Uber and Wayve Are Bringing AVs to London
First ever driverless Tesla robotaxi spotted in Austin, Waymo rides cost 30-40% more than Uber and Lyft, and multiple Waymos destroyed in LA anti-ICE protests
Hey, it’s Harry! Welcome to the 104 new subscribers who have signed up since our last newsletter. I’m excited to have you join the 1,664 AV enthusiasts, executives, and industry professionals who are already on board. It’s great to have you along for the ride as we explore the intersection of autonomy and rideshare, and the business of AVs.
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Top Stories of the Week
Wayve and Uber plan London robotaxi launch after U.K. speeds up autonomous vehicle rollout (link). Uber made a strategic investment into Wayve in 2024 and the startup is also based in London, so on the surface, this partnership makes a lot of sense. There weren’t a ton of details about the launch, but Wayve’s end to end AI approach is one to watch since it means they can potentially deploy and adapt to any environment. And the results so far have been promising.
Wayve recently announced their AI-500 Roadshow, with the goal of taking a single model to 500 cities by the end of 2025. According to the company, there is “No retraining. No region-specific coding. Just one model, tested on real roads around the world.”
To date, the startup has driven in 90 cities over 90 days across Asia, Europe, and North America - aiming to show that Wayve’s technology can adapt to any environment out of the box - without needing to map the area in advance. This strategy and business model ties in well with Uber’s global footprint since as I like to constantly bring up, the company does over 30 million rides a day around the world. The end to end model that both Wayve and Tesla are looking to employ has the potential to scale faster than anyone else.
I’m interested in hearing from AV experts in Europe on what this partnership may mean - so please leave a comment and let me know. Here’s AV expert Daniel Abreu‘s take (who is based in Germany) and runs the
newsletter.Elon Musk says Tesla robotaxi rides in Austin ‘tentatively’ set to begin June 22 (link). According to a company insider, the launch was originally slated for June 12 and it’s not exactly a shocker that it’s been delayed. Musk has a habit of this, but more importantly, it wasn’t until Tuesday June 10, that the first ever Tesla Model Y robotaxi with no-one in the driver's seat was spotted testing on public roads in Austin (link). The vehicle had what appeared to be a safety driver in the passenger’s seat and a ‘chase car’ behind it. I expect Tesla still needs to do some testing without a safety driver in the vehicle before they officially launch so will be keeping an eye out for that video.
‘Waymo rides cost more than Uber or Lyft — and people are paying anyway’ (link). Obi1, an app that compares real-time prices and pickup times across ride-hailing platforms, has released what it describes as the first detailed analysis of Waymo’s pricing strategy. The study found that Waymo’s autonomous rides are about 30-40% pricier than similar trips with Uber or Lyft — yet that higher cost doesn’t appear to be deterring riders.
Waymo is a premium experience so it makes sense that it’s currently more expensive than Uber and Lyft.
In fact, if we focus on the vehicle costs, the MSRP of the Jaguar I-Pace is $75,000 compared to the average UberX vehicle, which is an 8 year old Prius, worth only $30,000. So you're essentially getting an Uber Black vehicle at UberX prices.
The Waymo Driver also adds more value (according to Waymo, the equipment on their fifth-generation robot taxis costs as much as $100,000 in February of 2024) since many prefer it to a human driver. So it makes sense that Waymo is priced as a premium product - early adopters are glad to wait longer and pay more, so why would Waymo charge less? If anything, they might be able to charge a little more.
This pricing strategy makes sense with early adopters but I think the price will have to come down as Waymo expands horizontally within given markets. I’m not convinced that your average rideshare customer is going to wait longer and pay more for a Waymo. But for now, it seems to be working well.
Cool Rides
First Waymo experience in Atlanta (link).
‘Spent the weekend in San Francisco. Took 8 Waymo rides totaling over 2 hours’ (link).
‘Just wrapped up a quick personal trip to San Francisco this weekend and had to try Waymo for the first time’ (link).
‘Just took my first ride in a Waymo self-driving car in San Francisco — no driver, just pure AI at the wheel’ (link).
AVs/Human behaving badly
Multiple Waymo vehicles set ablaze here in LA (link). Unfortunately, Waymo vehicles are targets in situations like this and it doesn’t seem like they have the wherewithal yet to ‘get the heck out of there’ like a human Uber driver would. Might be worth the investment on the product road map for that option.
Related: Here’s How Waymo Handles Footage From Events Like the LA Immigration Protests (link, no paywall).
A malfunctioning Waymo at a yellow light in Arizona (link). This is more of a nuisance than a safety hazard but it seems reasonable that a remote operator should have to engage in 30 seconds or less and move the car through the intersection.
Multiple Waymo cars trying to enter a backed up left turn lane (link). I’ve found most human drivers to be courteous with Waymo but I wonder if that could change in the future. Do you think drivers will let robo drivers ‘into the lane’ at the same rate as ‘human drivers’? My gut says no..
A bicyclist is suing Waymo in federal court after its autonomous vehicle parked in a no stopping zone and a passenger opened the rear door of the car in the cyclist's path. The cyclist says the collision ejected her from her bike and she landed on a second Waymo autonomous vehicle, which was also obstructing the bicycle lane (link). This is a tricky one since Waymo does a good job of warning passengers to ‘look out for bicyclists/traffic’ before exiting the vehicle, but if the Waymo was indeed in a no stopping area, it seems the plaintiff would have a good argument that Waymo bears some responsibility. On the product side, it would be neat if Waymo prevented the doors from opening if it detected oncoming traffic or cyclists - might as well put that Lidar to good use.
Other Stuff
Lyft and May Mobility Begin Testing Robotaxis in Atlanta Ahead of Summer Launch (link). Even though I have 3 kids, I’m not a big fan of driving or riding in a minivan. But it will be cool to see another AV player hit the roads and bring some competition to Waymo.
‘Perhaps a LIDAR could be added under the car as well to detect driveways’ (link). I saw this video being shared widely but this is exactly how a human Uber driver would/should behave so I’m going to say Waymo did a good job here!
Tesla’s Robotaxis Are Rolling Out Soon—With One Big Unanswered Question (link, no paywall).
Remote assistance should be a part of every safe self-driving vehicle program, says Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies autonomous vehicle safety. “The technology is not there for them to be able to handle everything, and that’s OK,” he says. Having humans operate in the background of autonomous systems, then, isn’t “cheating” at self-driving. It’s understanding the limits of today’s technology—and what it takes to run a profitable business based on self-driving cars.
This echoes what I said recently about teleoperations and I’m excited to interview
this week for the TDD podcast. Let me know if you have any questions for him.‘233k miles on this Waymo, still going strong’ (link). At 1,000 miles driven per week (average for a full time Uber driver), that would mean it has been in service for 4+ years, impressive! The interior isn’t looking too shabby either.
Tesla seeks to block the city of Austin from releasing records on robotaxi trial (link, no paywall). The more transparency the better in my opinion. Waymo has also started redacting some data from their CPUC filings so it’s not just Tesla.
Testing The Tesla Model Y Juniper As A Robotaxi (link, no paywall).
‘Fun day on-site in San Francisco for the Waymo Lost & Found locker install!’ (link). Looks like Waymo is setting up a lost and found locker system at their depots. Have they heard of Uber Courier though?
The Car of the Future Will Transform the Great American Road Trip (link, no paywall).
Sam Altman–Backed Autonomous Delivery Startup, Coco Robotics, Raises $80 Million in Funding (link, no paywall). This is big news for the autonomous delivery industry - congrats to Zach and team!
‘New Waymo model with enhanced security features coming soon 😂’ (link).
TDD in the News
I was a guest on the Daily Dealer Live show with Car Dealership Guy (link), where we dove into a bunch of AV-related topics — including how Waymo actually manages its growing fleet, what the rise of autonomous vehicles means for service jobs, how AVs could shake up new car sales, and how the Waymo rider experience compares to human drivers. Had a great time on this one — you can catch me starting at the 46:55 mark.
Shout-outs
Big thanks to TDD readers David B and Bryce B for referring new subscribers. If there's someone you think would enjoy TDD, just forward this email to them or use the referral button below.
Leaving you with this meme:
Until next week.
-Harry
Thank you Harry for featuring my take on Wayve x Uber!
Great stuff as always. Question to your readers: anyone actually have an informed estimate as to what Waymo actually PAID for the Jags? I understand the MSRP may be $75,000, but there is no way in h*** they paid that much for them. Edmunds.com estimates a retail transaction price of $67,000.... but for one car at a time of course. As Waymo must be THE largest fleet buyer of any model of Jaguar anywhere, they must be below that? $60,000? Anyone want to weigh in? (And yes, 60 is still 2x 30, I know: I am just trying to get closer to the actual numbers.)
On a lighter note, as to the Driveway Detection: Rolls Royce already has a "planar" radar that detects potholes and speed bumps ("Musn't jostle the bubbly, eh Felicity?") so maybe it could detect driveways, too. Of course, the minimum length driveway for a Roller owner is probably a mile...