“Waymo said Wednesday it has applied for a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the Alphabet company’s first step in a sticky regulatory process to bring its robotaxis to U.S.’s largest city.

Waymo applied for a permit with the New York City Department of Transportation to operate its self-driving Jaguar I-Pace vehicles with a human safety operator behind the wheel in Manhattan. New York’s autonomous vehicle demonstration or testing permit requires a human driver to be able to take over; a $5 million insurance policy; and every test vehicle operator must be adequately trained in the safe operation of the test vehicle. 

New York law is especially prohibitive of autonomous vehicles. While securing a permit would be notable, Waymo is far from being able to launch commercial operations in the city — or even test without a human safety operator behind the wheel.”

From TechCrunch.

“A five-minute charge for an EV, virtually as quick as a gasoline fill-up, has long seemed a quixotic dream.

Now electric Don Quixotes can save critical time on their quests, at least in China. BYD’s ‘megawatt charging’ is here. And the company’s 1,000-kilowatt fast chargers could eliminate perhaps the biggest consumer gripe over EVs: That they take too long to charge.

BYD, the automaker that has passed Tesla in global EV sales, demonstrated its record-setting tech in Beijing during the recent Shanghai auto show. The numbers are staggering: More than a kilometer of added driving range per second on the plug. It supplies 400 kilometers of fresh range (nearly 250 miles) in five minutes. Even by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s more-realistic estimates, that equates to about 270 kilometers (168 miles) of range in five minutes.”

From IEEE Spectrum.

“Walmart is bringing drone deliveries to three more states.

On Thursday, the big-box retailer said it plans to launch the speedier delivery option at 100 stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa within the coming year. With the expansion, Walmart’s drone deliveries will be available in a total of five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Customers will request a delivery through the app of Wing, the operator who flies the drones through a deal with Walmart. The drone operator will have an up to a six-mile range from stores.”

From CNBC.

“The Alphabet-owned Waymo, which launched the world’s first fully driverless service in Phoenix in 2020, remains the largest operator in the U.S. But Chinese rivals are quickly catching up in both scale and technological capability. Chinese tech giant Baidu recently announced its Apollo Go robotaxi service has completed more than 11 million rides, surpassing Waymo’s reported 10 million. The company is now testing in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, with reported plans to expand to Switzerland and Turkey. 

Top Chinese contenders WeRide and Pony.ai — both listed in the U.S. and backed by investors including Nvidia and Toyota — are also rapidly expanding through partnerships with Uber in Europe and the Middle East. Both companies have secured permits to test in the U.S.  

Meanwhile, Elon Musk recently said Tesla will launch its much-delayed robotaxi service in Austin this month, with San Francisco and Los Angeles to follow.”

From Rest of World.