Mobileye Joins the Robotaxi Race
Uber will bring its premium AV service to Houston in 2027, Waymo partners with Element for fleet management, and The real reason why Tesla Robotaxis are not crashing
This week’s edition is brought to you by Rocsys – global leader in hands-free charging and fleet service solutions for electric and autonomous fleets.
Top Stories of the Week
Self-driving tech supplier Mobileye targets U.S. robotaxi launch in 2027 (link).
Mobileye said it would launch its own robotaxi service, planning to deploy an initial 100-vehicle fleet into a major U.S. city in 2027. The company said the first launch will be phased throughout next year, after which they’ll aim to scale the fleet to roughly 17,000 vehicles over the next five years.
Other Stuff
Element partners with Waymo to enable the future of autonomous mobility at scale (link).
This partnership, enabled through Element Mobility, will provide end-to-end fleet management and operational services to support Waymo's autonomous mobility operation, beginning with an initial deployment in San Diego and expanding to additional markets over time.
Uber is bringing robotaxi service to Houston (link).
Houston will be the second market for the robotaxi service after a launch in the San Francisco Bay Area later this year. Service is expected to expand to dozens of additional markets in the coming years. Uber has secured a 50,000-square-foot depot facility in downtown Houston and a dedicated charging pitstop in the city, with construction expected to begin in early 2027.
Robotaxi rankings show Waymo lead, China’s rise (link). This is a neat idea, but I’d be curious to know what underlying data and methodology were used to rank each company. Otherwise, it’s hard to know what the rankings actually mean.
Uber and WeRide to launch robotaxis in Zurich (link). I’m not sure how meaningful these partnerships are since the biggest barrier to AV deployment in Europe seems to be regulation, not technology.
Rocsys’ Charging Solution Sets the Pace at the Depot
We are proud to partner with Rocsys for this week’s edition of The Driverless Digest newsletter. Their M1 is the first overhead rail-mounted hands-free charging solution for robotaxi fleets, automating the charging process across multiple bays. The system enables uninterrupted operations and up to $1.7 mil. in annual savings for a 50-bay depot. To learn more, contact Erin Galiger, Rocsys Director of North American Markets, at egaliger@rocsys.com.
Waymo recalls nearly 4,000 robotaxis to stop them driving into highway construction zones (link).
This is the sixth recall Waymo has issued for its robotaxis. In May, the company recalled its robotaxis after they drove into flooded roads, and in December, it issued one to address its vehicles’ illegal behavior around school buses. Waymo has previously issued recalls to fix low-speed collisions with chains and gates and telephone poles, and one to solve a problem regarding towed trucks.
Cathie Wood Asks Elon Musk How Tesla Handles ‘Parking And Traffic Violations’ After The Robotaxi She Rode Gets $75 Ticket (link). Nice cameo from the Zoox mapping vehicle at ~7:30 too 🤣
Rivian’s CEO on Tesla’s Cybertruck, Ferrari’s Luce, and What Happens If the R2 Fails (link, no paywall). This was a great interview by WIRED’s Jeremy White that covered a lot of topics you don’t typically hear discussed. I especially appreciated that he asked some tougher questions around competition, product strategy, and execution risk rather than sticking to the usual CEO softballs.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe: “In a world where there’s a very small number of people that develop autonomous capabilities, it will likely still carry some charge or premium. Once enough companies have developed it, what you can charge will become much lower. But in either scenario it’s very important. Where it becomes free, then it becomes a necessary component to sell vehicles.”
Related: ‘First Drive with Universal Hands Free (UHF) on the Rivian R2!’ (link). Personally, I love my Rivian (link) R1S but UHF feels like an early version of Tesla Auto Pilot. I also liked Omar’s quote in the video, “Overall, it’s ok. It’s better than nothing”. Well said.
Tesla ‘Robotaxis’ are not crashing because they are not running (link).
A program with 14 unsupervised vehicles is going to have very few crashes by definition. That’s not a vindication of the technology; it’s the statistical consequence of barely operating. The real test only comes when Tesla puts hundreds or thousands of driverless cars on the road and the crash count is measured against actual rides delivered — the way it is for Waymo.
‘City #5 is officially live! Avride is expanding its partnership with UberEats to launch autonomous robot delivery in Arlington, Virginia’ (link).
Autolane: Over the past 40 weeks, our autonomous vehicles helped complete more than 1,000 meal deliveries throughout downtown San Francisco, helping seniors and those in need receive the meals they depend on (link). 👏
We’re also excited to welcome Autolane as our latest partner for the Austin Urban Autonomy Summit, presented by Nexar, taking place on October 14th. Reach out if you’d like to learn more about a partnership.
The Cybercab is the lightest, most efficient Tesla ever made (link, no paywall).
TaskUs Forward ‘26 is coming up on October 28, 2026, at Above the Rim at Chase Center in San Francisco, CA. Sessions will focus on breakthroughs in agentic AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and more (link).
Waymo curbside drop-off now available at San José Mineta International Airport (link). Great, now I just need a good reason to go to San Jose.
GM killed Cruise, but don’t count it out of the robotaxi race (link, no paywall).
Anderson said GM's approach is to develop self-driving technology by breaking the driving experience into pieces and examining where autonomy is most useful to car owners. That means first tackling long stretches of highway driving before expanding to arterial roads and urban centers. Over time, the executive said GM's autonomous driving systems will be able to operate in enough regions to make a viable robotaxi service.
‘Spotted in SF! New Waymo wrap, and she is SO cute!!’ (link).
Rivian CEO says company will release tech similar to Tesla FSD later this year (link, no paywall).
Later this year, we'll have full supervised point-to-point, which will be very similar to Tesla's FSD," he said. "And that'll roll out to all of our Gen 2 vehicles and, of course, R2.
What else we're reading/listening to
Just ordered Ed Niedermeyer’s new book, and excited to dig in. The book explores the public debate surrounding Tesla’s driver-assistance systems and the sweeping claims that have shaped the company’s place in technology, culture, and the marketplace (link).
The Next Mile by Nicholas StJohn: Are Self-Driving Cars Safer than Public Transit? (link).
Inside Waymo’s Interview Process: An Engineer’s First-Hand Experience (link). Our latest podcast where we discussed Waymo’s interview process from a candidate’s perspective, how the company evaluates engineering talent, and what aspiring AV engineers can do to stand out in one of the industry’s most competitive hiring pipelines, among other things.
AVs/Humans behaving badly
‘Autonomous Uber crash’ (link). You could argue the AV should have done a better job avoiding this crash, but the safety driver appears to have done an excellent job and was already preparing to take over before impact.
‘Do better’: San Francisco is fed up with this Waymo behavior (link, no paywall). Uber and Lyft drivers do this all the time, but I’m not sure that makes it acceptable for Waymo. Cities should enforce these rules, Waymo should avoid this behavior, and municipalities should probably create more dedicated pickup and dropoff space too.
AVs/Human behaving “goodly” :)
Interesting prompt I saw for the first time today in a Waymo. Would be smart to develop a rating score for previous passengers (link).
Waymo: Because we react to the unexpected in milliseconds (link). Amazing work by the Waymo here. But two people riding on one scooter downhill at night with no helmets? That’s a Darwin Award contender right there.
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers at Uber, and to Simon C 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
Field Application Engineer at Rocsys (link) via Rocsys.
Multiple Business Partner roles at Waymo, via Sheila Nemeth.
Senior/Staff Technical Program Manager at Zoox (link) via Taylor Arnicar.
Job Moves
Yuezhan Tao: UPenn -> Zoox (link).
Paul Reynolds: Oxa -> TaskUs (link).
Court C: ASARCO -> Zoox (link).
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Upcoming Event: Our next Urban Autonomy Summit will be taking place on October 14th in Austin! You can check out some photos from our Detroit edition here.
Until next week :)
-Harry