Rivian Gets Into The Driverless Game.
Plus, Tesla starts going driver-out. Finally.
Welcome to the Ride AI newsletter: your weekly digest of news and intelligence at the intersection of technology and transportation.
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Now, Here’s What You Need To Know Today.
Rivian is making a major push into autonomy.
At its first Autonomy and AI Day event, the EV maker detailed how it plans to scale its driver assistance features from hands-free, but eyes-on highway driving to what it calls “personal L4,” where a vehicle can operate without human input or monitoring in a specified operational domain. Rivian says its immediate next phase, branded “Universal Hands-Free”, will cover more than 3.5 million miles of roads across the United States and Canada and expand beyond highways to surface streets with “clear lane markings.” The feature will launch in early 2026 on second-generation R1 vehicles, priced at either a one-time $2,500 fee or a monthly $49.99 subscription.
Under the hood, Rivian is moving away from its old rules-based systems toward a large, end-to-end trained driving model trained on real-world data, alongside a new in-house 5 nanometer processor developed in collaboration with Arm and TSMC. That new chip powers Rivian’s third-generation autonomy computer, which can process five billion pixels per second and will debut in the R2 SUV in late 2026. Rivian plans to pair the system with a windshield-mounted lidar, 5 radars, and 11 cameras to add redundancy and improve detection of rare edge cases. Executives said the combination of compute and sensors is designed to exceed human perception rather than just merely match it.
While Rivian’s near-term focus remains personally owned vehicles, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe acknowledged that the same technology could eventually support ride-hailing services. The company’s current roadmap places eyes-off driving first, followed by limited unsupervised operation, before any move into shared autonomy. So for now, the strategy seems to signal Rivian’s intent to compete directly with the most advanced driver-assist and autonomy programs globally such as those from Tesla and Huawei. However, a full on robotaxi does seem to be in the cards. Maybe Rivian could repurpose an existing chassis into one with a custom robotaxi body.
What do you think about this new path Rivian has embarked on? Let me know in the comments below!
Tesla has begun testing robotaxis in Austin with no safety driver onboard.
Roughly six months after launching a limited robotaxi pilot in the city, Tesla is now testing its vehicles with no human monitor inside on public roads, a step CEO Elon Musk has long framed as the gateway to a true commercial service. Videos of empty Tesla Model Y vehicles circulating in Austin began appearing over the weekend, and Musk later confirmed the company was testing “with no occupants.” Tesla has not said when it plans to begin offering rides to customers in these vehicles, though company posts on X suggested a gradual rollout.
The move is likely to intensify scrutiny of Tesla’s testing program. Since June, the company’s small Austin fleet has been linked to at least seven reported crashes, though details remain limited due to redactions in filings with federal regulators, a move no other operator in the same service area does. Tesla began its Austin pilot with safety operators seated in the passenger seat, later moving them behind the wheel, and gradually expanded its service area while keeping the fleet to roughly two dozen vehicles. Musk has repeatedly forecast rapid scaling, most recently walking back grand schemes of nationwide coverage of half the US population to a more modest plan of roughly doubling the Austin fleet.
Texas’s permissive regulatory environment makes Austin an easier proving ground than California, where Tesla would need multiple approvals to operate fully driverless services. Musk has also revived talk of eventually folding privately owned Teslas into a robotaxi network, although with hardware upgrades still required for many vehicles, how that might happen is still unclear. Tesla’s Austin tests represent its boldest step yet toward competing with Waymo. Driver-out is perhaps the most significant vote of confidence a company can give of its own product, despite the safety cars trailing behind.
Waymo is continuing its aggressive timeline to full autonomy.
The company announced on December 11th and 12th that it had gone fully autonomous in San Antonio and Orlando respectively, marking 10 cities in which Waymo operates autonomously. Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov said of the launch that “this is a testament to the maturity and generalizability of the Waymo Driver, our deliberate, safety-first approach to scaling.” The company also announced that Waymo employees were now able to take fully autonomous rides to San Francisco International Airport, and that public rides were coming “soon.”
Meanwhile, the NYC DOT extended the company’s testing permit until March 31st, 2026, allowing the company to continue mapping the city and testing the Waymo Driver. Crucially, however, the company is still unable to operate autonomously without a safety driver behind the wheel. Meanwhile, a leaked investor letter from Tiger Global, one of Waymo’s investment funds, claims the company is now doing 450,000 rides a week, up from 250,000 rides a week 6 months ago.
With more coverage comes more firsts, it seems, as the company has now seen not one, but two childbirths in its vehicles. The most recent one came courtesy of a San Francisco woman on her way to the UCSF medical center. There is already a history of people being born in Ubers being named Uber after the service, which begs the question: Will there now be people born in Waymos named Waymo?
DiDi has begun 24/7 fully driverless ride-hailing trials in Guangzhou.
The round-the-clock pilot launched earlier this month on December 1st in designated zones of Guangzhou, following DiDi Autonomous Driving’s recent example deployment at the National Games. Riders ordering through the DiDi app might now be assigned a fully driverless vehicle if they so choose, marking a shift from limited demonstrations to continuous public-facing service. DiDi has positioned the rollout as a step toward commercial operations, building on more than a year of internal testing and controlled public trials.
The service’s current ODD is a section of Huangpu district in Guangzhou, which is a fairly standard dense residential and commercial area, and seems to include highways. Riders can request free, autonomous trips directly through the app or opt into mixed dispatch, with human vs. autonomously driven assignments determined by location, traffic, and real-time supply. Once matched, passengers unlock the vehicle via the app, can adjust destinations mid-trip, and access remote customer support through an in-car interface.
DiDi received approval for safety-operator-free road testing in late 2022 and has focused since then on validating performance in complex urban conditions. The company says its fleet has demonstrated stable operation during rush hour congestion, nighttime driving, glare at dusk, and rainy weather. With the Guangzhou pilot now running continuously, DiDi is using rider feedback to refine operations as it prepares for broader deployment of fully driverless ride-hailing services. I’m looking forward to adding my own feedback when I will attempt to experience it, hopefully in early 2026.
In Other News…
Zevo, a carshare operator, wants to add Tensor robotaxis to its car-share fleet
Zoox adds T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to list of pick-up, drop-off destinations
Mercedes-Benz partners with Momenta on S-Class-based robotaxi for Abu Dhabi
China grants first conditional L3 self-driving permits to Changan’s Deepal SL03 and BAIC’s Arcfox S
RoboSense secures order for 1 million LiDARs from Dongfeng Nissan
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!