Autonomous Cars

Uber out here collecting robotaxi companies like they’re Pokémon! The majority Hyundai-owned Motional is operating a fleet of autonomous Ioniq 5s in Las Vegas. The arrangement is similar to Uber’s other AV partners: riders who indicate they’re interested in robotaxis may get matched with one of Motional’s vehicles.

The ridehailing giant adds another robotaxi partner to its swelling stable of firms. Uber customers who indicate an openness for driverless could be matched with a Zoox robotaxi. The partnership will launch in Las Vegas this summer, followed by Los Angeles by mid-2027. Zoox will also continue to offer its service through its own app.

The Amazon-owned company with the toaster-shaped robotaxis is now testing its vehicles in Phoenix and Dallas. Zoox will start manually mapping with its retro-fitted Toyota SUVs before leveling up to fully autonomous testing with its purpose-built vehicles.

The robotaxi company has yet to obtain permits for driverless commercial operations in either city, but it typically deploys manually driven vehicles to gather mapping data while its applications move through the bureaucracy in the background. The news comes after Waymo announced the commencement of driverless operations in four new cities in Texas and Florida earlier this week, bringing its total robotaxi markets in the US to 10.

The robotaxi company said today that it will start accepting its first public riders in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando. First up will be customers from those four cities who have downloaded the Waymo app; other customers will be added on a rolling basis, the company said. That brings Waymo’s total number of markets to 10, which is double from where it was a couple of months ago.

The EV company says the staff cuts are intended to “improve operational effectiveness and optimize our resources,” TechCrunch reports. An internal memo added that the company is still focused on “further expansion into the robotaxi market,” following the launch of a robotaxi collaboration with Nuro and Uber last year.

Turns out, if you leave a Waymo door open, someone gets paid to close it, opening up some novel opportunities for improving the economy.

Since Waymo doesn’t have a vehicle with automatic doors, it has to pay on gig workers for help. (The Washington Post covered this phenomenon recently.) Just another example of the invisible human labor that’s required to keep these autonomous systems afloat.

Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told Bloomberg the robotaxi company was on track to reach the 1 million weekly rides milestone by the end of 2026. The company is currently provides about 400,000 rides per week across six US cities. Waymo just announced that its sixth-generation vehicle is going to start accepting passengers in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Chinese automotive publication Gasgoo says the new companies are in talks to dramatically increase Waymo’s fleet of Hyundai EVs. The deal could be worth around $2.5 billion, assuming $50,000 per vehicle. But even if the report is true, don’t expect Waymo’s robotaxi fleet to suddenly grow by 50,000: the company has said it plans on adding only 2,000 more vehicles in 2026, for a total fleet size of 3,500. Waymo is currently testing and validating the Ioniq 5 and the Zeekr RT as its next two robotaxis.

Say that five times really fast! Uber has said it would use Baidu’s Apollo Go robotaxis in London, and now the company is adding Dubai as well, starting in March 2026.

As Waymo uses AI-generated 3D worlds to simulate driverless cars’ encounters with tornadoes, floods, and even elephants, one commenter wonders if they could try AI school buses next.

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and articles claiming that Waymo’s robotaxis are being secretly controlled by teleoperators in the Philippines. The claims stem from a Senate Commerce Committee hearing this week, during which a top Waymo executive told Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that the company employs some remote operators overseas. But he was also clear that those operators aren’t actually controlling the vehicles. I watched all two hours of the hearing, and here’s what Mauricio Peña, Waymo’s chief safety officer, had to say:

A Waymo made the unfortunate decision to drive on light rail tracks in Phoenix with a passenger inside while a train was approaching. The passenger made the right call to abandon the robotaxis, even if it meant getting out in the middle of traffic. Valley Metro, which oversees light rail service, says there were no significant delays as a result of the incident. This comes a few weeks after a blackout caused a massive Waymo traffic jam in San Francisco.

Waymo has a new name for its Zeekr-produced autonomous minivans that are set to roll out this year. Ojai, named for the city northwest of Los Angeles, was chosen because most American consumers aren’t familiar with the Geely-owned Zeekr brand, according to InsideEVs. That may be true, but try saying “Waymo Ojai” five times really fast.