Uber and Serve Robotics’ Delivery Partnership Falls Apart
Waymo expands in Phoenix and Orlando, and removes safety drivers in Denver, Avride crosses 100,000 ‘autonomous rides’ with Uber in Dallas, and Teamsters sue California DMV over driverless truck rules
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
Uber Exits Serve Robotics Stake as Delivery Alliance Unravels (link, no paywall). I was surprised by this one, since you don’t see many Uber partners walk away, especially smaller ones, and Serve was also born inside the Uber/Postmates ecosystem. Now Uber has sold its stake and Serve doesn’t plan to renew their agreement when it expires next year. The disagreement seems to be less about the robots themselves and more about how to actually operate and scale them. Interestingly, Serve says its experience with DoorDash has been much better, which shows that Uber’s aggregator model isn’t as simple as plugging autonomous supply into the platform. Uber does still have several other delivery robot partners, but with both Waymo and Serve moving away from Uber, it will be interesting to see if this becomes a broader trend.
“Our extensive discussions with Uber since the emergence of this trend in Q2 have clarified that we really have differing views about the operating model to scale our shared autonomous fleet,” Kashani said on the call, adding that those differences span areas like fleet coordination and merchant integration.
Other Stuff
Uber COO Andrew Macdonald: We’re teaming up with Hinomaru Kotsu as our fleet partner to launch our robotaxi pilot in Tokyo later this year with Wayve and Nissan (link). Not sure how I feel about this car.
Waymo expands in Phoenix area with new East Valley territory (link), they also expanded in Orlando to include more of Taft (link). Congrats JJ Ricks!
The company announced Thursday that it's adding 55 square miles of the East Valley to its service area. That includes Gilbert and more of Chandler.
Avride CEO Dmitry Polishchuk: Just crossed 100,000 autonomous rides with Uber in Dallas! (link). *With a safety driver but nice to see them progressing.
Waymo enters second phase of testing in Denver (link).
Waymo has moved to the next phase of testing in Denver by removing the backup drivers. Denver is an important testing ground for Waymo. It’s the company’s only test city that regularly sees snow and ice. The company hopes to eventually expand into the metro area and Denver International Airport.
Uber partners with China’s Pony.ai for 2,000 robotaxis in Europe (link). Europe still hasn't approved driverless robotaxis so while this is interesting, it doesn't mean much yet.
The companies plan to deploy 2,000 of Pony.ai’s self-driving taxis across Europe, and expand the robotaxi partnership to the Middle East, they announced Friday.
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
Waymo registers Swiss entity in Zurich (link). Interesting how many new entities Waymo has been forming around the globe lately. Sure seems like they’re keeping their options open for a much broader international expansion.
Take a peek inside a Tesla Cybercab (link).
Waymo is proud to partner with the Las Vegas Raiders and Allegiant Stadium to bring autonomous rides to Las Vegas (link). Paint that Ojai black!
‘Former Waymo employee thoughts on ride-sharing’ (link). I don’t agree with the Uber analysis here at all. Air travel is a poor analogy since it’s a large, infrequent purchase. Ridehail is all about increasing frequency and building loyalty. Waymo still doesn’t have a great answer for peak demand, which is exactly where a broader marketplace like Uber can be valuable.
Imagry and UNVI Announce Partnership to Offer Fully Integrated Autonomous Driving Buses (link).
Together, the companies have integrated Imagry’s field-proven AI-based autonomous driving technology into UNVI’s M3-category electric buses to address the growing market demand for safe, reliable, and sustainable public transportation solutions.
‘Waymo soon to be available via the Lyft app in Nashville’ (link).
‘Nearly one year ago, Kodiak rang the Nasdaq Opening Bell as a newly public company. Since then, we’ve grown our customer-owned driverless fleet from 8 to 35 trucks, increased paid driverless operations from 3,000 cumulative hours to more than 40,000, and introduced the seventh generation of the Kodiak Driver’ (link). Had a great conversation with Kodiak CEO Don Burnette about this milestone and a lot more. Listen in on Monday when the episode goes live!
Zoox Safety Case Framework (link).
‘Lovely to see Waymo’s partnership with TechForce out in the wild’ (link). This is a neat partnership, and I’d love to see Waymo team up with Lyft on something similar in Nashville, where over 50% of the full-time roles Lyft has filled at its AV depot have gone to current or former Lyft drivers. Programs like this may only appeal to a relatively small share of drivers, but for the people who do participate, they can be hugely impactful by creating a real pathway into new AV-related jobs. Grab has done a good job here too, including training existing driver-partners to become safety operators through programs like GrabAcademy.
Teamsters sue California DMV over driverless truck rules (link). This seems like a weak argument considering the DMV spent years developing these rules, held multiple public comment periods and a hearing, and the Teamsters themselves participated in the process.
Filed Wednesday in Alameda County Superior Court, the lawsuit alleges the DMV failed to conduct a legally required economic review and did not give the public enough information about the rules' potential effects on jobs and safety.
Waymo back on freeways! My first ride (link).
The Fifth Layer: Why Infrastructure Is AV Rideshare’s Missing $200B Opportunity (link).
Waymo Factory August Update - 953 Ojai, 72% finished. + 12 IONIQ 5s (link).
What else we’re reading/listening to
Uber Says It’s Gaining Market Share from Waymo in San Francisco. I’m Not So Sure (link). My latest piece where I take a closer look at Uber’s claim that it’s gaining market share against Waymo in San Francisco, why Waymo’s expanding operating domain complicates the Yipit data, and what CPUC trip data tells us about whether Uber is actually taking share back from Waymo. It’s been generating some buzz on Reddit too (link).
Wayve’s GAIA-4 and the Future of AV Simulation with Brandon Basso (link). Our latest podcast where TDD Editor Ben Hubbard sits down with Wayve’s VP of Engineering to discuss how world models are being used to train and validate autonomous vehicles, what GAIA-4’s closed-loop simulation capabilities unlock, and the challenges of validating a generalizable AI driving system, among other things.
Autonomy Insiders by Daniel Abreu Marques: The Hidden Human Layer Making Autonomous Vehicles Scalable | Nick Allen, TaskUs (link).
TITV by The Information, featuring Lyft CEO David Risher: Why Lyft is Betting Big on Waymo (link).
Related: Lyft’s Hybrid Approach to Autonomy with CEO David Risher (link).
30 Minutes by ADSN: Self-Driving Cars Are Here And What It Means for You ft. Harry Campbell (link).
The Curbivore by Jonah Bliss: Let Them Linger? The Surprising Case for Robotaxis at the Curb (link). Interesting study that looks at AV’s impact on VMT when they park after a ride vs cruising around. Also echoes some of the discussion I had with Matthew Raifman, PhD, MPP on a past podcast (link).
AVs/Humans behaving badly
Dallas pedestrian dies after being struck by SUV, thrown into Waymo (link). I saw some criticism of Waymo over this, but they were literally driving the other direction. The pedestrian was first hit by a human-driven SUV and thrown into the opposite lane before colliding with the Waymo. Hard to see how this is really a Waymo safety story.
‘Autonomous delivery van in China drives straight into ditch’ (link). Who left that gate open?
AV behaving “goodly” :)
‘Not all road users follow a predictable path’ (link).
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers at Moove, and to Jennifer P, Jake F, and Lars B 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
Product Manager, Driving Performance Expansion at Waymo (link) via Jacopo Sannazzaro.
Software Engineer - Driving Behavior at Zoox (link) via Mingfeng Zhang.
Sensing Systems Engineer at Wayve (link) via Irene Perali.
Director, Autonomy Perception at May Mobility (link) via May Mobility.
Job Moves
Congrats to friend of TDD Offer Grembek on the move from Kinetic Logic -> Atoms (link). Atoms sure is making a lot of moves lately!
Travis Kalanick’s robotics startup Atoms taps former Uber finance chief as CFO (link).
Omar Mahboob: General Motors -> Motional (link).
Scott Sheridan: Humanoid -> Wayve (link).
An Li: Meta -> NVIDIA (link).
Brianna Swanson: Ocado Technology -> Waabi (link).
We’re now at 11,000+ subscribers! Interested in advertising with TDD? Check out our media kit here and reach out to us. Newsletter spots are currently sold out until September but we do have podcast advertising opportunities available.
Until next week :)
-Harry