What's keeping robotaxis out of Europe?
Dates to remember
- CoMotion LA ‘25 & CoMotion GLOBAL: Early Bird sale extended for 48 hours (due to to an unexpected outage). Use code “EARLY30” and save 30% on your passes.
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Even as commercial robotaxis have become part of life in a number of major cities in the U.S., China and the Middle East, they remain unauthorized in much of the western world, including the E.U. and U.K. This week we see a number of companies making a play at the Old Continent, based on the expectation that the Europeans will inevitably embrace autonomy.
Meanwhile, Uber rolls out a number of new features, Lyft buys a luxury chauffeur service, Archer Aviation buys up a bankrupt rival’s patents, China shows the way on battery recycling, and Vancouver shows how to recover post-pandemic transit ridership. Finally, lowering speed limits might be the right thing to do, but it’s probably not the most effective way to slow down cars and reduce deadly crashes.
What you need to know
Waymo goes to London: The Alphabet-owned robotaxi service announces it will begin testing in London, with plans to launch commercial operations at some point next year, its first commercial foray outside of North America. U.K. law does not currently allow fully autonomous deployment, but the government is in the process of drafting new regulations that are expected to enable robotaxis in some form.
…and gets into food delivery: Waymo partners with DoorDash to make autonomous food delivery in the Phoenix area. Initially only orders from DoorDash’s own DashMart stores, which offer a limited selection of groceries and household goods, will be performed by robotaxis, but the two companies hope to get more restaurants and retailers involved.
Stellantis & Pony.ai target Europe for robotaxis: Like the U.K., the E.U. has reacted to driverless vehicles with far greater hesitance than the U.S. and Asia, but automaker Stellantis and Chinese autonomous software company Pony.ai have signed a non-binding agreement to collaborate on robotaxis in Europe; they will begin testing in Luxembourg in the coming months.
Early Bird discount extended for 48hrs!
There’s still time to join us at CoMotion LA ‘25, featuring the OMF Summit Track, on Nov. 12-13 — the global gathering of innovators shaping the future of mobility.
We’re going even bigger this year including speakers and partners from LA METRO, LADOT, SCAG, Port of Long Beach, Waymo, Uber Transit, Zoox, Alstom, Brompton, DoorDash, PaybyPhone, Red Hat and ICEX Invest in Spain and many more.
Due to an unexpected outage yesterday we are extending a 30% discount for 48 hours. Use code “EARLY30”, valid until Oct 23rd.
We are also running a special offer for those who register now until Nov. 12 — bring your colleague or plus-one for half of the price. Once registered you will receive a confirmation email with a unique discount link to share.
Lilium’s reincarnation at Archer: Archer Aviation, the San Jose-based eVTOL maker, pays $21 million to acquire 300 patents held by bankrupt German competitor Lilium.
China’s promising battery recycling results: China’s new national dismantling standards for EV batteries are enabling recovery of up to 99.6 % of key materials such as nickel, cobalt and manganese—and about 96.5 % of lithium—from retired electric-vehicle power units. Even if China is the world’s largest source of lithium and other key minerals for EV batteries, finding a way to recycle will reduce pressure to dig more mines.
Uber’s new features: The ride-hailing giant rolls out a new feature in certain U.S. markets that will allow women customers to be matched with women drivers. Another new feature allows drivers to avoid being paired with customers with low ratings. Finally, Uber is offering drivers another way to make money: training its AI models.
Saudi Arabia’s fight against desertification: The kingdom is leaning on the drought-resistant Tamarisk tree as part of the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives, a $150 billion investment plan to cut emissions and improve Saudi quality of life. The Tamarisk will be the cornerstone of the country’s effort to plant more than 10 billion trees over the next decade.
Vancouver shows the way on post-Covid transit recovery: TransLink, the transit agency for the Vancouver metro area, has recovered about 90% of its pre-pandemic ridership, the fastest recovery of any major transit agency in North America. The secret to success? Massive population growth from immigration, a fanatical focus on service frequency and urban planning that favors dense development, even in the suburbs.
Lyft buys luxury chauffeur service: Lyft acquires TBR Global Chauffeuring, a Scottish luxury chauffeuring business operating in over 3,000 cities across six continents, for approximately $110 million, with the aim of strengthening its presence in the premium transport space.
What we’re reading
It’s the design, dummy: Our friend Carlo Ratti, director of Senseable City Lab at MIT, addresses the backlash to 30 kph speed limits in his native Italy, and argues that focusing on design, rather than regulations, is the best way to make streets safer.
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