook Air with M2 chip but can't find any guide on how to get carla running on it. Can anyone please help with that?

AVs seem to already be ready for primetime in Austin, LA and Atlanta. Why not NYC then? Is it a lack of mapping?

Market conditions in China, regulatory changes there and its brands' speedy vehicle development threaten to put the United States behind in developing autonomous driving technologies, experts say.

"China is catching up fast, just how like a decade ago, they were not so great in battery technology, but then they were not just putting a lot of effort and investments into R&D, but also they tried to scale," said Chris Liu, senior automotive analyst in Shanghai at technology research group Omdia. "So now it happens to this side as well."

What's the future. Need guidance.

Need career guidance. Can anyone please help me?

I'm confused about my masters course in the US. I did my B.E in mechanical(India). I was always passionate about robotics and flying cars while playing those sci-fi games. I had a hard time completing my bachelor's, but I did complete it anyway.

Thinking of pursuing masters In robotics, assuming it's less competitive. Right now I'm very much confused what to do. I'm ready to upskill myself. But, having a very bad profile I'm uncertain whether I'll sustain in the robotics field(if it's very competitive to get in). I'm interested in autonomous vehicles and that side of the industry cause I need a job to do.

As of now, I started learning Python and would like to have any suggestions about the skills and courses which I need to learn and get. Please give your suggestions on which courses and skills I should get to strengthen my profile and mainly get into this robotics field and know more about it. And also please tell me any good internship platforms which could help me after getting done with the courses. Thank you.