This Week in The Autonomy Economy, presented by Koop Insurance Halloween is coming early to London, Waymo refreshes the Ojai and we hit the road once again.
As the old saying goes, the road goes on forever and we are going to keep on truckin’ on as we scale Field Reports. Every week, we are going to bring you new Field Reports and show you what is happening in the field. Being in the field is where the rubber hits the road.
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📰 Need to Know: This Week in the Autonomy Economy
What is Uber’s autonomous vehicle strategy in London?
Uber is building a multi-partner autonomous platform in London by partnering with Wayve, Baidu, and Pony.ai. While Uber has successfully brought all three platforms under its umbrella, only Wayve is currently operational with 15 supervised vehicles. Baidu is actively testing in Brent and Pony.ai is preparing to begin testing in the coming weeks.
How does Waymo’s London deployment differ from Uber’s model?
Waymo is focusing on direct operational consistency rather than platform aggregation. Rather than offering riders a variable mix of human drivers and multiple autonomous providers, Waymo will be deploying a dedicated, consistent fleet unsupervised vehicles in London once it secures Transport for London’s Automated Passenger Services (APS) permit.
What regulatory factor will dictate the future of London’s robotaxi market?
The primary regulatory benchmark in London is Transport for London’s Automated Passenger Services (APS) permit. Whichever autonomous vehicle operator secures and scales under the APS permit framework will hold a structural advantage, as regulatory compliance and fleet consistency are essential for long-term commercial operation in the UK.
What recent operational updates has Waymo made to its Ojai vehicle platform?
Waymo has updated its custom Ojai vehicle platform, shifting from the original blue exterior to a silver finish alongside several cabin upgrades. Based on early rider feedback, the updated interior includes soft leatherette seating, wireless phone charging, carpeted flooring, and new rear armrests to improve passenger comfort as production scales at its Mesa, Arizona facility.
What key regulatory decision recently occurred regarding autonomous trucking?
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) granted a five-year regulatory exemption allowing fully autonomous truck fleets to deploy cab-mounted warning beacons instead of requiring human drivers to manually place reflective warning triangles during roadside stops. This decision resolves a major operational roadblock for Level 4 driverless freight deployment across commercial highways.
Jack the Ripper, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Haunt London’s Robotaxis
Jack the Ripper, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Haunt London’s Robotaxis| Source: The Road to Autonomy (AI Generated)
There are only 20 days to Halloween and Uber appears to be getting into the act early, as they seem to have The Strange Case of Dr. Autonomous Supervised and Mr. Human Driven in a nod to the famous 1886 novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
In London, the transformation is taking place in broad daylight across the city’s complex streets and in vague press releases with little detail. Yet, there are werewolves already driving around supervised in London as they prepare to transform into unsupervised in early Q1 2027 under the light of the moon.
Those werewolves are Waymo, and there are reportedly 100 of them roaming the streets of The Big Smoke under the grey mizzle. While the werewolves more commonly known as Waymo roam the streets of London, Uber is channeling the Commonwealth and deploying the Gordie Howe playbook as they pick fights and score a hat-trick.
In London, Uber scored a hat-trick with Wayve, Baidu, and now Pony.ai all on the Uber platform. While Uber has scored a hat-trick, only Wayve is currently operational with 15 vehicles that are supervised, as Baidu tests in Brent and Pony.ai prepares to begin testing in the coming weeks.
But now the questions emerge, and they are important questions that can be pulled right from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde because you do not know who you are going to get. In the future, when you order an Uber in London, will you get a human-driven vehicle, a Wayve robotaxi, a Baidu robotaxi, or a Pony.ai robotaxi?
As in the novella, there is no certainty which personality you are going to get. Get paired with Dr. Autonomous Supervised and you might get a Wayve, Baidu, or Pony.ai vehicle. Get paired with Mr. Human Driven and who knows what vehicle or what mood the driver will be in. This is not a great experience, this is a hodgepodge, and it’s only scalable as long as the consumer is willing to tolerate it.
The question of how long they will tolerate it will most likely be shorter than in the past, as they will soon have a consistent option in the market with Waymo. No autonomy roulette, no Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, just a consistent service.
Consistency is the key to scaling robotaxis. Waymo knows this, Tesla knows this, and so does the consumer. Now we will watch the London market to see just how long it takes Jack the Ripper to take out Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
The answer will not lie in the shadows this time, instead it lies in Transport for London’s (TfL) Automated Passenger Services (APS) permit. He who controls the APS controls the future. Those who don’t better have Scotland Yard on speed dial, because Jack the Ripper will be hiding in the shadows.
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Atoms Autonomous Vehicle Field Report
In San Francisco, Travis Kalanick’s Atoms is actively testing a new autonomous vehicle platform.This is the field report.
LastFeet Autonomous Delivery Field Report
Grayson Brulte joined LastFeet founder Lee Redden in Palo Alto and on the Stanford University campus to evaluate the company’s autonomous last-50-foot delivery robot, Boxer. This is the field report.
Zoox T-Mobile Arena Drop-Off Field Report
Special Field Correspondent David Moss headed to Las Vegas to see what a Zoox robotaxi ride would be like now that the company charges for rides. This is the field report.
Piquing Our Interest
Waymo Expands Debut Debt Deal to $5 Billion Waymo boosted its inaugural private loan from $3 billion to $5 billion to fund rising AI costs and fleet expansion across US and Asian markets.
Helm.ai Reaches $70M in Signed Commercial Contracts for Its Foundation Models Helm.ai has signed over $70 million in commercial contracts for its physical AI foundation models as the company expands beyond autonomous driving.
First a Veto in Minneapolis, Next a Study in Saint Paul The Twin Cities are not being the Nice Cities when it comes to the deployment of autonomous vehicles. Now, the St. Paul City Council President has authored a resolution that calls for a wide-ranging study of “autonomous vehicle labor and community protections.”
Uber’s PAC Supports Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Re-Election Campaign as State Continues to be Hostile to Autonomous Vehicles Minnesota and New York have a lot in common. Both states have football teams, and both have politicians who want to mandate human drivers behind the wheel of autonomous vehicles. Why support politicians who want to stall the deployment of robotaxis? That is the real question raised by Uber’s PAC spending, not whether Josh Allen can win a Super Bowl for the Bills.
Union Uproar in D.C over Robotaxis Outrage over robotaxis could become a song, and if Rage Against the Machine were ever to get back together again, perhaps they should change the name of the band to Rage Against the Robotaxi. In D.C., a coalition of unions and religious leaders want to stop the deployment of robotaxis in the district as the rage against the robotaxi.
Wayve to Accelerate Stellantis’ L2++ Timeline Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa recently said in an interview that partnering with Wayve will shorten development cycles, cut costs, and allow the automaker to introduce a full-autonomous-driving offering by 2028.
FMCSA Grants Five-Year Warning Triangle Exemption Autonomous trucking is cleared for launch, as the FMCSA has granted a five-year regulatory exemption allowing fully autonomous (unsupervised) truck companies to deploy cab-mounted warning beacons instead of requiring human drivers to set up reflective warning triangles during roadside stops.
Pony.aI is expanding to London with Uber Pony.ai and Uber are expanding to London together, with testing expected to begin in the coming weeks.
XPENG Unveils Robotaxi Brand XPENG has branded its autonomous ride-hailing service as XPENG YOYO and opened online registration in China as the company prepares to launch commercial service.
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Trending on X
Silver looks good on the Ojai. ✨
Introducing the silver Ojai, featuring leatherette seats, wireless charging, and refreshed interior details.
Ojai’s shade of blue has morphed into silver as Waymo updates the vehicle with leatherette seats, wireless charging, and several in-vehicle updates. In our opinion, these updates are partly based on rider feedback and are a nice improvement.
We have ridden in the Ojai Blue over a dozen times and found the vehicle’s interior to be lacking. We prefer the Jaguar as the USB-C charging ports are easier to find, the seats are more comfy, and the Jaguar goes on highways.
We are looking forward to testing the new silver Ojai and producing a field report. In two weeks, we will be releasing a field report review of the Ojai Blue.
Our take: Good for Waymo for listening to customer feedback. We have always believed that the Ojai was a stop-gap vehicle to get to the Hyundai IONIQ 5s. Perhaps now, Waymo is looking at the Ojai as more than a stop-gap vehicle?
This week on Autonomy Signals presented by KPMG, Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant discuss Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoing a city council ordinance that would have required human safety monitors in robotaxis, California requiring remote operators of autonomous vehicles to be physically located in the United States, and the U.S. Army creating the Futures and Autonomous Systems Command.
Waymo Goes to Wall Street
This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s first ever debt raise, the latest The Road to Autonomy Field Reports and the emergence of London as an autonomy capital.
