Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.
This week brought another round of announcements about robotaxis launching or planning to launch in cities. Waymo began testing its autonomous vehicles with a safety monitor in Philadelphia and will start manual driving to collect data in Baltimore, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. Uber and Avride launched a robotaxi service in Dallas that will initially include a human safety operator behind the wheel. Meanwhile, the California Department of Motor Vehicles released revised rules that would allow companies to test and eventually deploy self-driving trucks on public highways in the state.
Autonomous vehicle technology is scaling and the pace is quickening. But should it? As this technology percolates into the cityscape, so has the criticism and challenges. A couple of recent incidents illustrate this point.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked Waymo for more information about its self-driving system and operations following reports from the Austin School District that its robotaxis illegally passed school buses 19 times this year. The agency had already opened an investigation into Waymo’s performance around school buses.
Then there is KitKat, the bodega cat that died after a Waymo robotaxi ran him over on October 27. The company was already facing criticism over the event, and it might escalate thanks to new video. Surveillance footage shows a woman crouching beside the Waymo trying to lure KitKat to safety before the vehicle suddenly pulled away.
A lot of changes have been happening at Lucid Motors recently. As many already know, the company has lost a number of top executives, including former CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson and, most recently, chief designer Eric Bach. Lucid, which is ramping up production of its Gravity SUV, has patched some vacancies with internal promotions and outside hires.
The changes keep coming. This week, a handful or more of top managers on its software and electrical teams were let go, including two senior directors who started with Lucid around a decade ago.
Electric aircraft maker Beta Technologies, which went public last month, is carving out a supplier business for itself. The Vermont-based company locked in a deal to supply air taxi company Eve Air Mobility with its electric pusher motors. Beta says the agreement is a potential 10-year opportunity valued at $1 billion. Of course, that $1 billion is not guaranteed. Beta is finding a near-term revenue path as it continues to work toward the commercial certification of its electric aircraft.
The company also reported its third-quarter earnings this week. Beta saw its revenue more than double to $8.9 million from the same quarter last year. Its net losses have also grown, reported at $452 million in the third quarter, a more than fivefold increase from the same year-ago period.
Other notable deals include Autolane, a startup developing systems for autonomous vehicles, which raised $7.4 million. Element Fleet Management acquired connected vehicle payments company Car IQ for a reported $80 million. ExploMar, a developer of electric propulsion systems for boats, raised $10 million in a Series A round. Heven AeroTech, a startup developing hydrogen-powered drones, raised $100 million in a Series B round. And self-driving startup Wayve acquired German startup Quality Match, which analyzes data for training AI models.
In other news, Amazon is considering ending its contract with the United States Postal Service and building its own competing nationwide delivery network. Tesla owners can text and drive with the latest version of the company’s driver-assistance software, despite it being illegal in most states. Grand Theft Auto Online has added robotaxis from a fictional company dubbed “KnoWay.” Nvidia announced a new open vision language model for autonomous driving research. A report gives an inside look at a drone delivery partnership in Finland.
The Trump administration said it will lower fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks sold in the United States, arguing it will make vehicles more affordable. The proposal would roll fleet-wide fuel economy to 34.5 miles per gallon for 2031 model-year cars, below the previous standard of 50.4 mpg by 2031 set under the Biden administration.
Finally, a recent poll in the Mobility newsletter asked when readers expect robotaxis to reach a tipping point of mass adoption. Most readers picked “before the end of the decade,” which received 47.2% of the vote, followed by the “2030s.” Based on the votes, there appears to be low confidence that 2026 will be the year of the tipping point.