GM’s On-Going Autonomous Vehicle Rollercoaster
August 17, 2025
This Week in The Autonomy Economy is presented by Koop, a specialist insurance provider focused on robotics and autonomous vehicles.
This week in the Autonomy Economy, GM once again entered the autonomous vehicle market, Lyft’s co-founders resigned from the board and AutoX re-emerged as Tensor Auto.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. That seems to be GM’s autonomy strategy, and perhaps the third time will be the charm. On Tuesday, we will be releasing a new episode of The Road to Autonomy podcast with David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg, who broke the story of GM’s return to autonomy.
What does this mean for GM’s long-term future? Will Sterling Anderson have the authority and runway to steer the GM “tanker ship” towards a long-term viable path in autonomy? Be sure to tune on Tuesday as David shares his thoughts and insights from his decades of covering GM and where the company ultimately goes from here.
In a move we view as highly positive, Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer have resigned from the board and converted their Class B super-voting shares into Class A common shares. These moves clears the way for CEO David Risher to fully execute his strategy and transform Lyft from a company driven by ideology to one focused purely on sound business decisions.
If Mr. Risher can continue to grow free cash flow, Lyft will be positioned to invest in autonomy and build the long-term partnerships necessary to thrive in an autonomous world.
At the moment, one of Lyft’s unique advantages as it looks to transform the company is their J.P. Morgan Chase partnership, the largest credit card issuer in the U.S. with over 149 million cards in circulation.
As autonomous vehicles scale on the Lyft platform, a JPM Chase card holder incentive could be 10x points on autonomy rides, one complimentary robotaxi ride per month (up to a certain dollar amount), or another data-driven benefit could accelerate the adoption of autonomy on the Lyft platform while reducing churn.
Mr. Risher, the ball is now in your court. The deck has been cleared. It’s now time to deliver on the promise of Lyft. The autonomy markets are still in their infancy, and if Lyft wants to play a defining role in the autonomy economy, now is the time to act.
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What’s Moving the Markets
GM’s On-Going Autonomous Vehicle Rollercoaster
GM’s autonomous vehicle aspirations have followed a frustrating pattern of buying, starting, stopping, and restarting. The latest iteration with a focus on personally owned autonomous vehicles raises the question, will this new direction finally gain traction, or are we witnessing another false start from GM?
Bloomberg reported this week that GM is once again revving up its autonomous vehicle plans, but with a significant strategic shift. Instead of pursuing a robotaxi business, the company is now focusing on developing and commercializing personally owned autonomous vehicles under the leadership of Sterling Anderson.
The latest autonomy pivot from GM raises several important questions about GM’s technical approach to developing an autonomous vehicle that can scale. Will the company continue to try and salvage Cruise’s autonomous driving technology by integrating it more deeply with Super Cruise?
Alternatively, could Mr. Anderson abandon those existing efforts and license an autonomous driving system from Nuro or Wayve. Or could GM look to develop a new in-house autonomous driving solution that perhaps is a vision-only system or one that relies on a limited number of sensors?
Regardless of the technical path chosen, GM must deliver an exceptional software experience. The company can no longer rely on their traditional “Detroit software” approach as it’s simply outdated.
The days of oversized buttons, confusing system menus, forced reboots, and outdated interfaces must come to an end. GM should close that chapter and open a new intuitive, AI-powered chapter that is built around voice interaction, simple taps and one that updates regularly without having to visit the dealer.
To achieve this and to ensure that GM does not stop short of the goal line once again, Mr. Anderson will need to draw heavily on his Tesla experience leading the Autopilot team and the development of the Model X (without the gull-wing doors) to succeed.
Without a software transformation and an entirely new approach to autonomy, GM’s latest autonomous vehicle initiative risks becoming yet another stop in their cycle of unfulfilled promises.
Our take: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. In GM’s case, they’ll be hoping the third time’s the charm. If not, it’s time for change.
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Piquing Our Interest
Lyft Co-Founders Resign from Board Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer have resigned from the board and converted their Class B super-voting shares into Class A common shares.
Tesla Eyes NYC Robotaxi Expansion Tesla is eyeing a potential robotaxi expansion into New York City, posting a new job opening for a Vehicle Operator, Autopilot, based in Flushing, Queens.
From AutoX to Tensor Another day, another autonomy pivot. This week, AutoX announced the company’s rebranding to Tensor along with a shift in strategy. Instead of focusing on developing robotaxis, the company is now going to focus on developing personally owned autonomous vehicles.
From Uber Freight to Waabi In a surprise move, Uber Freight founder and CEO Lior Ron resigned to become COO of autonomous trucking startup Waabi.
Where Does Uber Freight Go From Here? In a column this week, Bloomberg Opinion columnist Thomas Black speculates that Uber Freight may no longer remain an Uber subsidiary once the freight recession comes to an end.
Grab Invests in WeRide Grab has made an investment in WeRide to advance plans for deploying autonomous vehicles on its network in Southeast Asia.
Pony.AI Confident in Reaching 1,000 Robotaxi Milestone Pony.AI is confident it will reach their Gen-7 robotaxi production target of 1,000 vehicles by the end of the year.
📰 Before these stories were featured here, they were available on X. Follow @RoadToAutonomy today to stay up-to-date on the latest news and developments shaping the autonomy economy.
Social Buzz
Robotaxi Service Set to Open to the Public in September
If all goes according to plan, Tesla will open its robotaxi service to the public in Austin next month. We experienced the service in July and were truly impressed with the vehicle’s performance.
For a more in-depth take on Tesla’s robotaxi service in Austin, we highly recommend watching the We Rode in Tesla’s Robotaxi, Here’s Our Experience episode of Autonomy Markets.
Our take: Once Tesla opens the service to the public, we will be watching for data on revenue and ridership retention/growth. We will also be monitoring whether safety attendants remain in the vehicles for the public launch, and if so, for how long.
Companies Mentioned: $TSLA
Tesla is currently ranked #2 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the autonomous vehicle category.
Latest Autonomy Markets Podcast
GM’s Autonomy Flip Flop, Waymo’s Supply Issue, New 37 Camera Autonomous Vehicle
This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss GM’s sudden return to autonomous vehicles, Waymo’s growing supply constraints, and the launch of Tensor Auto.
Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X
Listen on Apple Podcasts
August 16, 2025
