VW is testing its robotaxis in snowy, icy Norway

There's a reason that the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, were home to many autonomous vehicle programs: Driving on wide streets in great weather is easy mode for an AV. But a commercial robotaxi service that only works when the sun is shining is a commercial robotaxi service that will never recoup the billions it would cost to develop. That's why Moia—Volkswagen's AV division—has begun testing its autonomous ID Buzzes around the streets of Oslo, Norway, this winter. For a while, autonomous driving was the hottest thing in tech. That hype has certainly calmed down a lot over the last few years as reality began to bite. Developing an AV that can safely drive around unpredictable humans turned out to be pretty hard, with myriad edge cases needing to be solved differently for each new city. Startups have shut down, winnowing the field. Uber gave its AV program to Aurora, together with a rather fat investment check; Aurora these days is concentrating on autonomous trucking rather than robot ... Read full article.