No, The Waymos Are Not Remote Controlled.
Plus: Uber will support your robotaxi scaling projects.
Welcome to the Ride AI newsletter: The most comprehensive weekly digest of news and intelligence at the intersection of technology and transportation.
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Speaker Announcements:
This week, I’m pleased to announce…
Jeff is the CEO of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) and is regularly called to testify on Capitol Hill, while Ken, as managing director at Wells Fargo Securities, brings more than 20 years of analyst, operator, and investor experience in the industry.
Jeff will be discussing AV policy at Ride AI, something that quite literally affects us all, while Ken will be talking about the oncoming AV IPO wave. These are definitely conversations you do not want to miss.
Now, Here’s What You Need To Know Today.
Hot on the (w)heels of their Sun Belt expansion announcement last week, Aurora has officially brought its driverless trucks to Arizona. The company is now operating a 1,000-mile commercial corridor linking Phoenix to Fort Worth, Texas, the longest autonomous freight route of its kind in the US. That’s a distance that exceeds what human drivers can legally cover without extended rest breaks. Huge.
Aurora says it currently has about 30 trucks in its fleet, 10 of which are running fully driverless (with observer), and has logged roughly 250,000 driverless miles with zero Aurora Driver-attributed collisions. The company expects to have more than 200 driverless trucks on the road by the end of this year.
Waymo had a busy week.
The company announced on Monday that it has hit 200 million fully autonomous miles.
In response to the unfortunately viral Filipino remote operators incident in the U.S. Senate hearing earlier this month, the company has published a blog post titled “Advice, Not Control” on its remote assistance operations, penned by its global head of operations Ryan McNamara. In the post, McNamara clarified that remote assistants do not drive the vehicles. Instead, they respond to specific requests from the Waymo Driver and provide advice that the system can choose to accept or reject. It’s like rolling down your window and asking a bystander for directions.
In a rare stats drop, McNamara revealed that as of right now, there are approximately 70 remote assistance agents on duty worldwide at any given time, supporting a fleet of 3,000 vehicles that drive over four million miles per week. That’s around 40 vehicles per agent, which honestly is way higher of a vehicle to agent ratio than I thought it would be.
Also this week, Waymo announced that it will begin letting public riders on the Ojai this summer. The Ojai is Waymo’s new Zeekr-built robotaxi running the 6th-generation Driver, and is currently in employee-only testing in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
On a less positive note, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has dropped her proposal to legalize robotaxis outside of New York City. The proposal, which would have created a framework for limited deployment in upstate cities like Buffalo and Rochester, was pulled after it became clear the legislature didn’t have the appetite for it. Labor unions, rideshare drivers, and transit workers had raised concerns about safety and job losses. Waymo, which has been trying to get into New York for years, said it was “disappointed” but remains committed to bringing its service to the state.
Uber has unveiled Uber Autonomous Solutions, a program meant to AV partners who are able to build the tech, but may be too capital-constrained to scale operations on their own. Bloomberg is also reporting that Uber is planning to spend more than $100 million to build fast-charging stations for autonomous vehicles likely in support of this initiative, starting with the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and Dallas.
However, to take part in Uber Autonomous Solutions, the AV partner is required to integrate Uber’s own in-car experience, as well as support a diverse range of Uber’s product offerings. Those wishing to build their own in-car experience may not be able to do so as freely. Some might say that there are strong hints of infrastructure vendor lock-in.
Uber expects to offer autonomous vehicles in at least 10 cities by the end of this year, with plans to launch the Uber-Lucid-Nuro robotaxis in the Bay Area and Volkswagen-MOIA’s autonomous ID.Buzz vans in L.A. The company is also inking deals with third-party charger operators like EVgo, Hubber, Ionity, and Electra to roll out more than 1,000 new chargers globally.
On the Tesla front, the company announced that the first Cybercab has rolled off the production line at Giga Texas. The Cybercab is Tesla’s two-passenger robotaxi with butterfly doors, no steering wheel, and no pedals. Continuous production isn’t expected to start until April, and Elon himself has cautioned that the initial ramp will be “agonizingly slow.” The vehicle is supposedly designed to cost under $30,000 and will rely entirely on Tesla’s vision-based Full Self-Driving system, although whether Tesla can legally sell the vehicle remains in doubt.
The company’s European account has also made the first on-record confirmation that FSD responds to hand gestures.
In related Tesla news, a federal judge has upheld the $243 million verdict against Tesla over a fatal Autopilot crash. The case stems from a 2019 collision in Key Largo, Florida, where a Model S with Autopilot engaged blew through a stop sign at roughly 62 mph, killing 22-year-old Naibel Benavides Leon. The damages include $200 million in punitive damages. U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom rejected Tesla’s arguments that the verdict “flies in the face of basic Florida tort law” and said the evidence “more than supports” the jury’s findings. Tesla has indicated it will appeal. The company has traditionally settled these kinds of FSD-related suits out of court. If the appeal fails, it will have vast liability implications on the numerous other similar suits against the company pending judgement, as well as other ADAS related suits against other carmakers.
Over in China, autonomous delivery company Neolix has hit ~62 million miles (100 million km) of real-world autonomous driving. The company has more than 16,000 autonomous vehicles deployed across 15 countries, with the largest deployment in Qingdao, where more than 1,200 vehicles have been running since mid-2025 through a partnership with DiDi Freight. Neolix plans to deploy an additional 10,000 vehicles internationally this year.
In robot oopsies this week, a Coco delivery robot was spotted valiantly trying to navigate the flooded streets of West Hollywood during this week’s big L.A. rainstorm. The bot did eventually manage to back up and find its way onto the sidewalk. It’s trying its best, ok?
Delivery bots weren’t the only bots impacted by the L.A. floods however. Here’s a Waymo taking a dip.
But not to be outdone, a Tesla owner shared video of FSD trying to drive him straight into a lake. The owner still calls FSD a “game changer,” but admits it “needs more work before it’s fully autonomous.” But it’s ok, ‘cause Elon says Teslas can be boats temporarily. So if he does end up in a lake, he’ll be ok… probably…
Alright, that’s it from me… until next week. If you enjoy this newsletter, share it with your friend, colleague, or boss. Thank you for reading; Sophia out!