The self-driving taxi revolution begins at last

It's Waymo complicated than it looks.

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In 1995, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University drove 4,800km from Pittsburgh to San Diego without their hands on the steering wheel. The No Hands Across America tour marked the start of a long road trip towards autonomous driving in America.

Thirty years later, you can, at last, see the fruits of that journey in the proliferation of self-driving cabs in several cities across America. Soon they will be braving the less predictable weather and the left side of the roads in London and Tokyo.

The number of American cities on the robotaxi road map is rising fast. Alphabet-owned Waymo, which has the world's biggest fleet of 2,500 autonomous cars, provides paid rides in five places - Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles, Phoenix and the San Francisco Bay Area and plans to more than double that number in 2026.

Mr Elon Musk's Tesla has expanded its rudimentary robotaxi service (which still has a human "safety monitor" in the car) from Austin to San Francisco. Zoox, an Amazon-owned company that has built a quirky-looking cab without a steering wheel or pedals, offers autonomous ride-hailing in Las Vegas and has just launched in parts of San Francisco. Like Dr Dolittle's pushmi-pullyu, it can go in both directions.

Many people still have concerns about the technology. In a recent YouGov survey, three-quarters of Americans said they had little or no trust in self-driving taxis. Yet their misgivings may be at least in part the result of unfamiliarity.

Another poll by J.D. Power, a consumer-research firm, found that confidence was 56 percentage points higher among those who had ridden in a robotaxi than those who had not. What is more, the number of people who have given one a try is growing speedily. In April, Waymo surpassed one million monthly active users (MAUs), according to Sensor Tower, a data provider, more than a tenfold increase in two years.