Car Wearing: Uber's electric robotaxis take to the streets

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We Drive the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR Concept Car from Avatar

So there may not have been a Mercedes-Benz in Avatar—a product placement oversight if there ever was one—but Mercedes did make something that looked like it could be in Avatar. And it named the concept itself Vision AVTR.
This design exercise was notable for the fact that an actual car was built out of physical materials; a photorealistic 3D model this is not. Mercedes did impressive work to make it look like an actual vehicle you'd find in a sci-fi film set far in the future. And it has an electric drivetrain, as you've guessed by now.
But what is this concept like to actually drive?

Most concept cars built for movies are actually quite rough inside, with stuff falling off if you grab it wrong. Would this one be like one of them?
Read on to find out—because Mercedes let us try it.

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Here's Where Uber Is Finally Launching Robotaxis

We've known for a while that Uber wanted its robotaxis to also be electric, and this month we got confirmation of just what kinds of EVs the ride-hailing app will be using as it rolls out Level 4 robotaxis.
That's right: Uber is introducing robotaxi service to Las Vegas first, just as its rivals in the robotaxi sphere scramble to field fleets of their own vehicles.
Uber will use the Hyundai Ioniq 5, equipped with hardware and sensors from autonomous developer Motional, and plans to go completely driverless sometime in 2023 as the rollout continues.
But all-electric autonomous rides on the Uber platform have already begun, with safety drivers behind the wheel for now.
Uber is scrambling to catch up with GM's Cruise, which has been running driverless robotaxis in San Francisco for months.
Still, there are far larger issues that Uber and others in this field face, and they have little to do with Level 4 tech per se.

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Maker of Flying Electric 'Cars' Prepares for Take Off

The hope we'll get flying cars anytime soon has not been quite as abandoned as our belief that Level 5 autonomous technology is right around the corner. There are a number of promising concepts could make you look like you're living in a Neill Blomkamp film like Elysium (but without the constant gunfire).
Lilium is one of the leaders in this futuristic field of electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) craft, and it's finally getting a small fleet of vehicles to enter service. The company has a couple of designs in the works, sporting Ducted Electric Vectored Thrust (DEVT) technology which uses a series of very small jet engines to achieve vertical flight before transitioning to horizontal flight. This makes Lilium different from most of the other eVTOL hopefuls, which are betting heavily on scaled-up commercial drones with a large number of exposed horizontal rotors.
Another difference is that Lilium's design is an elegant replacement for the noisy and vibration-prone helicopters—a technology that hasn't seemingly changed all that much at its core since M*A*S*H. Lilium is offering four- and six-person cabins plus a cockpit for its eVTOL craft, with interiors that look like luxury private jets.
That's why Saudi Arabia's national airline has already ordered a fleet of 100 for an entire eVTOL network it plans to launch in the country.
Read on to find out more about the rapidly approaching eVTOL age.