Robo Taxis and Other Driverless Vehicles

Having written a good deal on the issue of Driverless Vehicles (DV) and Robo Taxis, it appears that this area deserves even more attention, considering recent developments in this area.

We have addressed issues with DV (sometimes called autonomous vehicles) for many years.  Recently we have seen that there is strong growth in DV in general and with Robo Taxis (among others) in particular.  That is, recent data has shown that Waymo, one of many DV companies, has  been very active in expanding its DV to many cities.  Although Waymo has been more active in California, Arizona, and other states in the West, recent moves by the Company shows very active expansion in many other states, such as Colorado and east of the Mississippi. 

Waymo is not alone.  Tesla, Zoox, and other companies have also been expanding their operations. 

With more Robo taxi services emerging, the idea of driving in a driverless vehicle is becoming more common.  In fact, Morgan Stanley, per a recent Wall St Journal article of 5/1/2026, stated that it expects that over half of the American population will have access to a Robo Taxi service within three years.

Consider that Waymo recently posted a notice that it had more than 500,000 paid rides in one week.  With this increased volume, look for more expansion by many companies working with DV and Robo Taxi services.

An interesting development connected with this growth in DV is the expansion of DV hubs.  That is, there needs to be large service centers that support the DV activity.  These DV Hubs address the needs of the DV for maintenance, insurance, production, repairs, placement of the vehicles, parking the DV, and much more.  The increased activity in DV supports the position that there will be many more DV Hubs springing up throughout the US (and the world).

For more on this issue, see Levine Newsletter, addressing in detail these DV Hubs.

Dr. Mark Lee Levine, Professor, University of Denver