252 updates · latest Nov 11, 2026AVwhere Weekly films
Qingdao Daily says Apollo Go has carried more than 260,000 riders and driven more than 1.8 million autonomous km in Chengyang since opening test rides to the public early this year, and is piloting its first tourism route there. Rides are booked in the Apollo Go app inside a zone around the high-tech area. Baidu hasn't announced Qingdao itself.
Taichung's nine-seat electric self-driving bus, run with Kingwaytek, made its first open-road trip on a 7.7 km Shuinan route through 31 signalised junctions. Bookings opened Nov 11, and free weekday rides run for three months from Nov 18, 14 trips a day. A licensed bus driver rides aboard and can take over.
Texas's automated vehicle registry listed 1,302 Tesla Robotaxi vehicles on Nov 11, up from 1,244 on Nov 1, against Waymo's 1,297, up from 1,259. It's the first time Tesla has more cars listed. Since Nov 5 the registry has filed new Teslas without a model, so the Cybercab and Model Y split is no longer reliable. The registry doesn't show how many cars are on the road or carrying paying riders.
Councilmember Charles Allen's new version caps fleets at 200 per operator and 800 citywide, halves the mileage tax to 7.5 cents and cuts the permit cost from $6 million to $15,000 plus $750 a car. Ride-hail drivers and AV maintenance workers could unionize, and 20% of each fleet must be wheelchair-accessible by 2034. Allen wants a committee vote on Nov 12, but Elissa Silverman and Zachary Parker told The Washington Post they'll vote no, and Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George already opposes it. Only Christina Henderson backs it, so passage this year looks unlikely. There are no Waymo rides in D.C.
Arizona's Family Investigates found 88 police-reported crashes involving Waymos in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler, Mesa and Tempe from Sept 2020 through 2024. In 43 of them the other driver left, mostly after minor damage. Per mile, that's 2.4 times the hit-and-run rate for Maricopa County drivers. Researchers Missy Cummings and Phil Koopman suggest drivers don't know how to swap details with an empty car, or flee after rear-ending one that braked suddenly. Waymo disputes the braking theory and says it may simply report more crashes to police. Rides are unchanged.
Waymo launched the Waymo Accessibility Network UK, a standing forum where British disability advocates and charities, including the RNIB, advise on how its service is designed and rolled out in London. Waymo names finding the right car on a busy street and guide-dog refusals in private hire as problems it wants to address, and says US feedback already shaped features such as audio cues and car-finding tools. Public Waymo rides in London haven't started yet.
Waymo told Alaska's News Source it is collecting data manually, driving autonomously with a specialist at the wheel and running limited structured tests in Fairbanks, to refine the sixth-generation Waymo Driver's cold-weather skills. The cars were spotted charging at the local electric co-op. Waymo didn't say how long the tests run or whether it plans service there. There are no rides in Alaska.
"Bigger Austin service area now live," Tesla's Robotaxi account posted with an old-and-new map. The new area adds Oak Hill, Circle C, Shady Hollow and Manchaca in the west and southwest, southern Pflugerville, Manor, Hornsby Bend and Austin Executive Airport in the northeast, and a stretch south and east of Circuit of the Americas past Elroy. AVwhere's trace of Tesla's map measures about 448 sq mi, up from about 274 sq mi. Tesla's old outline still includes Circuit of the Americas, so the addition made for the October F1 weekend has stayed. Bee Cave, Buda, Round Rock and Cedar Park are outside it. Tesla gave no figure.
From November 9, Toyooka City, Kanematsu, Zentan Bus, Sompo Japan and KDDI are running ROii, A2Z's first vehicle on public roads outside Korea and its first in Japan, on a free trial route of about 1.8 km from Kinosaki Onsen Station toward the Kinosaki International Arts Center. It runs at Level 2, with a safety driver and an attendant aboard, three trips each weekday until early December. On the first run, at about 11:30 am, the bus pulled left to avoid an oncoming large vehicle and scraped a roadside stone wall. None of the 8 people aboard was hurt. The city has paused the service while it looks into the cause and says it wants to restart as soon as possible. The partners say Level 4 operation in Kinosaki is the long-term aim.
Kakao Mobility signed an agreement with Nvidia in Seoul to pair its own end-to-end driving AI with two Nvidia DRIVE AGX Thor computers, Nvidia's Hyperion sensor and vehicle reference design and its Halos safety system. The aim is a Level 4 system, which drives itself with no one at the wheel inside a set area. It goes first on Kia's PV5, the vehicle Kia agreed in July to build for Kakao's driverless service. Kakao says the work is separate from Hyundai and Kia's own Nvidia deal. Its existing Gangnam robotaxi, running on Kakao's own technology since March, keeps operating. No launch date or city was given for the new system.
In a November 6 filing, NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened a recall query covering 2,895 Waymo vehicles with its fifth-generation driving system. Waymo's December 2025 recall, which followed reports of its cars passing stopped school buses with red lights flashing in Atlanta and Austin, said a software fix reached every affected car by November 17, 2025. NHTSA says most of the incidents it found in its earlier investigation happened after that date. The query will judge whether the fix was adequate and what caused the later incidents. Rides are unchanged.
"Robotaxi available in San Antonio starting tomorrow, 5am," Tesla's Robotaxi account posted just after midnight with a launch map, so rides began Monday, Nov 9. The area covers downtown, the Pearl and Alamo Heights, and runs north past San Antonio International Airport to Loop 1604 at Hollywood Park and UTSA, west past the Medical Center to Leon Valley and Lackland, and east to Windcrest and Kirby. AVwhere's trace of Tesla's map measures about 273 sq mi, nearly twice Fort Worth's launch area and nearly five times Waymo's San Antonio area. SeaWorld, Stone Oak, Brooks and the Missions are outside it. Tesla gave no figure and didn't name the cars or mention safety monitors.
Waymo told WFTV it has finished successful test runs to and from Orlando International Airport (MCO). It is waiting for final approval from airport officials before offering driverless rides there; no date was given. The tests follow Waymo's recent expansion into Orlando neighbourhoods including College Park, Lake Como, Belle Isle and Pine Castle. For now, MCO pickups and drop-offs aren't available.
CoreWeave says Wayve will train, test and simulate its end-to-end AI Driver models on CoreWeave Cloud using Nvidia Blackwell GPUs, expanding from CoreWeave's Weights & Biases tools, which Wayve already used. The AI Driver is being built for both carmakers' own vehicles and robotaxis, including its London rides with Uber. Neither company gave the value or size of the deal. It doesn't change where Wayve operates.
Robotaxi app screenshots from Austin read "Outside operating hours · 5am-2am", an hour earlier than the 6 am start Tesla posted on Oct 29. That makes 21 hours a day. Tesla hasn't posted the change, and no other city has been reported with the earlier start, so AVwhere shows 5 am for Austin only.
From November 7 to the end of December, Autonomous A2Z's ROii shuttle, with no steering wheel or driver's seat, loops five stops around Dongseong-ro in downtown Daegu, including Banwoldang and Jungang-ro stations. It runs once an hour on Fridays and weekends from 1 to 8 pm. Rides are free. It has 9 seats, one taken by a safety operator, so up to 8 riders. Daegu City commissioned A2Z to build and run it.
newmo and KDDI signed a capital tie-up, and with KDDI Smart Mobility a business tie-up, to bring autonomous taxis into service. KDDI will supply the network links between cars and the remote-monitoring centre, AI computing for training and running the driving system, remote monitoring and precise positioning. The goal is commercial robotaxis in Sakai, Osaka, in 2028, then offering the dispatch, operations and monitoring systems to taxi companies across Japan. The size of KDDI's stake was not disclosed.
Musk posted on X that Tesla "will be winding down production of the Cybertruck at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of next year to make room for increased Cybercab production." He gave no volumes, end date or plan for existing orders, and didn't say whether the truck would be built anywhere else; Giga Texas is the only plant that makes it. The Cybercab is the two-seat robotaxi that has carried riders in Austin since September.
Waymo's help centre now shows a much larger Las Vegas map. It now runs north through downtown Las Vegas and the neighbourhoods west of it to the edge of North Las Vegas, on top of the Strip, Chinatown, UNLV and Harry Reid International Airport. AVwhere's trace of the new map grows from about 23 to 47 sq mi. Waymo still says it is gradually adding riders.
Waymo Help: service areasLas VegasBefore and after on the map
In its third-quarter results, Kodiak said its Autonomy Readiness Measure, the share of its long-haul safety case that is complete, reached 99%, and it still aims to start driverless long-haul freight, with no one in the cab, by the end of December. IKEA Supply is the first launch partner, on the Dallas-to-Houston run. The release also covers the binding 75-truck deal with DTL Transport, picks International LT as Kodiak's third truck platform with driverless deployments targeted for the second half of 2027, and puts Atlas's customer-owned driverless fleet at 37 trucks. Q3 revenue was $3.0 million, up 286% (helped by a one-time defense contribution), and Kodiak ended the quarter with $113.6 million in cash and securities.
In its Q3 prepared remarks, Lyft says it is testing Baidu's Apollo Go vehicles on London public roads and recently began hosting select ride-alongs with media, preparing for a commercial launch in 2027. Working closely with regulators, it is now building an operations team ahead of opening its first autonomous-vehicle depot in Europe, following the model it uses for Waymo in Nashville. Lyft gives no depot site, opening date or fleet size, and no rides can be booked yet.
In its Q3 prepared remarks, Lyft says its Flexdrive unit has serviced the fleet behind Waymo rides in Nashville since June, booked through both the Waymo and Lyft apps, and that Lyft riders have been matched with fully driverless Waymos since September. By year-end it expects to significantly grow the deployed fleet by adding Waymo's Ojai vehicles. It says Waymo recently expanded the service area, airport rides are coming soon on the Lyft app, and its Nashville depot will have more than 85 full-time staff by 2027, many of them former Lyft drivers trained through a program built with Waymo. Lyft gives no fleet size or ride counts. It also says its rides in the San Francisco area shared with AVs grew faster year over year than any other area where AVs operate.
Tesla met the Oct 30 deadline to answer NHTSA's special order in audit AQ26002, which asks, under oath, how the Cybercab (no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors) meets federal safety standards, and asked that all of it stay secret. The public docket holds a one-page cover letter reading "The entirety of this file is confidential business information," a placeholder for Tesla's standard-by-standard answer on how it determined compliance, and its 30-page first-responder plan (version 1.2). NHTSA's chief counsel decides whether the confidentiality claim holds; it hasn't ruled, and hasn't found the Cybercab noncompliant with any standard. Tesla had asked in September for eight more weeks, to Nov 20; NHTSA gave it 30 days.
Zoox is the Event and Official Autonomous Ride Hail Partner of the Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix in a multi-year deal. Beginning in 2027 it plans rides to and from the Grand Prix Plaza, with a dedicated pickup and drop-off zone. For this year's race week it is branding the circuit and the Sphere, presenting the Atlassian Williams fan zone at New York-New York, sponsoring the Vegas Golden Knights' November 17 home game, and hosting hospitality at Resorts World Turn 12.
Uber's third-quarter prepared remarks say it expects further driverless deployments with Avride in 2027; on the earnings call, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi put them around mid-2027 in Texas. Avride's Uber rides in Dallas still have a safety operator. Uber's chart lists Avride among its driverless partners from 2027, when it expects about 20 driverless cities and more than 2,000 driverless vehicles on Uber.
In its third-quarter prepared remarks, Uber says it expects Zoox to launch on Uber in Las Vegas later in November, followed soon after by Motional moving to fully driverless operations. That would make Las Vegas the first US city with two fully driverless partners on the Uber app. Uber says both start with limited fleets that grow over the coming months, and that it plans a dedicated autonomous option in its app as availability and reliability improve. Zoox already runs paid rides in Las Vegas in its own app; Motional's Uber rides there still have a safety operator on board.
Uber Q3 2026 prepared remarksZoox in Las Vegas, Motional in Las Vegas
Uber says fully driverless testing of the Lucid Gravity robotaxis with Nuro's system starts this quarter, ahead of a commercial launch in the Bay Area in the first quarter of 2027 that will run with no one behind the wheel from day one. Houston and more cities follow. Today, rides are limited to select Uber employees with a safety driver.
Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana told Bloomberg that Waymo partnered with Uber for its scale, but the rider experience has been "a little bit of a crapshoot," partly because riders never know whether Uber will send a robotaxi or a human driver. "It's important for us to have that relationship with the rider. We've gotten that feedback from the riders in those markets," she said. From January 2028, Waymo plans to offer rides in Austin and Atlanta through its own app; until then they stay on Uber only, and the Uber contract runs to May 2028. Uber told Bloomberg it was Waymo's choice not to add an option to book a Waymo directly in the Uber app. The same day, Uber said it expects about 700 fully driverless vehicles from its partners on its app by the end of 2026 and more than 2,000 in 2027.
On stage at the Wall Street Journal's Tech Live on Nov 4, Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said that in early 2027 the company's test fleet will begin exploratory testing outside the U.S., starting with Europe and Asia. She posted the news on X the next day, calling it a milestone built on a year of scaling serial production in Hayward, expanding into new cities and adding more riders every week. No countries, cities or partners were named, and Zoox has not said whether the tests will carry passengers.
Kodiak delivered the first two Western Star 49X trucks, built by Daimler Truck North America and fitted with its seventh-generation hardware, to Atlas Energy Solutions in September. They bring Atlas's own driverless fleet, which runs with no one in the cab, to 37. Kodiak says they are the first day-cab autonomous trucks in commercial service and the first of 65 Western Stars that complete Atlas's initial 100-truck order, due in the first half of 2027. With them, Atlas has begun limited driverless service on public county roads in the Permian Basin; wider public-road use is expected by mid-2027.
Tesla Korea says the two-seat Cybercab will be on display at Starfield Anseong, a shopping mall in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, from Thursday, Nov 12 to Sunday, Nov 15, with more details to come. Tesla Korea adds that the Cybercab isn't sold in Korea. Tesla hasn't announced robotaxi service in Korea, so this is a showcase, not a launch.
At Hong Kong FinTech Week, founder and CEO Tony Han said WeRide's robotaxis run in Guangzhou, Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Dubai and that Madrid and London are expected to join, Startupbusiness reports. Madrid is already planned with Uber and AVOMO. London is new: WeRide hasn't announced a London partner, and the report doesn't say it will run through Uber. Han said demand from operators in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong is ahead of what WeRide can deploy, so it often postpones expansion plans. Pony.ai's CEO James Peng, on the same panel, named Europe and the Middle East as priorities. Neither gave dates.
"Robotaxi available in Fort Worth starting tomorrow, 6am," Tesla's Robotaxi account posted late Sunday with a launch map, so rides began Monday, Nov 2. The area covers downtown, the Stockyards and TCU, and runs west to Loop 820 at White Settlement, east to Haltom City, north just past Loop 820 with a short extra stretch up I-35W, and south just past I-20 to the Benbrook area. AVwhere's trace of Tesla's map measures about 144 sq mi, against about 82 sq mi in Dallas, whose area sits about 19 miles east and doesn't connect. DFW Airport and Arlington are outside it. Tesla gave no figure and didn't name the cars or mention safety monitors; riders' launch-day videos show rides without a monitor.
Tesla Europe's tour poster lists Autoshow Zürich (Nov 5 to 8), Tesla stores in Bratislava and Düsseldorf (Nov 20 and 21), Prague and Hamburg (Nov 27 and 28), Warsaw (Dec 4 and 5), Berlin (Dec 4 to 6), Bucharest and Munich (Dec 11 and 12) and Budapest (Dec 18 and 19), then the Brussels Motor Show (Jan 8 to 17) and Vienna Drive (Jan 14 to 17). It follows the Cybercab's first European showing at the Paris Motor Show in October. Tesla hasn't announced robotaxi service anywhere in Europe, so the tour is a showcase, not a launch.
At the AI Deeptech Forum during Hong Kong FinTech Week, founder and CEO Tony Han said generative AI is opening new ways to develop autonomous driving, citing WeRide's GENESIS platform, and that fast AI progress could change how vehicles are driven. WeRide's post puts its global L4 fleet at about 3,600 vehicles, up from 3,400 at its Q2 results in August. That's the same count it has given since Oct 23, and it covers every vehicle type, not just robotaxis.
Tesla is showing the production Cybercab, which has no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors, in Hall 3H of the National Exhibition and Convention Center at the ninth China International Import Expo (CIIE), next to a Model Y Performance and its Optimus robot. A prototype Cybercab appeared at last year's expo; this one is the production version, in gloss paint with a logo. Before the expo it stood at the Oriental Pearl Tower from Oct 29 to Nov 1. The Paper reports the display is static and involves no sales or robotaxi service in China.
Texas's automated vehicle registry listed 1,244 Tesla Robotaxi vehicles on Nov 1, up from 546 on Sept 30. Waymo had 1,259. Tesla added 274 in the week to Nov 1, including 40 Model Ys on Nov 1 itself, against Waymo's 52. Fort Worth, Tesla's fourth Texas city, opened on Nov 2. The registry doesn't show how many cars are on the road or carrying paying riders.
The Transport Department says applications closed at noon on Oct 30 with eight received, and it aims to announce a list of qualified platforms within this year. The South China Morning Post reports first approvals are expected in late November or early December, and that Uber, TADA, Amap and DiDi confirmed they applied. These are licences for app-based ride-hailing with human drivers, not robotaxis: DiDi's driverless pilot plans for Hong Kong are a separate application.
The Ras Al Khaimah Transport Authority (RAKTA), with RAK Properties, launched an autonomous mobility framework and an Autonomous Vehicle Sandbox, a designated area for testing self-driving vehicles. RAKTA signed 10 agreements for testing and research with RAK Properties, RAKEZ, the Chamber of Commerce, Innovation City, AutoLogix, CargoX, PixMoving, Westwell and two universities. It also said robotaxi testing, which began on Al Marjan Island in early 2026, is expanding to Al Dhait South, with the vehicles past 21,000 km. WeRide, which started its robotaxi and robobus pilots with RAKTA in October 2025, isn't on the list, and the coverage doesn't name the makers of the robotaxis in testing. No date for paid service was given.
Toyota will build custom bZ4X cars for Waymo's ride-hailing service at its Takaoka plant in Toyota City, with the base car assembly and Waymo's hardware fitted under one roof. Testing and validation start in Japan in 2027, with deployment to the UK and other Waymo markets planned in the years after. The cars get generous rear legroom, automatic doors and a power liftgate. No Japanese city, fleet size or launch date is named. Work on personally owned Toyotas stays exploratory. It builds on the preliminary agreement of April 2025.
Waymo says fully autonomous rides to Empower Field are "arriving soon". It gave no date and didn't say how stadium trips will work. Denver rides are still by invitation; public riders began there in September.
Speaking at the N.C. Department of Transportation's Transportation Summit in Raleigh, Waymo policy adviser Rich Harrington said Waymo has finished mapping the Charlotte streets where it plans to operate and has begun testing with humans behind the wheel. Waymo told The Charlotte Observer it will start in and around uptown and grow over time. Harrington said Waymo is in "active conversations" with localities in the Research Triangle and hopes to offer rides in both Raleigh and Durham, but gave no timetable for either. No launch date has been published.
On a night ride that appears to be in Dallas, a crescent-moon button on the map screen blanks the display to "Arriving soon", the destination and "Tap display to exit quiet mode". Pull Over, cabin temperature, volume and Support stay on screen. Tesla has published no release notes for it. Its Oct 29 update post lists a "Calm Mode", and AVwhere can't tell whether that is the same feature. A rider report, not confirmed by Tesla.
Pony.ai and GAC Lingcheng built the first production batch of the T9 Robotruck at GAC Lingcheng's Conghua plant, about six weeks after the truck's debut at IAA Transportation in Hannover. The battery-electric heavy truck pairs Pony.ai's fourth-generation L4 system with a fully redundant chassis. Pony.ai says it's designed to go fully driverless, but these trucks start with testing: the partners plan road tests and demonstrations in 2027, aiming for hundreds of trucks, then sales, leasing and freight services plus pilots in the Middle East and Europe in 2028-29, and a 1,000-truck scale within two to three years. This is freight, not rides, so the map doesn't change.
In its third-quarter results, Mobileye says customers using its self-driving system began autonomous ridepooling for the public in Hamburg, with safety drivers, and closed-group testing in the Orlando area. Both are MOIA's ID. Buzz services: Hamburg's riders are still pre-registered residents, and in Lake Nona invited riders book in the Beep app. The same platform was granted a permit that lets Holo deploy it publicly in Norway, where Holo runs Ruter's pilot in Oslo's Groruddalen. Deutsche Bahn chose the HOLON urban shuttle, which uses Mobileye's system, for public transit routes in several German regions. Mobileye says "driver-out performance" remains "a critical milestone", so no service runs without a safety driver yet. It raised its 2026 revenue guidance slightly, to $1,995 million to $2,020 million. Revenue fell 2% to $492 million, and Mobileye narrowed its full-year range to $1.995 billion to $2.02 billion.
Mobileye results releaseMOIA in Hamburg, MOIA in Orlando, MOIA in Oslo, Mobileye in Langen
Councilmember Jim Harrity's bill would charge whichever is greater, along with a 3% tax on driverless freight. Companies would have to register with the city and file quarterly reports, and the money would go to the Zero Fare program for free SEPTA rides. It would take effect in January 2028, and the rates could change in committee. Harrity said it's meant to protect jobs and that he hopes it deters people from relying on autonomous vehicles. Waymo, the most prominent target, is still testing in Philadelphia and didn't respond to the Inquirer.
Sentosa Development Corporation and ride-hailing firm TADA will start with two eight-seat WeRide shuttles, each with a safety operator on board from Tower Transit Singapore. Rides are free and booked in the TADA app from 1 pm to 7 pm. Phase 1 covers 21 pick-up and drop-off points along Siloso and Palawan beaches; phase 2 reaches 27 across the island, including the east, subject to Land Transport Authority approval. WeRide calls it Singapore's first purpose-built right-hand-drive Robobus. A shuttle ran on Siloso Beach Walk at a media preview on Oct 29.
Tesla's update post says operating hours are now 6 am to 2 am. It names no cities, so AVwhere applies it to all seven Robotaxi rider areas: Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and the Bay Area. Tesla's Oct 12 update had set 6 am to 11 pm, and riders had since seen midnight in Tampa and 1 am in Austin. The same post adds a rear-camera feed during rides, trip sharing, Calm Mode, and Grok on Model Y cars, plus accessibility changes: a better locating arrow, haptic feedback for finding the car, and music control by screen reader. On the Q3 call, Ashok Elluswamy said 2 am would come "pretty soon", with 24/7 later this year.
Tesla Robotaxi on XAustin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, San Francisco
With its third-quarter results, Aurora blamed supplier constraints and said it will also fall short of its 2026 revenue goal, now about $9 million. CFO David Maday says the supplier problems are resolved and 1,000 trucks by the end of 2027 is still on pace, with demand from nine customers. Aurora plans to move to fleets its customers own, aims for positive cash flow in 2028, and will have to raise money to get there.
DTL, a California long-haul carrier that hauls produce for grocers, will own and run the trucks and pay Kodiak a per-mile fee. Kodiak calls it the first publicly announced definitive agreement by an interstate carrier to run driverless trucks in its own fleet. They'll start between Dallas and El Paso and between Dallas and Atlanta on I-20, routes Kodiak has already tested. Kodiak still has safety operators in the cab on public highways; it plans to remove them in December on I-45 between Dallas and Houston, carrying goods for Ikea.
Suzhou becomes the first city where Cao Cao runs both robotaxis and robovans, with its first Suzhou battery-swap and cleaning station, in a Xiangcheng district pilot due to finish demonstration and validation in 2026. Cao Cao says its robotaxi business now covers six cities, including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Zhuhai.
Texas's automated vehicle registry listed 1,051 Tesla Robotaxi vehicles on Oct 27, 544 Cybercabs and 507 Model Ys, up from 739 (319 and 420) earlier this month and 970 on Oct 25. All 81 additions since Oct 25 are Cybercabs. The registry doesn't show how many cars are on the road or carrying paying riders. Tesla's Lars Moravy said in a video interview published Oct 26 that the Cybercab line doesn't run every day because it builds cars faster than Tesla puts them into service. Separately, Musk replied "It was never a real contest" to a post noting Tesla's 438,000 driverless miles in Austin in the week ending Oct 18, from Tesla's weekly safety report, against Waymo's average of about 406,000 a week there in the second quarter. That sets one week against a three-month average, and Waymo still drives about seven times Tesla's driverless miles nationally (Electrek).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X that Tesla's Tampa and Miami Robotaxi areas "need to have" the beaches included, and Musk replied "Coming soon." There's no date, no map and no announcement from Tesla, and the reply doesn't say which beaches. Both service areas are inland for now.
Over the following week Waymo grows five service areas. Los Angeles extends down the coast through the South Bay to Torrance. Nashville reaches further south, to places like the zoo. Orlando nearly doubles in the east, with more of downtown. San Diego heads north to La Jolla. The Bay Area adds more of the south, including a BART connection at Berryessa Station in San Jose. AVwhere's traces of Waymo's new maps add about 215 sq mi: Los Angeles grows from about 123 to 211 sq mi, Nashville from 50 to 78, Orlando from 66 to 118, San Diego from 46 to 82 and the Bay Area from 333 to 342. The Los Angeles map now shades LAX, and Orlando's takes in the terminal area of Orlando International Airport (MCO), but Waymo hasn't announced pickups at either airport.
Waymo blogLos Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco Before and after on the map
The partners will develop cover for L4 operations, including motor liability, general and product liability, and privacy and cyber risk, across WeRide's markets in China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and its planned launches in Europe. Allianz already insures WeRide's driverless Robobus at Sentosa and the robotaxis it runs with Grab in Punggol; Ping An covers its robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. WeRide says it runs about 3,600 autonomous vehicles, more than 1,800 of them robotaxis, in 13 countries. Insurance is one of the practical hurdles to launching in a new country.
WeRide press release (GlobeNewswire)Guangzhou, Guangdong, Beijing, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Singapore, Punggol
The award from AutoTech Breakthrough, an industry awards program, recognizes Avride's self-driving technology, which powers its robotaxis on Uber in Dallas.
A non-binding agreement, three months after Charger's first contract, for deliveries over 2027 and 2028. Charger would own the trucks and subscribe to Aurora's Driver as a Service, running them on routes near the U.S.–Mexico border and across the country. Hirschbach signed a similar 500-truck plan in April.
Candice Yuan, who heads XPeng's robotaxi business, said on Weibo that Guangzhou has granted XPENG YOYO a qualification for intelligent connected vehicle demonstration operations, which covers L4 robotaxi trials citywide. Riders will be let in gradually through invitation codes at first, and coverage will grow from there. XPeng gave no service area, fleet size or fares, and didn't say whether a safety officer rides along. Its GX-based robotaxis drive with cameras only, without lidar or HD maps. XPeng aims to carry passengers without safety drivers in 2027 and wants partners to run local fleets while it supplies the technology; CEO He Xiaopeng said at the Paris Motor Show that it is in talks with several European mobility platforms.
"Houston, we have liftoff. Bigger service area now live," Tesla's Robotaxi account posted with a before-and-after map. The new area keeps the launch zone around Willowbrook and Jersey Village and runs southeast along US 290 through Spring Branch and the Heights to downtown, then south through the Galleria, Montrose, the Texas Medical Center and NRG Park to Bellaire and Meyerland, and east to the East End. AVwhere's trace of Tesla's map measures about 247 sq mi, up from about 25 sq mi at launch in April. Hobby Airport is outside it. Tesla didn't give a figure.
Kyoto City and the consortium led by NTT Docomo Business will test a converted Kyoto City Bus, an Isuzu Erga Mio midsize diesel bus, at Level 2 with a driver aboard on the loop of about 6.9 km from Rakusai Bus Terminal around Rakusai New Town, from Nov 1, 2026 to Jan 31, 2027 (not Dec 29 to Jan 3), between 9 am and 5 pm. Residents can ride from Feb 1 to 14, 2027, with details to come from Kyoto City. It is the second phase after March's 21-day trial with a small electric bus, and adds traffic-signal data sent to the bus, roadside sensors that warn of blind spots as it turns out of the terminal, and remote monitoring. Advanced Smart Mobility converts the bus and develops the driving system. Kyoto plans to complete Level 4 permits through fiscal 2027 and start service in fiscal 2028 (April 2028 to March 2029), which Kyoto City Bus would run.
Texas's automated vehicle registry listed 463 Cybercabs and 507 Model Y robotaxis, 970 in all, on Oct 25, up from 319 and 420 on Oct 12. A registered car isn't necessarily giving rides. Over the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix weekend, Tesla ran rides to the track in the Austin area it had stretched around Circuit of the Americas, with requests open until 1 am, without announcing either beforehand. Spotters counted more than 50 Cybercabs dropping off fans by midday Sunday, and Cybercab Spotter logged a record 1,250 Cybercab sightings in Austin on Saturday, a count that can include the same car more than once. Tesla hasn't said how many rides it gave or whether the larger area and the 1 am cutoff stay after the race.
Apollo Go's mini-program still shows a Guangzhou service area, but booking returns 'route not available'. Customer service told the outlet 电车通 that Apollo Go in Guangzhou is at the road-testing stage and not yet open to passengers. The same report rode Pony.ai, WeRide and DiDi robotaxis in Guangzhou.
The Robotaxi app's Austin map now reaches farther southeast, beyond the airport, to take in Circuit of the Americas and run down to Elroy on FM 812. The addition looks aimed at the track, likely for this weekend's Formula 1 United States Grand Prix there (Oct 23–25), and Tesla hasn't said whether it stays after the race. AVwhere's trace of the new outline measures about 274 sq mi, up from about 265 sq mi on Oct 12. A rider's app screenshot at 12:33 am reads "Last call is 1am · Limited to nearby dropoffs", an hour past the midnight end in Tesla's Q3 Update. Sawyer Merritt posted a before-and-after map of the expansion the same night and also reports the 1 am end. Tesla hasn't announced either change.
The Métropole du Grand Paris, Bolt and Stellantis have submitted a "Greater Paris Autonomous Driving Living Lab" to the European Commission's ADACities initiative. From 2028 it would start in up to five municipalities in north-west Greater Paris (not yet named), then assess growth to around 30 municipalities, aiming for commercial service by 2030, subject to approvals. Bolt would run the service and Stellantis would supply Level 4-ready vehicles; Pony.ai is named as a potential provider of the driving technology, on NVIDIA Hyperion. Planned uses include first- and last-mile trips, access to employment hubs, off-peak travel and major events.
The non-binding memorandum would put Pony.ai's Gen-7 robotaxis on inDrive's ride-hailing app, which would run the service, with NVIDIA's Hyperion platform and Halos safety system. TechCrunch reports testing with a safety operator on board would start in Astana in the first half of 2027; Pony.ai says the launch would follow an agreement with Kazakhstan's government. It is Pony.ai's first move into Central Asia, and Astana's winters would test the cars in snow and ice. No fleet size was given. Apollo Go signed its own Kazakhstan agreement in July.
NHTSA's proposed rule, filed Oct 23 and published Oct 26 with 30 days for comment, updates the federal lighting standard, FMVSS No. 108. Its turn-signal, hazard-warning and high-beam switch rules, and some dashboard warning-light rules, would apply only to vehicles with manual driving controls. Cyan "ADS marker lamps" on the front, rear or sides, showing that the automated system is driving, would be allowed but not required, to a common spec. NHTSA says that without the change such vehicles would seek exemptions from this standard. It bears on the two US robotaxis built without a steering wheel or pedals: Tesla's two-seat Cybercab, whose self-certification NHTSA is still reviewing, and Zoox's robotaxi, which runs under NHTSA exemptions. A proposal, not yet a rule.
Announced with the government at the Assises du Véhicule Autonome in Paris, the collaboration pairs Stellantis' L4-Ready Platforms with the Wayve AI Driver running on NVIDIA's Halos OS and Hyperion compute and sensors, and builds on the partners' existing deals, including June's robotaxi partnership with Uber. Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot said France will adapt its rules to speed up autonomous vehicles while keeping strict safety and data-sovereignty requirements. Local transport partners would lead talks with unions and city authorities. No city, vehicle, fleet size or date has been named.
Freenow and Baidu's Apollo Go unveiled the RT6 in London and gave Reuters a demonstration ride. The cars have tested with safety drivers since the summer, in Brent (announced in July); the partners hope to go fully driverless in 2027 and launch a commercial service that year. Freenow UK general manager Danny O'Gorman said the company is working closely with Transport for London and expects regulatory guidelines in the coming week, and Reuters says the firm is talking about "tens of vehicles in the next year or two" as it tests the market, not a fleet commitment. No permit, launch date or current fleet size was given, and no rides can be booked.
From October 22, two of Autonomous A2Z's ROii shuttles, with no steering wheel or driver's seat, run a 4.8 km round trip along the Cheonggyecheon Stream from Cheonggye Plaza to Gwangjang Market. They make nine trips each weekday night from 7 pm, the last at 11 pm. Seoul says it is Korea's first regular night service by such a bus. Each carries up to 8 riders and a safety operator. Rides are free for now with a transit-card tap; a ₩1,400 adult fare comes later. The daytime service that began in September 2025 has ended.
The two-seat Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals, is on display at the Tesla Centre in Toa Payoh from Oct 22 to Oct 27 as part of its Cybercab Asia Tour, which visited Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai in September. Visitors book a time slot. Tesla hasn't announced plans to bring its robotaxi service to Singapore, so for now this is a showcase, not a launch.
Announced at NVIDIA's GTC Berlin, the program pairs Lucid vehicles with NVIDIA Hyperion, the Alpamayo Stack driving software and Halos safety tools, and lays the groundwork for the 25,000-vehicle Lucid rollout. It starts in Madrid in 2027 by collecting real-world driving data, subject to regulatory approval; no date for passenger rides was given. Germany and France are the next priority markets. Madrid now has two robotaxi programs aiming for 2027, after Waymo announced its Madrid plans on Oct 20.
Einride is adapting Alpamayo, an AI reasoning model, to its own vehicles, routes and operating data. In shadow mode it runs live without controlling the truck, so its outputs can be compared with Einride's planner and human drivers. A live road evaluation is planned for the second half of 2027.
More than 1,000 invited residents can take free Apollo Go rides from Oct 21 to Nov 3, 2 pm to 6 pm, on the 5.1 km route from Yat Tung Estate to the Sheraton and back. A backup operator sits in the driver's seat of each of the 8 cars and Baidu monitors them remotely, so this is a supervised test, not a commercial service. Baidu will gather feedback by questionnaire, aiming for its fleet to join Hong Kong's public transport. On opening day the Islands District Office said only a few tickets were left, at its Tung Chung enquiry centre.
Tesla's new Robotaxi Vehicle Safety Report counts 3.1 million autonomous miles from Jan 22 to Oct 18, 2026, plus a live counter estimated from the fleet's current pace: Austin 2,118,015, Dallas 608,130, Houston 225,964, Orlando 61,053, Tampa 53,117 and Miami 46,262. The Bay Area isn't listed. Tesla reports 0 people injured, 0 Robotaxi airbag deployments and 0 pedestrians or cyclists hit, counting only collisions that meet NHTSA's crash-reporting criteria and, for injuries and pedestrians, only those in which the Robotaxi made first contact. It notes two reported events left out: a multi-vehicle crash in which an occupant of another car went to hospital, and a rider's injury claim that investigation did not support. It also gives 862,000 miles after dark, at least 113,000 in rain and 575,000 in rush hour. Las Vegas, Jacksonville, Phoenix and San Antonio are listed as coming soon.
Tesla Robotaxi safety reportAustin, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville, San Antonio
On the Q3 call, vehicle engineering chief Lars Moravy said Tesla wants Cybercabs in customers' hands by the end of 2026, starting small; TechCrunch reports the buyers would be fleet operators. Musk said most Cybercabs will stay Tesla-owned for its own ride-hailing. NHTSA is still examining how Tesla self-certified the two-seat Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals, under federal safety standards, and Tesla's response is due Oct 30. Tesla gave no robotaxi revenue, and Musk said the business won't be noticeable in its financials until Q2 2027. The shareholder letter also swapped its "Cumulative Paid Robotaxi Miles" chart for "Cumulative Unsupervised Robotaxi Miles", which counts miles with or without a rider on board.
On Tesla's Q3 earnings call, AI chief Ashok Elluswamy said Cybercab service expands to Dallas next month and to other cities by the end of the year. He also said Robotaxi hours will "pretty soon" run to 2 am, with 24/7 operation and higher-speed roads later this year. Austin is still the only city with Cybercab rides; Dallas riders get Model Y robotaxis for now.
Starting Oct 21, Waymo riders in Las Vegas have access to LAS, and Waymo says it will welcome more riders in the coming weeks. Its announcement shows an Ojai at the terminal. Waymo had said in August that it had permission to drive fully autonomously at the airport and would start with employee trips. Zoox has served the airport since Sep 3.
Waymo's Jaguar I-PACE vehicles start driving the Region of Madrid in the coming days, first manually and then for validation with local trained autonomous specialists behind the wheel, ahead of fully autonomous ride-hailing with first riders aimed for 2027. It is Waymo's first region in Spain and its second in the European Union, after Munich. Waymo says it is working with national, regional and local authorities and investing in local operations; no partner is named.
Chinese trade site Pedaily, republishing Xinmou, cites an October count by Tuoluo Keji (陀螺科技) of about 250,000 Apollo Go orders a week, up from a second quarter it puts at about 1 million fully driverless orders after tighter rules in some cities. This is not a Baidu figure: Baidu's Q2 results gave no ride numbers, and its Q1 results put the weekly peak above 350,000 in March 2026, higher than the article's "late-2025 peak" of 300,000. The article's own cumulative totals (over 23 million and about 17 million) also disagree.
At its 2026 Global Innovation Conference in Wuhu, Chery showed its factory-built Level 4 robotaxi, based on an EXEED model with roof lidar and its Falcon driving system, and set a goal of 100,000 robotaxis worldwide by 2030. Its plan differs by region: vehicle platforms first in the Middle East, straight to full-stack operations in Europe. The cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi's K2, announced for the Oct 19–23 user summit, is its first step abroad; no signing, city, fleet size or date has been confirmed. K2 already has a robotaxi deal with CaoCao.
Kodiak says the autonomy system on one of its trucks, A16, stayed powered up and available for 64 days straight without powering off or restarting, a company record. It counts time the system was ready to drive, not miles or hours driven without a person; Kodiak frames it as a gain for its customers' truck utilization.
Lucid says another shipment of robotaxis built at its Arizona factory is on its way to the Bay Area as the fleet for Uber and Nuro grows. It gives no vehicle count. Rides are still limited to select Uber employees with a safety driver; there is no public service yet.
T3 says its robotaxis now carry riders regularly in Jiangning, Nanjing, hailed from the autonomous-driving section of the T3 app, with pick-ups at metro stations, industrial parks, universities and malls. It is also preparing service in Shanghai and Suzhou. By the end of 2025 T3 had logged more than 41,000 km of safety-officer-free road tests in Nanjing and Suzhou.
The New York Post reports that Waymo is on pace to import about 5,100 Zeekr-built Ojai vans by the end of 2026, by research firm MoffettNathanson's tracking, more than doubling a fleet that is mostly Jaguar I-Pace SUVs. A Senate bill from Bernie Moreno and Elissa Slotkin, with a House companion from China Select Committee chair John Moolenaar, would ban imports of any China-made vehicle, even one fitted with US sensors and software; both give Waymo a three-year grace period, so it would have to comply by 2030. Waymo says it buys only the base vehicle from Zeekr, adds its own sensors and software in Arizona, and shares no rider or vehicle data with manufacturers.
JP Morrell's proposal, the city's first attempt to regulate robotaxis, would charge companies $7,500 a year, $50 per vehicle and 50 cents per trip; Uber-type apps pay $15,000 a year and 50 cents per trip. Cars would have to be wheelchair accessible and a distinctive color, with a city contract for trips to and from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and human or remote help able to step in. Breaking safety standards could cost a company its permit or a fine of up to $2,000. In April a Waymo spokesperson said a proposal like this was the "only thing that could delay" its launch, and Waymo has told Morrell that state law leaves robotaxi rules to the state. Waymo has mapped New Orleans with safety drivers for a year and hasn't announced a launch date. The council's Government Affairs Committee was due to review the proposal on Oct 27.
The Electronic Times reports that Seoul has chosen RideFlux as the operator of Korea's first Level 4 robotaxi service in Sangam, with two Genesis GV80s expected to start carrying the public in late November with the driver's seat empty, hailed through a taxi app. A safety manager will ride in the front passenger seat at first; the city says it is considering fully unmanned rides next year and plans more than 10 cars in 2027. Seoul says it will name the operator officially once the contract is signed.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Semafor reports that Waymo wants to go from about 4,000 cars today to 8,000 by the end of 2026 and 20,000 by the end of 2027. The plan would be paid for in part by the $5 billion private-credit loan Waymo took out earlier this month, from lenders including PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street. Waymo declined to comment, so the targets are not confirmed, and the sources did not say which vehicles it would add.
After 30-plus Dallas rides in other cars, a rider posts a photo from their first Ojai ride, and Waymo replies "We see you!". It is the first sign from Waymo itself that the Ojai carries riders in Dallas; Waymo has not announced it separately.
The robotaxi will be shown at the brands' International User Summit in Wuhu, China, Oct 19–24, where they plan to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with K2 as a first step toward commercial deployment outside China. This comes from the company's own press release. Chery's EXEED brand put out the same release for its own summit in Wuhu, Oct 18–23, naming parent Chery Group as the company signing with K2. No deployment, city or date has been confirmed.
A rider's Robotaxi app screenshot reads "Outside operating hours · 6am-12am", two hours later than the 6 am to 10 pm Tesla announced on Aug 26. The service area shown is unchanged. Tesla hasn't announced the change.
The Supervisor, Robotaxi Fleet Support would keep a fleet in Matthews, on Charlotte's southeast edge, cleaned, charged and maintained, and "launch and support AP Drivers", Tesla's safety drivers. It is Tesla's first sign of robotaxi operations in the Carolinas. Tesla has not announced a Charlotte-area service or date.
Councilmember Charles Allen tells Axios he plans to bring his bill to a vote in his Transportation Committee by Thanksgiving, which would set up a full D.C. Council vote in December. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic nominee for mayor, and labor unions oppose it. The bill would start with a 200-vehicle cap per operator, hold commercial service until 2028, and charge a vehicle-miles-traveled fee to support displaced rideshare drivers and fund Metro. Allen says talks are "very close".
Vehicles start driving Toronto streets in the coming days, first manually for high-definition mapping, then testing with autonomous specialists behind the wheel, ahead of fully autonomous ride-hailing with a goal of first riders in 2028. Toronto-based Element Fleet Management will run end-to-end fleet operations, and Waymo and its partners plan hundreds of local jobs over time.
A rider's Robotaxi app screenshot at 11:00 pm shows a ride available in 9 minutes, past the 11 pm end Tesla announced on Oct 2. Tesla hasn't posted a new end time.
The Islands District Office began handing out up to 540 free paper tickets, first come, first served, each for a set time slot. Eight cars carry at most two riders each with the front seat closed, along Chung Yan Road, Yu Tung Road and Yi Tung Road to the Sheraton and back, with no stops.
At the Korea Electronics Show, SWM says the AP-700 is far smaller than the AP-500 in its current cars and doubles computing from 1,000 to 2,000 TOPS. Which car gets it first is undecided. SWM runs 13 cars in Gangnam (8 KGM Torres EVX, 5 Korando EV), with employees as safety drivers, and is opening an office with a night monitoring hub at the Jamsil transport hall in Seoul, beyond its Anyang headquarters.
The Minneapolis City Council fell short (7 of the 9 votes needed) of overriding Mayor Jacob Frey's veto of rules that would have required human safety monitors in autonomous rideshare vehicles, which Frey called a back-door ban. Backers say they will try again. A day earlier, St. Paul's council directed its planning commission to study autonomous vehicles and suggest guardrails on safety, data-sharing and worker protections. Waymo is still testing in Minneapolis with people behind the wheel and has no riders yet.
Tesla's latest crash reports to NHTSA include two August crashes in which a remote support operator was controlling the car. In Dallas, a Model Y touched a parked SUV at about 0.4 mph; in Austin, a car hit a dumpster in an alley at about 1 mph. Neither had passengers, and only property damage was reported. Tesla's reports now describe remote operators in five crashes (three in Austin, one in Dallas, one in Houston) out of 36 robotaxi crash reports, up from 22 in July. Tesla doesn't say how often remote operators take over, so the counts don't give a rate.
The buildings at 25500 Clawiter Road sit beside Zoox's 220,000 sq ft Hayward factory, which Zoox says can assemble up to 10,000 robotaxis a year; the city has issued Zoox a business license for them. A Zoox spokesperson said the space will help scale its robotaxi fleet but didn't say how the buildings will be used.
A week after London, the Zagreb partners name Manchester next. Pony.ai plans Gen-7 robotaxis there with Uber and operator Verne and says testing is underway; no ride date yet.
Warrior, a carrier with more than 200 trucks, now moves loads on Waabi trucks between Dallas and Houston. The trucks aren't driverless yet; Waabi says it's on track to go driverless next year on Volvo trucks, and that its load volume on the route is up more than 80% this year. The deal came nine days after a similar one with Warp on the same route.
Anyone can now download the Waymo app and ride, with no more waiting for access, including at San Antonio International Airport. San Antonio's first invited riders began in February, and San Diego's and Tampa's on September 1.
The Transport Department told the Islands District Council that Apollo Go will give free rides on a 5.1 km route from Yat Tung Estate to the Sheraton and back, about 15 minutes, from Oct 21 to Nov 3, 2 pm to 6 pm, after a preview day for councillors on Oct 20. Riders need a paper ticket and must be 8 or older or 1.35 m tall; a backup operator stays on board.
Waymo begins serving BNA, with access rolling out over time; the app tells Nashville riders when they're in. Its video shows an Ojai and a Jaguar I-PACE at the terminal.
Jiangmen's Xinhui district transport bureau says a new fixed Apollo Go stop on the station's third-floor deck now offers regular rides, with at least five cars on standby. Apollo Go covers core parts of Pengjiang, Xinhui and Jianghai; Jiangmen is still at the road-test and demonstration stage, so rides are free and booked in the WeChat mini-program.
Xinhui District Transport Bureau, JiangmenJiangmen, Guangdong
Lyft's Flexdrive depot near the airport opened Oct 12 with more than 70 jobs. Waymo cars drive themselves there for charging, cleaning and repairs, and "hundreds" of vehicles will eventually be based there. Lyft says Waymo rides cost the same as human-driven ones. Waymo says prices will be close, but there's no tip.
PBOT's draft would have companies log 50,000 miles on Portland streets under a city testing permit (25,000 with a human driver, 25,000 without) before charging for rides, cap fleets at 75 vehicles per company and 225 citywide in the first year, and require crash and trip data sharing, safety and first-responder plans, all-electric Oregon-registered vehicles and city-approved service areas. The council's public works committee discussed it on Oct 13 without a vote; some councilors want a ban instead. Waymo declined to comment.
Tesla's update post says operating hours are now 6 am to 11 pm, with no cities named. It also credits more cars and better dispatch for shorter waits, the trunk now opens by itself at the end of a ride if it was used, and Grok is available in Cybercab.
Tesla Robotaxi on XAustin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, San Francisco
The two-seat Cybercab, which has no steering wheel or pedals, is on display at the Paris Motor Show through Oct 18. The show says it comes from Tesla's US robotaxi fleet. Tesla is also offering FSD (Supervised) test drives. Tesla hasn't announced Cybercab service or a timeline in Europe, so for now this is a showcase, not a launch.
State registration data counted 319 Cybercabs on Oct 12, up from 126 in late September, for 739 Robotaxi-app cars in Texas. Tesla says it has "300+ Cybercabs serving Austin." Austin is still the only city with Cybercab rides.
Tesla says the Austin Cybercab fleet has grown eightfold in 30 days to more than 300 vehicles.
Ashok Elluswamy, who heads Tesla's AI software, quoted the "300+ Cybercabs" post with "Dallas soon." Teslarati calls it the first time Tesla has named the next city for Cybercab rides. He gave no date, and Dallas riders still get Model Y robotaxis.
NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened the petition, received September 23, to decide whether to grant or deny it. The petitioner alleges that 2026 Tesla Robotaxis (Model Y and Cybercab) with the automated driving system engaged exceed posted speed limits in active school zones, citing three social-media videos. NHTSA lists four reports and no crashes, injuries or deaths, and estimates 1,000 vehicles in scope. Opening a petition doesn't establish a defect or a violation, and it isn't a formal defect investigation or a recall.
At the Wave by Vento conference (Oct 7–9), development Fiat 500e and Maserati Grecale cars running the Wayve AI Driver on Stellantis' STLA AutoDrive gave supervised, hands-free door-to-door rides on Turin streets and the Lingotto rooftop test track. It is a Level 2++ driver-assist system with the driver responsible at all times, not a robotaxi; the first product is targeted for North America in 2028. An event demo, not ongoing testing in Turin.
Trucks with the Kodiak Driver carry refrigerated and dry freight between Charger's terminals in Dallas and Laredo, Texas; the first delivery was on Sept 8. A safety driver stays behind the wheel until Kodiak finishes its safety case. It is Kodiak's first route to Laredo, the busiest U.S. land port.
MK, a major taxi operator in nine Japanese areas including Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, signed the memorandum with Pony.ai at the Kyoto Smart City Expo, where a Gen-7 robotaxi was on static display. For now it covers exchanging views on safety, operations, regulation and permits, and whether robotaxi service is feasible; any service would need permits first. Jidounten Lab notes that few large taxi partners are left: Waymo works with Nihon Kotsu, and Wayve and Uber with Hinomaru Kotsu.
London is the second European city named under the Uber partnership after Zagreb, part of the plan for more than 2,000 robotaxis across five European cities. Testing starts in the coming weeks in coordination with national and local authorities; the service is expected to follow the Zagreb model of Pony.ai technology on Uber's app, with the fleet owner and operator not yet disclosed. No rides can be booked yet.
Combining FARS toxicology data with telematics across the 50 largest US urban areas, Waymo finds removing alcohol-involved drivers cuts the fatal crash involvement rate by about 23% (the X post says 23.3%), but sober drivers still face 3.1 to 3.9 times the fatal crash risk at night. A second study of 37,654 fatal cases finds over 77% involved impairment, speeding or unbelted occupants, arguing for a safe-system approach.
PIMCO, Blackstone and Sixth Street led the lenders, with Capital Group, Loomis Sayles and T. Rowe Price as significant lenders and Goldman Sachs as sole lead bookrunner. Waymo says the money will speed up the expansion of its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in the US and internationally. It adds to the $16 billion equity round Waymo closed earlier this year.
Registration opened to the public in China through invitation codes, on a dedicated page of XPeng's website. XPeng says rides have gradually expanded from employees to outside users, and it expects public access this year. It gave no date for commercial service.
The federal trucking regulator granted Aurora's April request for a five-year exemption, from Oct 7, 2026 to Oct 7, 2031. Any carrier running Level 4 driverless trucks can use it after notifying FMCSA. Carriers must report crashes where the beacons were or should have been on, and file yearly reports on beacon failures. Kodiak told Trucking Dive it will use the exemption.
New Waymo research adapts FEMA's Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program to autonomous vehicles, giving AV developers, operational partners and first responders a shared way to run exercises from seminars and tabletop scenarios through drills to full-scale exercises for major emergencies affecting many vehicles.
Waymo vehicles start driving Detroit streets with no human driver aboard. Rides are not open yet; Waymo tells Detroiters to download the app to be first in line at launch.
Two cab-less electric trucks with nobody on board carry freight between EASE warehouses on scheduled routes, over EASE property and local public roads. A remote operator monitors each truck off-site and can step in. Service started in September under the Ohio–Indiana Truck Automation Corridor Project.
A silver version of the Ojai built at the Mesa, Arizona plant adds soft leatherette seats and matching belts, carpeted floors, high-contrast trim, a rear center armrest with a wireless phone charger, and new seats. It starts serving rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the coming weeks, with more cities over time.
Since September 2026, Punggol riders can book a dedicated WeRide-powered vehicle in the Grab app at commercial fares, with pick-up points added progressively. The fixed-route shuttles stay free, and a trained safety operator sits in the driver's seat.
Volvo VNL Autonomous trucks running the Waabi Driver now carry freight for Warp, a less-than-truckload and full-truckload network, straight to third-party facilities along the Dallas–Houston corridor. It's the first customer operation in the Volvo-Waabi partnership. The trucks aren't driverless yet: a safety driver rides aboard to take over if needed.
Austin hours extend by an hour, from 6 am to 11 pm.
A small group of Zoox vehicles will drive around Denver for a few months this winter to train its driving system in heavy rain and snow, the company says. They're retrofitted test cars with steering wheels and pedals, driven manually by employees, and they carry no passengers. Zoox says it has no plans to offer rides in Denver for now. Denverite published a photo of one in downtown Denver on Oct 2.