Waymo Launches the 6th-gen Driver
Plus, A new Chinese robotaxi company from Geely, and will Mobileye survive Indian traffic?
Our speaker for this week is…
CEO of Aurora, CTO of Google’s self-driving program, Director of Technology for Carnegie Mellon’s DARPA Grand and Urban Challenge teams, Ph.D. in robotics, Chris has done it all. With him at the helm, Aurora is the first autonomous trucking company to start expanding across the Sun Belt, and the first to have gone driver out.
See Chris speak at Ride AI on April 15th. You do not want to miss this one.
Tickets sold out? No worries, there’s always the waitlist:
Now, Here’s What You Need To Know Today.
Waymo has officially begun fully autonomous operations with its 6th-generation Driver. The 6th-gen system cuts the total sensor count by 42% compared to the 5th-gen system that runs on the Jaguar I-PACE fleet, going from 29 cameras down to 13, five lidars down to four, and six radar units. At the heart of it all is a next-gen 17-megapixel imager that Waymo says lets the system see around the vehicle with fewer cameras than it would need with lower resolution sensors.
The system currently runs on two vehicles: the Zeekr-built “Ojai” minivan, a purpose-built robotaxi, and the Hyundai IONIQ 5, of which Hyundai Motor Group says it will supply Waymo with 50,000 units. On the cost front, the 6th-gen Driver is expected to come in at less than $20,000 per unit on top of vehicle costs according to Electrek (though this has not been officially confirmed), cutting the price by more than 50% compared to the 5th-gen system. Waymo delivered 15 million rides in 2025, quadrupling its 2024 volume, and now provides about 400,000 paid rides per week. The company is targeting 1 million weekly rides by the end of this year, with plans to open service in Washington, Detroit, Las Vegas, San Diego, Denver, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando in 2026. The company also confirmed London as its first international market, with Tokyo being another possibility.
With the advent of the 6th generation driver, am I now going to have to make an updated Waymo lidar hat? Something to ponder I suppose…
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana confirmed that a major goal for Waymo in 2026 is to hit 1 million weekly rides.
Something else that Waymo has also been making headlines for is asking DoorDash drivers to shut the doors of its self-driving cars. A DoorDash driver discovered the gig when an odd request to drive less than a mile to close a Waymo door left ajar by a passenger for $6.25 appeared in their queue, with a $5 bonus upon verified completion. Waymo confirmed this is a pilot program in Atlanta to handle the (apparently rare) case of a door being left open, which prevents the car from driving away. In L.A., a similar service through the Honk app has offered up to $24 for the same task. Waymo says both the Ojai and Ioniq ride vehicles will have automated door closures, so this is a temporary fix. Looks like the robots still need us after all… for now.
Over in China, right before the Chinese New Year, Geely’s ride-hailing platform CaoCao (pronounced Tsow-Tsow) has hit a 100-vehicle robotaxi milestone in Hangzhou’s Binjiang District. The company has laid out a three-phase roadmap: phase one focused on technology validation, phase two (where they are now) covers the transition from safety-driver services to fully driverless operations, and phase three involves rolling out purpose-built robotaxis for large-scale commercial operations globally.
CaoCao has also brought online what it calls the world’s first Green Intelligent Mobility Hub, equipped with automated battery swapping (something its competitors like Baidu are already doing), self-cleaning, in-vehicle tidying, and intelligent dispatching. The company is developing a fully purpose-built robotaxi with Geely and other partners, set to debut this year, with an ambitious target of 100,000 vehicles deployed by 2030. CaoCao has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office and plans to set up shop in Abu Dhabi this year.
As a side note, the company’s name refers to one of the kings in the story of the Three Kingdoms who is known to have the largest army (a stated goal of CaoCao is to have the largest fleet). It’s also a play on phrase meaning, as the Chinese motto of the company is “一讲曹操，曹操就到” which translates to “The moment you mention ‘CaoCao’, CaoCao will be there,” a phrase used in China that most basically means somebody everywhere, and shows up quickly after being mentioned in a conversation.
In ADAS news, Mahindra has selected Mobileye’s SuperVision and Surround ADAS for at least six upcoming models, with production expected to begin in 2027. Both solutions are powered by Mobileye’s EyeQ6 High system-on-chip, with perception, mapping intelligence, driving functions, driver monitoring, and advanced parking all integrated on a single ECU. The SuperVision system uses 11 cameras and optional radars across two EyeQ6H chips, while the Surround ADAS system runs five cameras and multiple radars on a single chip. Mobileye will serve as the Tier 1 supplier across all programs.
India is the world’s third-largest automotive market by sales, and ADAS adoption has been growing fast, driven by consumer demand and new regulatory standards like the Bharat New Car Assessment Program. Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua called India “a key growth market for ADAS technologies,” and this deal is a clear signal that Mobileye sees the Indian market as a serious long-term opportunity. However, I was recently in India and… well… here was the traffic situation:
Good luck to Mobileye. It’s worth noting that this press release was posted, but then quickly redacted, on Mobileye’s web properties. However it still exists on press release site BusinessWire, so I think it’s worth mentioning here.
WeRide and Uber have kicked off the first commercial robotaxi service in downtown Abu Dhabi, marking the Emirate’s first autonomous vehicle deployment in its city center. With this latest expansion, the WeRide-Uber service now covers approximately 70% of Abu Dhabi’s core areas, and the fleet has quadrupled in size since operations started back in December 2024. The expanded service runs across Khalifa City, Masdar City, Rabdan, and routes between Corniche Road and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Public commercial operations are underway with a vehicle specialist on board, as part of a phased approach towards fully driverless operations. WeRide now has more than 200 robotaxis in the Middle East, and both companies have committed to deploying at least 1,200 robotaxis across the region by 2027.
In more Uber news, Uber is also rolling out Baidu’s self-driving taxis for ride-hailing in Dubai, in partnership with Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority. The fully autonomous Apollo Go vehicles will be available on the Uber app in select locations within the Jumeirah area, with plans to expand further. Passengers can be matched with an Apollo Go vehicle when booking Uber Comfort or UberX, or by selecting the “Autonomous” option in the app. This aligns with Dubai’s goal of having 25% of all transportation trips be autonomous by 2030.
Apollo Go already has around 150 million autonomous miles (240 million kilometers) and 17 million cumulative rides under its belt, and the Dubai launch extends Baidu’s self-driving operations to 22 cities globally.
Lastly, please enjoy this parade of Starship delivery robots at 6AM sharp at the University of Tennessee. I can never not enjoy seeing parades of robots in the wild.
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!
Another great post, thanks for the Indian Traffic Reality video, too. To nitpick, however, I think India is the 3rd largest car market in UNITS of sales (both at about 4.5 mm, as the 2025 unit sales stats show India and Japan essentially tied), but in REVENUE terms Japan is still larger, with an average selling price of some $22,000 (and yes, I am including the kei cars) and India at more like $14,000. Again, this is a nitpick, but I like to point out that the auto industry is kinda bizarre in that it keeps score in units rather than dollars (or rupees or yen). This would be like ranking Walmart vs. Amazon according to how many pairs of socks they sold. In the car world I guess a Mazda equals a Mercedes equals a Maserati.