Today's autonomous vehicles rely on cameras, radar and LiDAR sensors to understand their surroundings and avoid obstacles on the road. Boston, Massachusetts-based startup Teradar believes it can beat those technologies at their own game by looking elsewhere on the electromagnetic spectrum.
The company's solid-state sensors use the terahertz frequency band that's found above radar and below infrared (which LiDAR uses) for enhanced vision through challenging weather conditions like rain, snow, and fog – regardless of how bright or dark it is out there.
Teradar says this makes for native resolution that's up to 20x better than any of today’s radar sensing tech, with vision ranging longer than 984 ft (300 m). That'll allow for Level 3 autonomy, meaning the car can reliably drive itself on city streets and highways, but a human driver will need to be at the wheel to take over when needed.
Amazon Launches Very Limited Robotaxi Service in San Francisco
November 19, 2025 by Brian Wang
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/11/amazon.html
There are about 50 Zoox Robotaxis in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Zoox robotaxis are custom-built vehicles without steering wheel or pedals. Zoox has started inviting early riders from a waiting list to ride the robotaxi. Previously only employees and their friends and family have been able to hail a ride.
Waymo Racing to New Cities Before Tesla Robotaxi Tsunami
November 20, 2025 by Brian Wang
Waymo announced plans to expand Minneapolis, Tampa, and New Orleans.
Here is a of Waymo expansion in 2026 and 2027.
Waymo is in 5 cities now and will be in 10 in a few months and 15 by the end of 2026 and about 20 by 2027. Waymo goes into new cities with about 100 cars and they have 2500 right now. Waymo will have 4000 to 5000 cars at the end of 2026.
This would be about 1 day of production from Tesla Model Y line.
Tesla has cleared a regulatory hurdle at the DMV in Nevada.
This means Tesla can deploy an autonomous car, but it still needs commercial approval before rollout.
Elon Musk wants to expand ride-hailing into up to 10 metropolitan areas by the end of 2025.
Tesla just got one step closer to deploying its robotaxis commercially in Nevada.
Tesla completed the self-certification process for the robotaxi in Nevada, a DMV representative told Business Insider.
This step means the company can deploy an autonomous car on Nevada roads, but it still needs approval from the Nevada Transportation Authority to operate commercially. A spokesperson for the NTA told Business Insider that Tesla has yet to submit an application for the permit.
Clearing self-certification in Nevada comes as CEO Elon Musk aims to expand ride-hailing in up to 10 metropolitan areas by the end of the year, with a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles.
Uber and WeRide’s robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi is officially driverless
Kirsten Korosec
11:00 PM PST · November 25, 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/25/uber- ... riverless/
A year after launching a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi, Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide and partner Uber can finally call that service driverless.
The companies said the commercial robotaxi service, which will no longer have a human safety operator behind the wheel, is open to the public and will start with routes on Yas Island, a tourist district that is home to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Formula 1 racing circuit.
Image Credits:Uber/WeRide
Robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi will work similarly to Uber’s partnership with Waymo in Austin.
Uber riders that select Uber Comfort or UberX in Abu Dhabi may be matched with a WeRide robotaxi. Riders who want to increase their chances of being matched with a fully autonomous vehicle can select the “Autonomous” option in the Uber app. Uber and WeRide are also working with fleet operator partner Tawasul.
China’s Pony AI plans to triple global robotaxi fleet by the end of 2026
Kirsten Korosec
8:54 AM PST · November 25, 2025
https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/25/china ... d-of-2026/
Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company Pony.ai said Tuesday it plans to triple the size of its robotaxi fleet by the end of next year as its pace of growth — and aspirations — accelerates.
The company, which has about 961 robotaxis in the fleet today, announced the goal during its third-quarter earnings. Pony.ai is targeting a 1,000-robotaxi vehicle fleet by the end of this year. Its goal is to “surpass” 3,000 vehicles by the end of 2026, the company said in its third-quarter earnings report.
Pony.ai, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Exchange and Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, has spent the year ramping up its commercial operations. Today, the company offers commercial robotaxi services — meaning it charges for these rides — in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
Tesla Austin Robotaxi Doubling Cars in December
November 27, 2025 by Brian Wang
Tesla’s Austin Robotaxis will roughly double in December. This falls short of Musk’s earlier statement on the All in podcast of getting to 500 vehicles by year’s end in Austin.
Tesla FSD 14.2 is working very well and can handle no turn on red. It is very smooth and gives relaxing drives.
Tesla FSD 14.3 should be released by Christmas and it will have reasoning. The quality of FSD is clearly getting to the point where safety monitor and safety drivers can safely be removed. This could start happening in December but even if it is January or February once it does then the ramp of Robotaxi, increased FSD sales and increased car sales will happen.