Autonomous cars

2025-12-24

In the nearly 10 years of living in the Bay Area, I’ve taken many photos of autonomous vehicles, as well as human-driven vehicles and prototypes used for autonomous vehicle research! So here’s a list of some of my original photos.

1 Apple

Apple Lexus vehicle with a Velodyne HDL-64E and a bunch of cameras.

A 2018 prototype. This has to win some sort of award for the craziest sensor arrangement.

2 Argo

Argo was a self driving car startup that got acquired by Ford but it was shut down in 2022.

Dual-Velodyne turret on top of an Argo Ford Fusion at CVPR 2019 in Long Beach.

Argo vehicle at CVPR 2022 in New Orleans.

3 Cruise

Cruise was the self driving car subsidiary of GM. In December 2024, they announced that they were halting the effort, but recently Cruise cars can still be seen undergoing testing, so maybe they are continuing their development in secret.

Early Cruise prototype in 2017 with the Velodyne HDL-32 instead of the VLP-32.

Another Cruise with the HDL-32. Sorry for the bad framing, but at least this photo is relatively sharp and detailed.

Two Cruise vehicles in 2017. Notice their shock-mounted Velodyne VLP-32 pucks.

By 2019 they had switched to Hesai lidars on top.

During the pandemic, they tried delivering food with Cruise cars.

Cruise Origin vehicle at CVPR 2022 in New Orleans.

4 Luminar

Luminar was a lidar company but they recently announced their bankruptcy.

Luminar Chrysler Pacifica demo vehicle at Stanford University in 2019.

5 Ouster

Ouster is a manufacturer of lidars for autonomous vehicles and other markets.

Subaru Crosstrek XV with three Velodyne VLP-16 lidars for testing.

Subaru with three Ouster OS1 prototypes.

6 Tesla

I had the pleasure to see a Cybercab prototype at Santana Row in 2024.

7 Uber

I worked somewhat near the Uber garage at 737 Harrison St, before they shut down in 2019. They started out as the Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in 2016 with the acquisition of Otto, before they rebranded to the Advanced Technology Group (ATG) sometime in 2017. Following a fatal accident in 2018, their efforts were soon shut down.

7.1 Ford Fusion

Detail of the sensor pod on top of a Ford Fusion. There's a Velodyne HDL-64 and an array of really nice, large aperture cameras. — Detail of the sensor pod on top of a Ford Fusion. There’s a Velodyne HDL-64 and an array of really nice, large aperture cameras.

7.2 Volvo XC90

The safety driver cheekily made a hand gesture, not knowing the imminent demise of the Uber self driving car effort.

7.3 Otto trucks

Following the acquisition of Otto, they had several kinds of trucks: Volvo and Peterbilt.

Volvo trucks at their 737 Harrison depot in 2017.

8 Waymo

8.1 Chrysler Pacifica

Waymo Chrysler Pacifica in 2017. Compared to the Velodyne-equipped other self driving car efforts, the Pacifica with Waymo's in-house lidar was already really polished and well-integrated even in 2017. — Waymo Chrysler Pacifica in 2017. Compared to the Velodyne-equipped other self driving car efforts, the Pacifica with Waymo’s in-house lidar was already really polished and well-integrated even in 2017.

8.2 Jaguar I-Pace

8.3 Zeekr RT

These started showing up on public streets in 2025. I took a few photos at their Bayshore depot on Toland St.

9 Woven Planet

The successor to Toyota Research Institute, they have a lot of different types of vehicles. I saw a TRI car at the CVPR 2019 conference before they rebranded to Woven Planet.

The most commonly seen ones are the data collection pods on top of Lyft cars (typically Hyundais or Toyota Priuses).

10 Zoox

10.1 Toyota Highlander

Highlander making its way down the twisty Lombard Street in 2019.

Another Highlander doing the same thing.

The following photos were taken in December 2025 at their Mission depot on Division and Bryant.

10.2 VH

VH stands for “Vaporware Horseshit”. Apparently, Jalopnik writer Jason Torchinsky dissed Zoox in 2013 by calling them that, and then they embraced the moniker and called their self driving cars VH-1, VH-2, etc.

The VH chassis on display at CVPR 2019 in Long Beach.

VH on the streets of San Francisco in 2025.

11 Other autonomous vehicles

These are AV companies whose vehicles I’ve only seen a handful of times.

11.1 AEye

AEye is a lidar company making pulsed 1550 nm lidar. A year ago, the same car destroyed a camera so I was very worried.

11.2 AutonomouStuff

AutonomouStuff is a supplier of sensors and stuff for robotics and self driving cars.

Demonstration vehicle at CES 2020. In the background you can see another demo vehicle from the Israeli lidar company Innoviz.

11.3 AutoX

AutoX was a startup founded by professor Jianxiong Xiao. I remember using his SFMedu MATLAB code during grad school to learn about bundle adjustment! The company renamed itself Tensor and pivoted to making bespoke self driving cars.

11.4 DiDi

I saw their car at the CVPR 2019 conference in Long Beach.

DiDi Lincoln MKZ at CVPR 2019. To be honest this seems like a kit from AutonomouStuff.

12 Mapper.ai

Mapper.ai was founded around 2015-2016 and then got acquired by Velodyne in 2019. They often drove around in a Honda Civic to collect HD mapping data.

12.1 Quanergy

Quanergy was a lidar company that went all-in on their solid state Quanergy S3 sensor, but went bankrupt in 2023.

12.2 Motional

Motional is an autonomous driving company majority owned by Hyundai.

12.3 TuSimple

TuSimple is a self driving truck company but they wound down their US operations and left the US in 2023. Then in 2024, they pivoted away from self-driving trucks towards AI for video games, animation, and content creation. Pretty wild pivot to be honest.