https://techxplore.com/ en-us Tech Xplore internet news portal provides the latest news on electronics, technology, and engineering. An unmanned, oval-shaped craft from flying taxi maker EHang hovers, whirring noisily like a mini-helicopter over a riverside innovation zone on the outskirts of the southern Chinese business hub of Guangzhou, part of a trial of a mini-flying taxi that once might have been found only in sci-fi films. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-takeoff-china-flying-taxis-turbulence.html Hi Tech & Innovation Mon, 24 Nov 2025 04:22:49 EST news683180523 Self-driving taxis are sweeping the country and will likely start service in Colorado in the coming months. How many of us will be lining up to take a ride? That depends on our level of trust, says Amir Behzadan, a professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, and a fellow in the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS) at CU Boulder. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-ways-ai-trustworthy.html Consumer & Gadgets Wed, 22 Oct 2025 17:04:05 EDT news680371441 Baidu will start testing self-driving taxis in Switzerland this year in collaboration with the country's PostBus public transport service, the Chinese tech firm said Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-10-baidu-robotaxi-switzerland-postbus.html Automotive Wed, 22 Oct 2025 10:29:22 EDT news680347753 Police in Northern California were understandably perplexed when they pulled over a Waymo taxi after it made an illegal U-turn, only to find no driver behind the wheel and therefore, no one to ticket. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-cops-driverless-car-illegal.html Automotive Tue, 30 Sep 2025 05:01:22 EDT news678427273 New research shows that the app's ratings and incentive system has made drivers in Chicago as safe and reliable as taxi drivers. The findings suggest regulators may want to consider new quality-control measures. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-uber-drivers.html Business Fri, 08 Aug 2025 11:25:05 EDT news673871101 The advanced air mobility industry is currently working to produce novel aircraft ranging from air taxis to autonomous cargo drones, and all of those designs will require extensive testing—which is why NASA is working to give them a head-start by studying a special kind of model wing. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-tunnel-enables-advanced-air-mobility.html Automotive Thu, 07 Aug 2025 15:18:04 EDT news673798682 Airline ANA said Thursday that, together with a US start-up, it hopes to have electric "air taxis" whizzing over Japan from as early as 2027. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-electric-air-taxis-debut-japan.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 07 Aug 2025 07:55:25 EDT news673772120 Chinese internet giant Baidu plans to launch its robotaxis on rideshare app Lyft in Germany and Britain in 2026, pending regulatory approval, the two companies said on Monday. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-08-china-baidu-deploy-robotaxis-rideshare.html Automotive Mon, 04 Aug 2025 14:40:03 EDT news673536912 Chinese internet giant Baidu plans to launch its driverless cars on ride-hailing app Uber in Asia and the Middle East this year, the two companies said on Tuesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-07-china-baidu-deploy-driverless-cars.html Automotive Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:10:01 EDT news671802360 NASA's Advanced Air Mobility vision involves the skies above the U.S. filled with new types of aircraft, including air taxis. But making that vision a reality involves ensuring that people will actually want to ride these aircraft—which is why NASA has been working to evaluate comfort, to see what passengers will and won't tolerate. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-nasa-air-taxi-passenger-comfort.html Consumer & Gadgets Mon, 23 Jun 2025 12:13:03 EDT news669899582 The news is awash with stories about AI and the effects it can have on society—some news sites even have a dedicated tab for such stories. Though subjects vary, many stories raise the alarm about some potential negative impact or another. But researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, have recently discovered something positive relating to the profession of taxi driving, with implications of a broader pattern at play. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-ai-tool-boost-efficient-skilled.html Business Tue, 10 Jun 2025 16:24:03 EDT news668791441 Ride-hailing firm Uber will launch self-driving taxis in London next year when England trials new driverless services, the firm and the UK government said on Tuesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-06-uber-driverless-taxis-london-year.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 10 Jun 2025 11:30:01 EDT news668773024 When it comes to public attitudes toward using self-driving cars, understanding how the vehicles work is important—but so are less obvious characteristics like feelings of excitement or pleasure and a belief in technology's social benefits. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-emotional-responses-crucial-attitudes-cars.html Consumer & Gadgets Tue, 27 May 2025 09:57:04 EDT news667558622 Fans and VIPs can fly their way to venues at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics with the first air taxis ever to be used at a games. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-air-taxis-ferry-fans-vips.html Hi Tech & Innovation Fri, 16 May 2025 04:50:02 EDT news666588999 Chinese tech giant Baidu plans to start testing self-driving taxis in Europe for the first time by the end of this year, a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to AFP on Wednesday. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-baidu-taxi-europe-year.html Hi Tech & Innovation Wed, 14 May 2025 04:42:39 EDT news666416552 Trees, vegetation, rocks, unpredictable terrain and the lack of clearly defined roads—or roads at all—won't stop an autonomous, off-road vehicle developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-05-autonomous-road-exploration.html Robotics Thu, 01 May 2025 09:47:03 EDT news665311622 NASA engineers began using a network of ground sensors in March to collect data from an experimental air taxi to evaluate how to safely integrate such vehicles into airspace above cities—in all kinds of weather. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-04-nasa-effects-aircraft-tracking-joby.html Automotive Fri, 18 Apr 2025 09:50:18 EDT news664188613 Researchers have measured the thinking time of London taxi drivers—famous for their knowledge of more than 26,000 streets across the city—as part of a study into the future of AI route-mapping. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-london-cabbies-strategies-future-ai.html Hi Tech & Innovation Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:12:04 EST news656863921 When he was still a boy making long, tedious trips between his school and his woodsy home in the mountains during the 1980s, JoeBen Bevirt began fantasizing about flying cars that could whisk him to his destination in a matter of minutes. https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-flying-taxis-horizon-aviation-soars.html Automotive Tue, 07 Jan 2025 15:54:09 EST news655487644 A German flying taxi firm was Tuesday saved from collapse after investors swooped in to take it over, in a case that has fired debate about support for the country's startup scene. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-investors-swoop-german-flying-taxi.html Business Tue, 24 Dec 2024 07:29:43 EST news654247770 Stanford economists Michael Ostrovsky and Frank Yang have some suggestions for improving the Big Apple's congestion pricing plan, which is set to launch in January 2025. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-12-bad-option-york-traffic-woes.html Automotive Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:06:07 EST news653223959 As the price of fuel soared in Ethiopia earlier this year, Awgachew Seleshi decided to buy an electric car. That aligned with the government's new efforts to phase out gas-powered vehicles. But months later, he's questioning whether it was the right decision. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-11-ethiopia-imports-gas-powered-private.html Energy & Green Tech Sun, 03 Nov 2024 15:09:51 EST news649868982 US regulators on Tuesday finalized regulations for "powered lift" vehicles, opening the door for commercial air taxis. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-air-taxi.html Automotive Wed, 23 Oct 2024 04:14:40 EDT news648875675 Urban air mobility (UAM) is a mode of transportation that avoids traffic congestion by flying people and cargo above it at low altitudes. It may sound like science fiction or something from the cartoon "The Jetsons," which depicted people going from place to place in flying cars. However, that concept is set to become a reality as electric flying taxis could begin operating in the U.S. as soon as 2025. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-10-urban-air-mobility-problem-algorithm.html Business Fri, 04 Oct 2024 14:38:38 EDT news647271513 A self-driving taxi has no passengers, so it parks itself in a lot to reduce congestion and air pollution. After being hailed, the taxi heads out to pick up its passenger—and tragically strikes a pedestrian in a crosswalk on its way. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-09-medieval-theology-problem-ai-responsibility.html Other Tue, 10 Sep 2024 16:01:03 EDT news645202861 Turning heads as they cruise past office buildings and malls, driverless taxis are slowly spreading through Chinese cities, prompting both wariness and wonder. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-china-robotaxi-fleet-streets.html Hi Tech & Innovation Fri, 16 Aug 2024 04:21:57 EDT news643000910 Flying taxis could whisk passengers across Paris or help with emergency medical care from December, operators said on Thursday, while acknowledging that the dream of showing off the scheme during the Paris Olympics was impossible. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-08-paris-flying-taxi-flights-scrapped.html Automotive Thu, 08 Aug 2024 02:32:52 EDT news642303168 When the idea of electric air taxis emerged, Los Angeles was vying to be one of the first cities that would utilize the technology to help people avoid its infamous bumper-to-bumper traffic. Some city transportation officials expected the flying vehicles to be operational by the 2028 Olympics. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-06-air-taxi-timeline-liftoff-la.html Automotive Thu, 27 Jun 2024 16:21:06 EDT news638724059 A study by researchers from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has found that Singaporeans are open to riding air taxis, which are small autonomous aircraft that carry passengers over short distances. Through a study of 1,002 participants, the NTU Singapore team found that almost half (45.7%) say they intend to use this mode of transport when it becomes available, with over one-third (36.2%) planning to do so regularly. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-05-singapore-air-taxis-future.html Hi Tech & Innovation Tue, 28 May 2024 12:57:04 EDT news636119821 Australian taxi drivers impacted by the rise of ridesharing giant Uber have won US$178 million in compensation, their lawyers said Monday after settling a grueling legal battle. https://techxplore.com/news/2024-03-australian-taxi-drivers-million-payout.html Business Mon, 18 Mar 2024 04:45:39 EDT news629955935