Waymo robotaxi hits a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica
The child, whose age is not public, sustained minor injuries according to Waymo. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating.
autonomous vehicles
Luminar sale approved despite last-minute mystery bid
An unidentified bidder submitted a Hail Mary offer that was “substantially higher” than the winning bid at auction. Founder Austin Russell has been circling a bid, but it’s not clear he was behind it.
San Francisco Police Department investigating Zoox collision with a parked car
The investigation is looking into a January 17 crash where a Zoox robotaxi hit the driver’s side door of a parked car, which Zoox said was “suddenly opened.”
Waabi raises $1B and expands into robotaxis with Uber
Waabi has secured a $750 million Series C round to accelerate autonomous trucking, and another roughly $250 million commitment from Uber to deploy 25,000 robotaxis exclusively on its platform.
The price gap between Waymo and Uber is narrowing
Data collected and analyzed by Obi suggest a shift is underway.
Luminar receives a larger $33 million bid for its lidar business
A new leading bidder has appeared in the Luminar bankruptcy case: Redmond, Washington-based MicroVision, which beat out Quantum Computing Inc.’s bid by $5 million.
Uber launches an ‘AV Labs’ division to gather driving data for robotaxi partners
Uber is not developing its own robotaxis again; instead it plans to collect and offer data. It’s a bet that more volume will help autonomous vehicle partners solve the weirdest edge cases.
New York governor clears path for robotaxis everywhere, with one notable exception
New York City will be a notable exclusion from proposed legislation to legalize commercial robotaxis across the state.
Motional puts AI at center of robotaxi reboot as it targets 2026 for driverless service
Motional says it will launch a driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas before the end of 2026.
Waymo is rebranding its Zeekr robotaxi
It sounds like “Oh hi.”