Articles by Ira Boudway

Putting Autonomous Driving Back on the Road: Roundtable

The self-driving car was a dream deferred even before the Covid-19 outbreak brought the U.S. economy to a standstill. By early 2020, plans to launch robotaxi services had been pushed back or scaled down as excitement over driverless cars gave …

Hail Has Damaged Insurance Market for Car Dealers. Parametric Insurance May Help.

Nick Pacifico has been working at his family’s Cadillac dealership in Denver since 2003. He’s never seen insurance costs this bad. “Getting coverage is nearly impossible,” said Pacifico, vice president at Rickenbaugh Automotive Group. Two years ago he paid about …

U.S. Post Office Testing Driverless Trucks Between 2 Cities

The United States Postal Service is going to put mail on self-driving trucks. Starting on Tuesday morning, letters and packages moving between Phoenix and Dallas will travel on customized Peterbilt trucks run by TuSimple, an autonomous startup based in San …

Waymo’s Autonomous Taxi Service Picks Up 1,000th Customer After 6 Months

The first major self-driving taxi service needed six months to reach 1,000 customers, another sign that growth may be slow as companies try to build businesses around autonomous vehicles. Waymo, the self-driving project owned by Alphabet Inc., announced on Tuesday …

Driving in Georgia While Sitting in California; Remote Control Beats Autonomy

For four days in February, Ben Shukman showed up to his office at Phantom Auto in Mountain View, California, sat down in front of a bank of computer screens with a steering wheel in a darkened room, and began driving. …

NFL Cheerleaders Could Test Joint Employer Liability Rule

The NFL’s cheerleader problems are back. The New York Times reported Wednesday that cheerleaders for the Washington franchise were made to pose topless for season ticket holders in Costa Rica in 2013. Earlier this year, a former New Orleans Saints …

Rio Olympics Will Proceed – Despite Zika Epidemic: Munich Re Underwriter

Should the Olympics proceed in Rio de Janeiro in August as planned? With the lighting of the torch set to take place in less than three months, a handful of medical experts are calling for the games to be postponed …