Lyft and Tesla’s conflicting visions
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There’s always going to be some tension between safety, affordability and speed. For instance, Lyft won’t allow autonomous vehicles on its platform that rely only on cameras (read: Tesla), perhaps a prudent move given that Tesla itself isn’t confident enough in its technology to deploy its robotaxis more widely. On the other hand, new research indicates that some of the safety measures that drive up costs for American rail projects apparently don’t make anybody any safer. Kansas City, fresh off ending its experiment with free buses, is now equipping buses with facial recognition cameras in hopes of deterring problem passengers. Finally, the U.S. government seemingly can’t make up its mind about whether Chinese-owned EVs present a national security threat.
What you need to know
Lyft rebukes Tesla’s camera-only approach: In a column for Fortune, Lyft CEO David Risher says the company has decided that autonomous vehicles operating on its platform must have a “multi-sensor approach” that includes cameras, radar and LiDAR. This suggests that every robotaxi provider in the U.S. would qualify except Tesla, which is still pursuing a far cheaper camera-only approach to autonomous driving. Risher suggests there could be a future where a vision-only system is safe enough, but currently he believes the redundancy of the additional sensors is critical for safety.
Polestar is banned, but Volvo is OK? The Trump administration bars Polestar, the Swedish brand owned by Chinese automaker Geely, from selling its new EVs in the U.S. under the Connected Vehicle Rule, a 2025 rule that prohibits certain connected vehicle hardware linked to Russia or China. This wouldn’t necessarily be surprising if the same officials hadn’t just last month authorized Volvo, also owned by Geely, to sell EVs in the U.S.
A startup wants to kill deadhead: Aseon Labs, a Redwood, Calif-based startup, is developing autonomous pods to serve as charging, cleaning and inspection sites for robotaxi fleets. The idea is to reduce the amount of miles robotaxis travel to centralized depots to be serviced. This “deadhead” time is viewed as one of the major obstacles to profitability for autonomous ride-hailing. In theory, pods that are dispersed throughout cities and can do much of the work that is now being done by human workers could reduce deadhead time and labor costs.
Join the Leaders Redefining Urban Mobility
Mark your calendar: CoMotion LA ‘26 — Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next — comes to life November 18–19, 2026. Don’t miss the landmark 10th edition, featuring the OMF Summit Track.
Explore the hard questions nobody’s answering yet. Join city leaders, transit authorities, automotive executives, entrepreneurs, and investors in the same room. This is where visions become ventures and ideas become real.
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U.S. subways have too many cross-passages: An analysis finds that U.S. subways here have twice as many cross passages — side tunnels that connect with adjacent train tunnels — as their European counterparts with no measurable increase in safety. It’s one of many examples of how transit projects in the U.S. are needlessly expensive.
Facial recognition on buses? The Kansas City Area Transit Authority plans to put security cameras with facial recognition software on its buses, drawing vehement pushback from privacy and civil liberties advocates. One of the stated reasons for the tech is to identify banned riders who might cause problems for employees and fellow riders. In addition to concerns about safety, transit leaders across the country worry that the perception of transit as disorderly or unsafe is a major obstacle to recovering the ridership that was lost during the pandemic.
What we’re reading
America’s walking worries: Bloomberg CityLab takes a look at Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America’s Most Overlooked Resource by Michael Pollack. The book traces the history of sidewalks’ unique legal status — built by cities but often maintained by private citizens — and the perennial question of who gets access (scooters, bikes, protesters etc).
