Tesla Launches Robotaxi Service in Dallas and Houston
Lyft CEO takes his first Zoox ride, Glydways raises $170 million in Series C funding, and the biggest bummer about Waymo in Austin is that it’s only available through Uber
This week’s edition is brought to you by TaskUs — powering safe, scalable autonomous vehicle and AI operations through human-in-the-loop expertise.
Top Stories of the Week
Tesla launches robotaxis in Dallas and Houston (link, no paywall). So far, online crowdsourcing tools indicate that very few Tesla robotaxis are actually available. And by Monday morning, the service was largely down, with only brief spikes of availability on Sunday. In contrast, Tesla’s service in Austin had 46 vehicles available according to the site Robotaxi Tracker. This is typical though for robotaxi operators who often start small in new cities; for example, Waymo also began with a limited fleet, operating 16 vehicles in Dallas and just one in Houston.
Other Stuff
Robotaxis are the new millennial lifestyle subsidy (link). Interesting article I was featured in, exploring the unique pricing window we’re seeing with robotaxis right now. They are more expensive than Uber and Lyft on average, but not always. And don’t forget that you’re sitting in a $75,000 Jaguar I-Pace plus another $120k or so of AV tech.
“From a consumer point of view, it’s definitely the golden era of AV rides, very similar to like 10 years ago with Uber and Lyft,” Harry Campbell, founder of The Driverless Digest, told Sherwood News. “We don’t know what the true cost is, but you’re definitely getting a great deal on these rides.”
My advice is to take these cheap rides while they last!
Related: ‘Obi Research Reports Tesla Robotaxi Prices Are Up 41% In San Francisco’ (link).
‘Lidar vehicle spotted in Lakeview’ (link). Apparently this is a Toyota Woven development car.
San Francisco is obsessed with the safest drivers — and ignoring the ones killing people (link, no paywall).
If San Francisco were serious about safety, the focus would not be on constraining technologies that reduce harm. It would be on aggressively addressing the dominant source of that harm: human driving behavior, weak enforcement and an underbuilt street infrastructure that fails to support pedestrians and cyclists.
Uber just disclosed an 11.52% stake in Lucid, following recent investment (h/t Sawyer Meritt).
Californians’ Embrace Of Self-Driving Rides Surges 500% In 19 Months (link). A great round-up of insights from the annual Autonomous Vehicles and the City Symposium.
Waymo self-driving taxis are coming to Detroit. Will the public accept them? (link).
To build public trust, companies must increase awareness about AV technology and develop it further, says Behram Wali, lead author of the study referenced above and assistant professor in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the UC San Diego School of Social Sciences.
The Human Edge in AV: Scaling Swift Emergency Response
TaskUs partners with the top autonomous vehicle (AV) and AI organizations to manage the human-critical workflows that make advanced systems safer and more reliable. When one of the leading companies deployed its fleets in new cities, they also needed to scale emergency response teams. TaskUs helped by deploying expert operators, creating 24/7 incident frameworks and implementing a unique fatigue management program. Get all the details and results in this case study.
Wayne County Airport Authority (WCAA), Unifi partnership brings autonomous wheelchairs to Detroit Metropolitan Airport’s Evans Terminal (link).
‘Take a tour of Zipline’s maintenance hub for autonomous aircraft in Dallas’ (link) via Keller Clifton.
‘Waymo love of the 280 should be studied’ (link).
‘Air traffic control for autonomous cars in parking lots—brilliant idea!’ (link).
‘Look at the table below of Waymo’s launches. Count how many times “Uber” appears after 2025’ (link). This chart and Uber’s stock price speaks for itself, investors are not buying the Uber AV narrative for now, since Waymo is the only game in town. That could change over time as Uber launches with partners like Zoox in Los Angeles and Wayve/Apollo Go in London.
‘Biggest bummer about Austin is that Waymo is only available through Uber and you can’t specify that’s what you want. Complete lottery’ (link). I don’t think Waymo regrets their partnership with Uber in Atlanta and Austin, but their hybrid model with Lyft in Nashville makes a lot more sense. Users can guarantee a Waymo by booking through the company’s app, and when demand is low, Waymo can tap into Lyft’s extensive ridehail network and Flexdrive’s fleet services.
This approach takes advantage of customers willing to pay a higher price and wait longer, while also serving as a good marketing tool for new Lyft users who are unfamiliar with AVs.
Lyft CEO, David Risher: A few evenings ago I got in my first Zoox ever with Aicha Evans (link). Could this be the foreshadowing of a future partnership?
Tesla adds ‘streaks,’ other stats to track how often drivers use Full Self-Driving software (link).
Glydways raises US$170m Series C for AV network rollout (link).
Waymo temporarily pauses San Antonio operations amid flooding, vehicle entering flooded waterway (link).
‘Avride’s autonomous fleet continues to scale and is now 200 cars and counting’ (link), via Jonah B.
Exclusive: Your delivery robot will now offer the blind real-time, on-the-ground eyes around sidewalk hazards (link, no paywall). This is pretty cool!
As Coco’s robots make food deliveries for local restaurants, they continuously log every obstacle they encounter. That data feeds into Coco’s sidewalk map, updated to the minute, and under the new partnership, it will also flow to BlindSquare. The self-voicing app converts the information into spoken alerts delivered in 26 languages, warning users roughly 10 meters before they reach a hazard.
The unit economics of autonomy will be won or lost in the Infrastructure Orchestration Layer (link), via Michael B.
Related: AV Fleet Management with Ming Maa – Moove AV CEO (link).
What else we’re reading/listening to
Understanding AI by Timothy B. Lee and Kai Williams: Human drivers keep crashing into Waymos (link).
The AV Market Strategist by Daniel Abreu Marques: Uber’s $10bn AV Investment, Tesla Launches Robotaxi in Dallas & Houston, Waymo Autonomous Testing in London (link).
AV Events
Over 600 people came out to Curbivore last Thursday and Friday - making it one of our biggest events yet! (link).
You can check out our highlights clip, and all the photos from the event here. We’ve curated the recordings from all the speeches, panels, and firesides here as well.
Zoox is headed to the Miami Grand Prix! Catch them at the Atlassian Williams F1 team fan zone next Wednesday to Sunday, to see their robotaxi IRL and meet some of their crew (link).
Catch up with Terawatt’s Peter Cohen on stage at the upcoming ACT Expo on May 5, 2026, where he’ll break down what goes into building a charging hub for AV fleets (link).
Let us know if you’ll be attending ACT Expo and we’ll give you a shoutout in our ‘ACT Expo Guide’ next week.
AVs/Humans behaving badly
‘Waymo stopped 8 miles from destination and told me it’s a 3 minute walk’ (link). Something similar happened to me for the first time recently: I entered a destination within Waymo’s service area and it selected a drop-off location that was a 6 minute walk away.. 🤔
‘Ambulance testing out Waymo’s reaction to it’s lights’ (link).
‘Waymos block all three lanes at a flashing red light’ (link). Looks like they’re actually lining up for a drag race.
‘Waymo support remotely allows police officer to drive car out of busy Nashville intersection’ (link).
‘Person blocks entire lane of traffic by lying on hood of Waymo in Austin’ (link). Looks like it’s time to spray the windshield wipers :)
Neat Jobs
Multiple management roles at Einride, via Isabelle Ji.
Strategic Partnerships Development Manager at Waymo (link) via Shana Downs.
Robotaxi Safety Programme Lead at Wayve (link) via Oussama Ouboulane.
Job Moves
Lauren Berger: United Talent Agency -> Waymo (link).
Apoorv Narang: Lyft -> Waymo (link).
Philipp Michel: General Motors -> Motional (link).
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers at Waymo, Kyte, and to Kate K. 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 almost 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