This week’s edition is brought to you by MN8 Energy – powering the next generation of fleet and infrastructure electrification.
Top Story of the Week
Gatik AI Raises $200 Million in Its Largest Funding Series (link, no paywall).
Gatik will use the cash infusion to grow in regions where the self-driving trucking company runs freight trucks, expanding routes and courting new business, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Gautam Narang said in an interview.
Watch out for our TDD podcast on Monday where we’ll be having Gatik CEO Gautam Narang as a guest on the show. Subscribe now so your feed updates automatically!
Other Stuff
Waymo picks Munich for first EU robotaxi launch (link, no paywall).
The Alphabet-owned company announced on Tuesday that it aims to start commercial ride-hailing services in the German city towards the end of 2027 as it steps up its international push.
Related: London rollout of robotaxis delayed amid lack of guidance for firms to follow (link).
Amazon’s Toaster-Shaped Robotaxis Are Hitting the Road (link, no paywall).
Robotaxis are real now — so is the pushback (link, no paywall).
Waymo: 10 AI Lessons from Driving 200+ Million Fully Autonomous Miles (link).
They were Lyft drivers. Now they’re cleaning Waymos (link).
London cabbies plot ‘skulduggery’ to take on robotaxis (link, no paywall).
‘Welcome to the ultimate home tour, Ojai edition. Join Martha Stewart as she highlights what makes this cabin special, featuring spacious seating and intuitive technology’ (link). Interesting collaboration here..lol.
Designing Energy Infrastructure for Autonomous and Electric Fleets
MN8 Energy is one of the largest renewable energy and infrastructure owners in the U.S., supporting fleet operators as they scale electrification and autonomy. With expertise in delivering custom, turnkey solutions tailored to each fleet’s duty cycle and operational needs, bringing reliability, uptime guarantees, and long-term operational ownership, MN8 is the choice partner for fleets as they transition to electric and autonomous operations.
To learn more about MN8’s work with fleet and infrastructure partners, reach out to the Distributed Energy Solutions team at DES@mn8.com
Uber and Waymo Have Spent More Than $15M This Year Lobbying New York Pols (link). That sounds like a lot, but Uber does around 495,000 trips per day in NYC at an average fare of $34.61. That’s more than $17 million in gross fares per day, or nearly $120 million per week.
So the more than $15 million Uber and Waymo have spent lobbying New York this year is less than a single day of Uber’s current NYC gross fares. Just a drop in the bucket. And it also shows why NYC is such an important AV market.
Uber CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy: Last week, RJ Scaringe gave me a preview of the upcoming Rivian Autonomy+, and it flawlessly drove from Sunnyvale to Cupertino and back! Today, I traded in my car for a Launch Edition R2. Super excited about the progress here! (link). I was impressed with this until I mapped the route 😂. But in all seriousness, Rivian’s UHF product is objectively years behind Tesla today, so I’m really rooting for them to deliver point-to-point by the end of the year.
Related: Rivian’s CFO is leaving the company (link).
‘The Waymo Mafia. Alumni of the Waymo program who have gone on to found their own companies over time, cumulatively valued at over $10.5B today’ (link).
Avride: 2 hours of autonomous driving through Austin. From quiet neighborhoods to busy downtown streets (link). There’s no driver, but a vehicle observer is sitting in the front passenger seat. Still, this is neat, and I appreciate Avride’s transparency:
Technically supervised. The VO is still on board of the vehicle, but yes, we are getting closer to fully driverless operations, which we expect to begin in first half of 2027.
‘I exported all my Waymo receipts since Aug 2025’ (link).
‘A Model T waiting at a light with a driverless Waymo’ (link).
Waymo Speaks: We Have More In Common With Urbanists Than You Might Think (link). An op-ed by Waymo arguing that cities should create a formal process for “staging” - letting AVs park at the curb between rides instead of continuously circling.
Because AVs spend much of their time providing trips, the cumulative value generated by staging far exceeds that of a curb space occupied by a privately owned vehicle. For a commercial district, this means that local businesses could receive eight to 10 times as many potential customer visits than if the space were designated for private vehicle storage only.
Op-Ed: San Francisco Should Not Give Free Curb Space to Waymo (link). A rebuttal to Waymo’s op-ed was also published.
I don’t see how an empty Waymo idling outside a storefront generates more value than a parked private car, whose owner at least has some chance of being a customer. The argument rests entirely on total curb turnover, as more vehicles cycling through a spot, in theory, means more potential trip origins and destinations nearby. But that’s a claim about vehicle throughput, not foot traffic to any specific business the AV happens to be parked in front of.
This isn’t a new problem and based on my experience with ride-hail drivers, cities have never done a great job figuring out where Uber and Lyft drivers should wait between trips, especially because there is often nowhere to park in the busiest places and at the busiest times. That means both human drivers and AVs end up driving around empty while waiting for their next trip. Is it better for them to park instead? Probably, but Waymo or anyone else should have to pay for the right to use that space. That is why we have parking meters in busy commercial areas.
At the same time, if curb prices are too high, driving around could become the cheaper option for Waymo, even though it creates more congestion. The answer is complicated but probably a combination of paid staging, fees for empty miles or congestion, and greater use of private parking lots for off-street staging. Any dedicated curb spaces should also be shared among AVs, taxis, and human ride-hail drivers rather than reserved exclusively for Waymo.
‘4 months since Waymo “paused” in San Antonio’ (link).
‘It’s building season, and we have a ton of projects in active construction. Coming live soon, they can each power hundreds of EVs - supporting Terawatt’s journey to electrify all miles for a cleaner, safer planet’ (link).
Gemini in Waymo is now available to all riders in the Ojai (link).
Autonomous Vehicles predictions & odds on Polymarket (link). Lots of interesting markets to wager on if that is your thing 🙂. You can sign up using my referral link here and you’ll get a $20 bonus.
What else we're reading/listening to
Waymo’s California Trips Are Falling, But Its Ambitions Are Growing (link). Our latest analysis piece where TDD Editor Ben Hubbard examines why Waymo’s paid trips in California declined in May and June, whether the freeway pause or slowing demand is responsible, and how the dip may reflect the company’s growing focus on expansion beyond California. It’s raised some discussions on Reddit too (link).
Balancing AV Innovation and Regulation with CalSTA’s Emily Warren (link). My latest podcast where I sit down with CalSTA’s Deputy Secretary for Innovative Mobility Solutions to discuss California’s new AV regulations, how the state balances innovation and safety, and what the new rules mean for robotaxis and driverless trucks, among other things.
‘A Wayve summer reading/watching/listening list for your weekend’ (link), featuring our recent podcast episode with Wayve VP of Engineering Brandon Basso (link).
Charge Talk by Diana Cwick: Robots That Charge Electric Vehicles: No Human Needed! Erin Galiger, ROCSYS (link).
Aurora Retail Investor Town Hall | August 20, 2026 (link).
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) by Harry Stebbings: Uber President on The Untold Uber Stories: Travis, China and Self-Driving | Why Autonomy Is Existential | How to Beat DoorDash to #1 in Food with Andrew MacDonald (link).
The Skip Podcast by Nikhyl Singhal: To Invent Waymo, They Had to Reinvent PM (link).
AV Events
Our Urban Autonomy Summit Austin, presented by Nexar, happening October 14, is right around the corner, and it’ll bring together some of the brightest minds in the AV industry in one of the most tech-forward cities in the U.S.
Big thanks to our presenting sponsor Nexar, and our amazing lineup of partners, including Verizon, Terawatt, Voltera, Autolane, TaskUs, The Ride Platform, Gridwise, EVKON, and CharterUP.
Apply now to secure your spot before registration fills up! (link).
YPT-DC is holding a conversation featuring David Zipper on Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 6 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 401-A Conference Room, 901 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001. The conversation will focus on the safety, congestion, and autonomous vehicle policy challenges cities are facing (link).
Related: David Zipper on AVs, Congestion, and the Future of Cities (link).
AVs/Humans behaving badly
Watch Tesla FSD v14 Lite drive over a giant log without stopping (link).
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers at Cabify, Uber, and to Hannah S 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.
Neat Jobs
EMobility Deployment Lead at Waymo (link) via Sara Tanner.
Staff Software Engineer, Operational Applications & Platforms at Zoox (link) via Zoox.
People Partner - Engineering at Wayve (link) via Charlie Cox.
Job Moves
Rachel Cohen: NVIDIA (link).
Gabriel Agapiou: BMW Group -> Wayve (link).
Until next week :)
-Harry