Autonomous Vehicles News & Discussions

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Lyft and China’s Baidu look to bring robotaxis to Europe next year
Kirsten Korosec
7:55 AM PDT · August 4, 2025

Lyft’s European expansion will include Chinese-made robotaxis.

The U.S. ride-hailing company announced Monday it has made a strategic partnership with Baidu to deploy the Chinese tech giant’s Apollo Go autonomous vehicles across several European markets. The companies want to launch robotaxi services in Germany and the United Kingdom in 2026, pending regulatory approval.

If approved, Baidu’s RT6 vehicles, which are equipped with its Apollo Go self-driving system, will be integrated into Lyft’s ride-hailing app. Lyft CEO David Risher said the robotaxi service is an example of its “hybrid network approach, where AVs and human drivers work together to provide customer-obsessed options for riders.”

Lyft has historically centered its ride-hailing business on the United States, while rival Uber has expanded globally and into other areas, like food delivery. But earlier this year, Lyft bought its way into the European market when it agreed to acquire the German multi-mobility app FREENOW from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility for about $197 million in cash.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/04/lyft- ... next-year/

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Hopefully this is a step towards licenceless cars so disabled people can get around.

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Tensor is a Silicon Valley based startup that plans to be the first company to sell a true robocar with “eyes off” self-driving ability and a steering wheel that folds away and is replaced by a screen. While most entrants have worked to first make a robotaxi to provide ride service, Tensor aims to start with a high-end electric vehicle consumers can buy, and either drive themselves, or allow it to do the driving. Able to operate without the cloud, they promise luxury, an agentic experience that does your bidding, and unlike so many vendors, a promise of privacy from being tracked.

The vehicle is large and the design is sleek, though adorned with the largest number of sensors I’ve yet seen. This includes 37 cameras, 5 custom-designed lidars, 11 custom radars, and an array of microphones, ultrasonics, collision sensors, water detectors, data radios and more. Most of the sensors have built in cleaning methods and left with clear sightlines for good visibility. The vehicle was designed from the ground up to be a personal robocar, but will be made by Vietnamese automaker Vinfast.

Tensor is a rebranding of AutoX, a robotaxi company which while headquartered in the USA, did its biggest push in China, including a self-driving service in the suburbs of Shenzhen several years ago with a fleet said to be over 1,000 robotaxis. The Chinese operations were closed 2 years ago. Tensor says it is an “evolution” of AutoX aimed at personal cars. AutoX was one of the earliest companies to deploy robotaxis with no safety driver in China, but had faced controversy over allegations of operation without active safety intervention controls in the USA.

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Waymo approved to start autonomous vehicle testing in New York City
Sean O'Kane
7:19 AM PDT · August 22, 2025

Waymo has been granted a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the first such approval granted by the city. The company told TechCrunch it plans to start testing “immediately.”

The company is allowed to deploy up to eight of its Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn through late September. Waymo’s vehicles must have a trained safety operator in the driver’s seat, with at least one hand on the wheel at all times. The company cannot pick up passengers (since it would need a license from the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission) and it has to regularly meet with and report data to the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT), according to the mayor’s office.

The permit brings Waymo one step closer to launching a robotaxi service in the city, which would be arguably its most challenging to date. The company currently operates in San Francisco, Austin, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. All of those are warm-weather cities, and only San Francisco comes close to the complexity of operating in New York City.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/08/22/waymo ... york-city/

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Also, would this thread not fit in infrastructure and transport more?

Yes, it probably would.

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US Air Force to make autonomous flight mundane
By David Szondy
August 30, 2025
https://newatlas.com/military/us-air-fo ... t-mundane/

In a meeting of the cutting-edge and the mundane, the US Air Force has awarded a contract to purchase Reliable Robotics' autonomous flight technology and integrate it into an ordinary Cessna 208B Caravan utility aircraft for uncrewed cargo missions.

One hallmark of an advanced technology is that as it matures it starts to fade into the ordinary until it takes an effort to notice it.

Radio, for example, was once the epitome of cutting-edge tech. It was the province of obsessed hobbyists and stood out as a symbol of modernity. Everyone knew what a radio was. It was that huge mahogany cabinet or Bakelite set in the living room. Whether in the home, on a ship, or (if you were very posh) in a car, it was a single distinct thing and you understood what it did.

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Tesla Robotaxi App Is Available to Everyone
September 4, 2025 by Brian Wang

Tesla has expanded availability of the Tesla Robotaxi app.

They have allowed highway robotaxi driving in Austin. This needs a safety driver but the safety driver is generally not intervening. Waymo does not drive passengers on the highway yet.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/09/t ... ryone.html