It will be AVs doing rideshare that will truly revolutionise car travel for everyone. This really can’t happen fast enough.

Cruise has applied for permission to charge passengers for driverless AV trips. All going well, the permission should be granted this quarter. The permission requested is only for nighttime out-of-hours trips. The strategy of having just nighttime out-of-hours trips appears to be a sensible cautious approach. This should soon result in an application for 24/7 permission to charge passengers for driverless AV trips.

11 months ago I wrote the following about lithium supply. It remains current. "Rare earths are of strategic importance and the West has let China have too much influence over their mining and supply. However, perhaps, this is not an issue of consequence for lithium. Some would say lithium is not even a rare earth. Yes the USA depends on the rest of the World for nearly all of its lithium but half the World’s lithium is mined in Western Australia and this strategically positive production should continue. Certainly, a greater proportion of the World’s lithium refining should be conducted in countries other than China."

If I was in San Francisco, I could travel in a Cruise self-driving car. Presently the availability of this service is very limited, but it should be ongoing and eventually become readily available. Someone appears to have their facts wrong.

I like how public Cruise and GM are about their plans and where they are at with autonomous driving. Part of this is what you get to hear about some of things that are happening at the coalface. This talk between David and Ryan is good because David is a coalface person.

Soon electric cars will be more economical to use than ICE cars. When this happens people will buy electric cars rather than ICE cars. The electric cars will be battery powered rather hydrogen powered because hydrogen is expensive and will remain so for cars and for most other things. I like the prospects for fusion and say so in my story “Renewables do not have a long-term future” at https://medium.com/@ericbjensen/renewables-do-not-have-a-long-term-future-d9f9a56f6190

To date, there has been a spend of about $250 billion to make autonomous vehicles a reality. Ensuring passenger safety is part of this. https://www.protocol.com/waymo-investment-self-driving

I had my first AV ride about five years ago. I remember it like it was yesterday. It’s sure to be the same for you David. And you have a video of it too.

I like all your stories, especially those about Cruise. News from the coalface is special.