Waymo's top rival may not be who you think...
“Half” of the U.S. population would have access to Tesla robotaxis by December, Elon Musk said last summer. It’s now nearly a year later and autonomous Tesla rides are still only available in one American city — with safety monitors on board. Musk exaggerations are hardly noteworthy, but what is noteworthy are the moves being made by Amazon’s Zoox, whose nascent robotaxi service is expanding in San Francisco and Las Vegas and about to begin testing in Austin and Miami. Whatever you think about the vehicle technology itself, you don’t want to bet against Amazon’s existing consumer empire. When it comes to the global ride-hailing market, however, there are even more players. This week, for instance, Uber announced plans to partner with Chinese startup Pony.ai and Croatian startup Verne to launch Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service.
What you need to know
Zoox expands into two new cities: Amazon’s AV subsidiary announces that it’s expanding its existing robotaxi service in Las Vegas and San Francisco and it will deploy its purpose-built autonomous vehicles in Austin and Miami later this year. Waymo is already operating in both cities and Tesla has a limited trial (with safety operators) in Austin. You may recall that last summer Elon Musk said he believed Tesla robotaxis would be serving half of the U.S. population by Christmas –– of 2025. As we near Easter 2026, however, Tesla’s failure to progress as competitors expand must raise doubts about the automaker’s ability to deliver safe autonomy without LiDAR.
For now Zoox is still only offering free rides to a subset of the population. It says it has served 350,00 customers so far and that there are 500,000 on the waitlist. If and when it does begin charging for rides, however, it has one big advantage over Tesla: everyone already has an Amazon account.
Europe’s first robotaxis: Uber announces plans to soon begin offering autonomous ride-hailing in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. The autonomous driving tech will be provided by Pony.ai, the Chinese startup that has been offering driverless rides in China for three years. The fleet will be owned and managed by Croatian startup Verne, whose co-founder, Mate Rimac, was a keynote speaker at CoMotion GLOBAL in Riyadh last year! Check out his address here.
Goodbye USPS? Amazon has finally overtaken the U.S. Postal Service as America’s largest parcel carrier and its advantage will likely grow now that it has announced plans to reduce its use of USPS by two thirds. Benjamin Fong, who writes about labor and logistics, worries that President Donald Trump’s stated desire to privatize USPS will lead to its takeover by Amazon. The problem, of course, is that a lot of mail delivery, particularly in rural America, is not profitable. USPS has 77 last-mile delivery facilities in Wyoming, for instance. Amazon has three.
Where are the Post Office’s drones? Amazon has begun drone deliveries at two more sites. Customers within eight miles of a fulfilment center in Ruskin, Fl. and those near a facility in Kansas City will be able to get packages under five pounds delivered by drones for $5.
…meanwhile, Zipline: The drone delivery startup adds another $200 million to a funding round announced earlier this year, bringing the total Series H raise to $800 million at a $7.6 billion valuation. Zipline got its start serving a critical need: blood and medical supply deliveries to remote areas of Rwanda. It’s since begun partnering with Walmart to deliver to the homes of customers in parts of Texas, Arkansas and Washington State.
A billion dollars to kill wind energy: The Trump administration pays French energy company TotalEnergies $928 million to scrap planned offshore wind energy projects in favor of new oil and gas projects. The money is essentially a refund for what Total had paid the Biden administration for the wind permits. This is part of an ongoing effort by the administration to throttle the burgeoning offshore wind industry.
We also have an incredible lineup of speakers, including Beryl Sanders, Head of Grocery & Retail Partnerships at Uber; John Adams, Head of Product at Instacart; Harrison Shih, Senior Director at DoorDash Labs; and Pat Tsen, Deputy Executive Director for Consumer Policy, Transportation, and Enforcement at the CPUC–-and a lot more. First time attendees can register here [CoMotion50] and save 50% off their ticket price for a limited time.
What we’re reading
Turning useless offices into very useful housing: Pew Charitable Trust has a thorough analysis on the potential for turning obsolete office buildings into low-cost microapartments. In most cities, converting offices into living spaces costs less than half of what it typically costs to build a new studio apartment.
