Waymo Needs Another OEM and Q4 Might Be Too Late

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo expanding service to the San Antonio Airport, the company’s need for another OEM partner and Baidu’s mishap in China.

With Waymo opening service at the San Antonio Airport complete with curbside drop offs and a short walk to the designated rideshare pickup area, the conversation evolves into a deeper discussion about airport politics and robotaxis.

Which brings us to Waymo and their current vehicle fleet. Does Waymo have enough vehicles to continue to scale at the pace they are scaling? Or do they need an additional OEM partner? Or will an 800 volt charging architecture solve their vehicle supply issue? Walt says Waymo needs more vehicles, while Grayson predicts that Waymo will announce an additional OEM partner by the end of the year and give the market more details on their relationship with Toyota.

Over in China, Baidu’s Apollo Go suffered a major mishap with vehicles stopping, causing crashes and trapping passengers for up to two hours in their robotaxis, raising questions about the current state of Chinese autonomous driving technology.

Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Walt discuss WeRide going driverless in Dubai with Uber and launching 11 vehicles in Singapore with Grab as part of the foreign autonomy desk.

Episode Chapters

• 00:00 Waymo Expands to the San Antonio Airport
• 06:07 Does Waymo Need Another OEM Partner?
• 13:24 800 Volt Charging Architecture and Fleet Scaling
• 19:05 Baidu’s Apollo Go Robotaxis Fail in Wuhan
• 23:47 China’s Autonomous Belt and Road Strategy
• 26:33 Waabi
• 30:02 Tesla Austin Robotaxi Expansion
• 33:14 FSD 14.3
• 38:00 Senator Markey Remote Operators Investigation
• 41:34 Foreign Autonomy Desk
• 45:50 Next Week