You can now hail a Zoox in San Francisco.
Plus, I rode in Bot Auto’s Self-Driving semi truck on the highway
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.
Zoox has opened up public ride-hailing in San Francisco.
The company says its Explorers program, an initiative that offers free rides in exchange for feedback, is now live in the city and will begin accepting members of the public as of this morning (November 18th. 2025). Riders who join the program will be able to travel within Zoox’s initial service area, which covers most of SoMa, the Mission, and the Design District. Trips are point to point, with riders able to specify a location or choose from suggested locations. Zoox will drop passengers near their destination and provide walking directions when needed.
The launch marks Zoox’s first public deployment in its home city after years of testing its retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with safety drivers on San Francisco streets. The company began testing its purpose-built robotaxi in SoMa and the Design District in late 2024, supported by several offices and depots across the Bay Area. CEO Aicha Evans said Zoox has seen strong interest locally and views the move as the first step toward a wider rollout. Zoox also began offering autonomous rides in Las Vegas in September and plans to add more destinations in both cities over the coming months.
Riders will be admitted from the waitlist in phases based on location and vehicle availability as Zoox expands its fleet. The company says it remains the only operator with a ground-up, purpose-built robotaxi in public service and expects that approach to set it apart as it scales. Those interested can join the waitlist through the Zoox app on iOS and Android.
I was able to try Zoox’s service in Las Vegas earlier this year. My first impressions were that while the vehicle was impressive, driving behavior and vehicle software, which are perhaps the most key parts of the experience, still felt quite early. However, I’ve since learned that what I had tried in Las Vegas had been a frozen, earlier version of its software, and I have since been able to take multiple trips with Zoox in San Francisco, with much better results. Those San Francisco experiences are coming soon as part of a video reviewing every robotaxi service in San Francisco. In the meanwhile, you can see my Zoox experience in Las Vegas below.
Waymo has enabled freeways access in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles.
The company says freeway driving will start rolling out first to early-access users, with full availability coming later as Waymo gathers performance data and rider feedback. Until now, the service has largely avoided highways, opting for longer routes on local streets, a limitation that riders have frequently noted. After years of public-road testing, employee trials, closed-course work, and extensive simulation, Waymo says its autonomous system is finally ready to handle the higher speeds and reduced reaction times that freeways demand. As part of the freeway expansion, the company also announced a major expansion into San Jose and up the Bay Area peninsula, with 24/7 curbside pickup and drop-off service at both terminals of Mineta San Jose International Airport. Trusted Testers can now take one Waymo from the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula down to San Jose airport.
Waymo says freeway routing can cut some trip times by as much as half, such as between San Francisco and Mountain View, while also improving connections to transit and reducing first-mile and last-mile delays. Engineers say the company’s sixth-generation hardware stack, with 360-degree lidar, radar, and camera coverage, can detect objects up to three football fields away. The system features multiple layers of redundancy, including dual onboard computers that can take over seamlessly if one fails, allowing the vehicle to continue driving safely to the nearest exit. Waymo is coordinating closely with safety authorities in California and Arizona to ensure protocols are aligned for highway operations and emergency procedures.
The service area extension to San Jose marks Waymo’s second airport deployment after Phoenix, with dedicated curbside access at both terminals. Waymo still does not offer commercial service at San Francisco International Airport, where operations remain in the pilot phase while the company continues working with airport officials. As airports represent a major share of traditional ride-hailing revenue, mastering both airport operations and high-speed highway driving is becoming central to Waymo’s strategy as it scales its fully driverless service. The company says it will soon start phase two of its three phase SFO plan, in which the company will allow certain employees of both Waymo and SFO to take rides to and from the airport with a safety driver behind the wheel.
I interviewed Bot Auto’s CEO, on the highway, in their self-driving semi truck.
I was able to take an autonomous test ride in Bot Auto’s self-driving big rig in early September, while interviewing the company’s CEO, Xiaodi Hou. While there was a safety driver in the 18-wheeler, there were no safety-related disengagements (only one to bypass traffic). As my first time being in an 18-wheeler, much less one with a trailer attached, it was an eye-opening experience into how vastly different the safety requirements are compared to consumer-level robotaxis. You can watch my full interview with Xiaodi in Bot Auto’s autonomous truck above.
Since then, Bot Auto has secured an A-rated insurance program with Marsh. The autonomous trucking startup says the new coverage, underwritten by an A-rated carrier, includes auto liability, property, cargo, inland marine, general liability, and cyber protection. Bot Auto describes the program as a milestone for commercial AV freight, arguing that its autonomy-native design, real-time data architecture, and consistent vehicle behavior allow risk to be measured and verified rather than debated after the fact.
Bot Auto has already completed driverless runs on public roads in Houston and is now moving daily commercial loads between Houston and San Antonio, with additional routes planned. Marsh’s AV insurance program requires carriers to meet a higher bar for safety and traceability than traditional fleets, and the firm says Bot Auto’s placement reflects growing confidence from insurers in autonomous freight. Executives from both companies said the new framework is intended to support wider adoption of driverless trucking by giving customers and regulators greater visibility into operational safety and accountability.
WeRide has become the first international company authorized for fully driverless robotaxi service in the UAE.
The approval, issued on October 31, allows WeRide to run Level 4 robotaxis without an onboard safety driver on both the Uber and TXAI platforms in Abu Dhabi. Commercial service will begin in Abu Dhabi’s core districts, building on earlier phased deployments. Local authorities granted the permit after a multi-year evaluation process that began with WeRide receiving the UAE’s first national license for autonomous vehicles in 2023. Since then, the company has completed extensive safety trials under government oversight to meet emirate-level requirements for fully driverless operations.
WeRide has operated robotaxis in Abu Dhabi since 2021 and expanded its partnership with Uber last year, creating what is currently the largest commercial robotaxi service outside the U.S. and China. The company has accumulated nearly 6 hundred thousand autonomous miles (1 million km) locally, and the removal of the safety driver requirement brings the service to unit-economic breakeven for the first time, according to the company. WeRide plans to scale its fleet to 1,000 vehicles across the Middle East by 2026, with longer-term ambitions to deploy tens of thousands of robotaxis by 2030.
BMW’s next-generation iX3 will debut a new “L2+” driver-assist system co-developed with Momenta.
BMW and Momenta said their joint system is now undergoing large-scale real-world testing across Beijing, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Nanjing, with development teams validating performance in dense traffic and extreme conditions. The companies say the program combines more than 62 million miles (100 million km) of simulation testing with BMW’s global validation standards to ensure stability and reliability. The technology is built on a new intelligent architecture using “end-to-end large language model-based perception and planning” tailored to China’s complex road environment.
The iX3 will be produced at BMW Brilliance’s Shenyang plant and will be offered exclusively to the Chinese market. It is the first model to launch under BMW’s July partnership with Momenta, with the new smart-driving system slated to expand to additional domestically built BMW vehicles. The collaboration makes BMW the latest global automaker to tap Momenta’s autonomous driving capabilities, joining Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and Nissan. BMW says the China-focused iX3 will feature locally tuned intelligence, comfort, and driving dynamics, along with LLM-powered in-car tech co-developed with Alibaba. Deliveries of the Momenta-enabled iX3 is scheduled to commence in summer of 2026.
Seyond, the LiDAR supplier behind Nio’s autonomous driving hardware, has cleared its Hong Kong listing hearing.
The company is expected to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 10 through a merger with SPAC TechStar Acquisition Corporation, making it the third Chinese LiDAR maker to debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after RoboSense and Hesai (Zoox’s LiDAR supplier). Founded in 2016 and previously known as Innovusion, Seyond operates R&D hubs in Silicon Valley, Suzhou, and Shanghai, with manufacturing in Ningbo and Suzhou. It became Nio’s sole LiDAR supplier in 2022 when the Nio ET7 entered mass production, and every Nio model since then has used Seyond sensors, sometimes with as many as three units per vehicle.
Seyond’s business remains highly dependent on Nio, with the automaker accounting for more than 85 percent of revenue in recent years. The company delivered roughly 230,000 automotive-grade LiDAR units in 2024, placing fourth globally by ADAS LiDAR revenue with a 12.8 percent market share. Its listing comes as it faces a new legal challenge: Hesai, another major LiDAR manufacturer, filed a patent infringement lawsuit in late October over Seyond’s Robin E1X product, claiming similarities to the Hesai AT series.
In Other News…
BYD has sold more than 2 million cars equipped with its “God’s Eye” smart driving.
Luminar is fighting with its biggest customer as bankruptcy threat looms.
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!