Bot Auto Completes First Commercial Driverless Freight Run
Zoox expands San Francisco service area, Nuro receives driverless testing permit, and Is the Uber x Waymo partnership coming to an end?
This week’s edition is brought to you by Terawatt – purpose-built charging for autonomous vehicle fleets.
Top Stories of the Week
Humanless big rig completes its first US freight run (link). Congrats to the Bot Auto team and highly recommend the linked article as it shares a lot of details and quotes from XD.
CEO and founder of Bot Auto, Xiaodi Hou, explained exactly how it played out. “Our autonomous truck departed Riggy’s Truck Parking in northeast Houston, headed to Hutchins, Texas, just south of Dallas. Departure was late at night as the shipper requested overnight service for this route. The truck ran 230 miles northbound on I-45, one of the busiest freight corridors in the country, navigated stop lights, side streets and frontage roads. There was no safety driver or observer, nor a remote operator.
Related: Inside Bot Auto with CEO Xiaodi Hou (link).
Other Stuff
‘San Francisco, we’re seeing more of you! 🌁 Our Zoox Explorers service has rolled into new neighborhoods. From North Beach to Noe Valley and more, we’re expanding our robotaxi’s footprint across the city’ (link).
Related: Leadership in Focus: Marc Wimmershoff, Vice President, Autonomy Software (link). Marc will also be joining us on the podcast this Monday, stay tuned!
Uber wants to turn its millions of drivers into a sensor grid for self-driving companies (link).
The company eventually wants to outfit its human drivers’ cars with sensors to soak up real-world data for autonomous vehicle (AV) companies — and potentially other companies training AI models on physical-world scenarios. Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber’s chief technology officer, revealed the plan…describing it as a natural extension of a nascent program the company announced in late January called AV Labs.
This is a good idea, and companies like Nexar are already doing something similar with dashcams and rideshare drivers. But while the “millions of drivers” framing sounds good in a press quote, it doesn’t hold up operationally. Turning a decentralized base of independent drivers into a reliable, high-quality data network is messy and hard to standardize.
This idea makes a lot more sense with fleets. Uber already works with partners like Alto, Tower, VGM and many others that own and operate thousands of vehicles on the Uber network, so that would be a better starting point.
It also raises an interesting comparison with Lyft, which has a large (15,000) owned fleet via Flexdrive. If this model works, Lyft could be even better positioned to execute, and these companies have a history of borrowing from each other’s playbooks.
Related: Maps, data, and logistics: How Lyft’s deep roots in mobility can help AV players excel (link). Speak of the devil..
Designing Charging Hubs for Autonomous Fleets
We are excited to partner with Terawatt this week, one of the leading providers of charging infrastructure. To learn more about Terawatt’s network of AV charging hubs and track record of 99%+ uptime, reach out to Logan Szidik at lszidik@terawattinfrastructure.com
Terawatt will also be speaking at our next Urban Autonomy Summit on June 9 in Detroit! RSVP here.
Council Member Zo Qadri from Austin Texas: Disappointed Waymo didn’t show up to yesterday’s Public Safety & Mobility meeting. People deserve transparency when it comes to safety on our streets (link). The two empty Waymo chairs cracked me up.. But I do think Waymo has a a lot of room for improvement when it comes to dealing with first responders.
‘Both the democratic frontrunners for governor want to kill more people by reversing the autonomous vehicle rules that the CA DMV already approved’ (link).
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi Sees ‘Trillion-Dollar’ Self-Driving Opportunity, Says Waymo Hasn’t Impacted Business (link).
When asked about Alphabet Inc.‘s Waymo, Khosrowshahi said that the sector wasn’t a “winner-take-all” market. “We certainly see Waymo moving very quickly as we are moving very quickly,” he said, pointing to Uber expanding self-driving services in over 15 markets by the end of 2026.
Related: ‘Uber Q1’26 earnings are out — we’re off to an exceptional start to 2026’ (link).
Goldman Sachs: Robotaxis Are Forecast to Become a $400 Billion Market in 2035 (link).
Even as AV ride costs fall—potentially to $1 or less per mile over the long term—the hardware enabling those economics would be also affordable enough for consumers to own personally. If autonomous vehicles eventually allow passengers to sleep during travel, many people may prefer ownership, possibly with a monthly subscription for remote driving assistance, Goldman Sachs Research suggests.
See How the Robotaxi Industry Is Taking Off Across the U.S. (link, no paywall).
Urban Autonomy Summit - Detroit
Our Urban Autonomy Summit, presented by Nexar, is heading to Detroit on June 9, and we’re excited to bring it to the Motor City! We’ve already brought together hundreds of operators, policymakers, and mobility leaders at past events in New York and San Francisco, and the conversations have been some of the best we’ve seen anywhere in the AV space.
The summit is a half-day event with panels, networking, and refreshments/light bites, all focused on what’s actually happening on the ground today with ridehailing, autonomous vehicle deployment, and urban transportation policy, and we’ll have some of the smartest operators and builders in the space joining us.
You can RSVP here and if you want a preview of what it’s like, check out our highlights clip from SF. Hope to see you there!
Nuro receives driverless testing permit ahead of Uber robotaxi service launch (link).
This latest driverless permit allows Nuro to test the Lucid vehicles without a human safety operator behind the wheel.
‘Exclusive: Rivian mulls making its own lidar sensors, possibly in partnership with Chinese firms’ (link). I love my Rivian, but I miss having Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised). This would be an exciting move if Rivian can bring lower-cost lidar into future vehicles and close that gap.
I do have my eye on the Tesla Model Y L though (link via Justin G).
‘Waymo work, Waymo ride, Waymo nails. 💅’ (link).
“Don’t forget to take your Waymo sightseeing” (link).
What else we're reading/listening to
The Curbivore by Jonah Bliss: Detroit’s Existential Question: Will Autonomy Be Owned or On-Demand? (link).
Autonomous Delivery Reaches Age of Expansion (link). A summary of the “Future of Delivery” address by Zach Rash and Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, CEOs of Coco Robotics and Zipline respectively, at the just concluded Food On Demand Conference 2026.
Is the Uber x Waymo Partnership Coming to an End? (link). This might be our most popular post of the year, and it has sparked some discussions on Reddit and in my inbox/phone, that’s for sure :)
The ‘Waymo on Uber’ Experience, Feedback From a Power User - Ethan McKanna (link). Our latest podcast episode features Ethan McKanna, AV power user and creator of Robotaxi Tracker, where he shares insights into the real world Waymo on Uber experience in Austin and why the city has become a key location for AV deployments. We discuss what works well with the product today, the features still missing, and how pricing and availability compare to rider expectations. We also break down the differences between Waymo’s partnerships with Uber in Austin and Lyft in Nashville, what these models could mean for future markets, and Uber’s long-term role as an AV demand aggregator, among other topics.
Charge Talk by Diana Cwick: The Future of EVs: ZETA Research Director Corey Cantor on EV Policy, Charging (link).
AVs/Humans behaving badly
‘Got into my Waymo and I get a support call within 2 mins asking if I’m a minor and that their system detected me as a minor 😭’ (link).
Related: Waymo Is Trying to Crack Down on Solo Kids in Driverless Cars (link, no paywall).
‘Great white sharks spotted in the streets of Austin’ (link).
‘San Jose passenger claims a Waymo drove off with his luggage at the airport’ (link). Sorry but I’m team Waymo here. In my experience, if you open the trunk before the ride starts, it automatically opens upon arriving at your destination. Maybe the passenger hit ‘close trunk’ instead of open trunk.
‘A group of women found a knife sticking out of the back seat of a Waymo in Scottsdale’ (link).
AVs/Humans behaving “goodly” :)
‘This clip blows my mind. Waymo out here saving lives every day’ (link).
‘Disability activist shares her first experience using a Waymo as a wheelchair user’ (link).
Neat Jobs
Staff Autonomy Engineer - Localization at May Mobility (link) via Xiaoying J.
Manager, Materials Program Manager at Waymo (link) via Andressa Teixeira.
Job Moves
Ralf Wenzel: JOKR -> Coco Robotics (link).
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers at Turo, and to Sergio for referring new subscribers. If there’s someone you think would enjoy TDD, feel free to forward this email or use the referral button below, and we’ll make sure to shout out your company.
We’re now at 10,000+ subscribers! Interested in advertising with TDD? Check out our media kit here and reach out to us. Newsletter spots are currently sold out until July/August.
Until next week :)
-Harry