Robotaxi

Waymo

2026-08-25 17:16:06

Waymo plans to launch robotaxi service in Germany in 2027

Techub News says Waymo has announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in Germany in 2027. If it goes ahead, Germany would become the company’s third market outside the United States. Waymo has already announced plans to enter the UK and Japan. The report does not provide further details on timing, fleet size, or operating rules.

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XPeng

2026-08-25 09:12:51

He Xiaopeng says XPeng’s IRON humanoid robot will enter mass production by year-end

XPeng Chairman He Xiaopeng said at the company’s 2026 half-year earnings briefing that its humanoid robot IRON is scheduled to enter mass production from the end of this year, with initial commercial use set to begin at XPeng stores and campus locations. He said the robot is expected to officially launch in 2027, targeting external clients in retail and service industries, with large-scale deliveries planned in both China and overseas markets. Monthly production capacity could quickly rise to several thousand units next year. He also said he has served concurrently as CEO of the robotics business since June this year, bringing together the company’s automotive supply chain, automotive-grade manufacturing, global deployment capabilities, and Turing AI chip resources to push mass production and commercialization. On the same day, XPeng disclosed that its humanoid robotics unit secured more than $900 million in first-round financing at a post-money valuation above $6.3 billion. IDG led the round, while Gaorong Ventures, Tencent, Alibaba and others subscribed $600 million, and XPeng Group together with entities controlled by He Xiaopeng and other senior executives subscribed $300 million.

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Tesla

2026-08-18 16:38:28

Tesla Cybercab set for Austin reveal this month, with safety and regulatory questions still open

Tesla plans to publicly unveil its autonomous taxi, the Cybercab, as early as this month in Austin, Texas, according to a report cited by BlockBeats. The vehicle is designed without a steering wheel or pedals, and Tesla employees have already tested a fully driverless version on private roads inside the company campus. The report said the Cybercab runs on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving, or FSD, software, though doubts remain over both the system’s capabilities and its safety record. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is still investigating how Tesla FSD handles compliance with traffic rules, while existing robotaxi services in some markets continue to rely on human safety operators. Tesla’s Cybercab is intended to operate without anyone inside intervening, with remote operators expected to handle emergencies, and the company has started adding Starlink connectivity to the vehicles. Data collection is another hurdle. Tesla said in July that it still needs dedicated driving data for Cybercab. So far, Tesla’s unsupervised Robotaxi service has logged about 380,000 miles across six cities, compared with more than 220 million fully driverless miles on public roads completed by Waymo since 2020. The report also noted that the lack of traditional driving controls could put Cybercab under federal vehicle safety restrictions, and it remains unclear whether Tesla is seeking a regulatory exemption.

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ARK Invest

2026-08-11 10:02:54

ARK Invest says a Tesla-SpaceX merger could be announced by year-end, with China seen as a manageable issue

ARK Invest used the latest episode of its podcast The Brainstorm to argue that China is unlikely to be the decisive obstacle to a potential merger between Tesla and SpaceX, while also laying out an aggressive view on how quickly AI costs are collapsing. In the Aug. 7 episode, Brett Winton said Tesla’s Shanghai factory is no longer the core driver of the company’s future value because Robotaxi, not China manufacturing, sits at the center of Tesla’s next phase. He said Chinese assets could likely be ring-fenced to address national security concerns tied to SpaceX and added that a formal merger announcement could come before the end of 2026. The discussion also focused on AI economics. Winton said ARK’s data shows annualized cost declines of 99.99% on a harder agentic benchmark between February and July 31, up from a 99% annual drop cited in the firm’s Big Ideas report. He argued that the shift is not only about lower cost at a fixed level of performance, but also about higher performance ceilings, pointing to tasks that were unattainable earlier this year but can now be completed for 15 cents each. Nick Grous took a more cautious stance on who ultimately wins the market, citing examples such as Spotify, Robinhood, Block and Palantir to argue that model routing, open-source tools and application-layer strategies could still leave room for many players.

750

Amazon

2026-08-10 07:57:56

Amazon-owned Zoox launches commercial robotaxi service in Las Vegas with fixed-price fares

Amazon-owned robotaxi developer Zoox has begun commercial operations in Las Vegas, marking its first live market deployment as the company moves beyond testing and into paid service. The rollout is set to expand to San Francisco, Miami, Austin, Atlanta, and Los Angeles, while regulators have already cleared Zoox to deploy as many as 5,000 autonomous vehicles on public roads over the next two years. In an interview with Bloomberg, Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said the company is leaning on a fixed-fare approach designed to remove a common rider concern: paying more than the quoted price. Under what Zoox calls “Comfort Pricing” and “Guaranteed Pricing,” fares are calculated using a base charge, distance, and estimated travel time, with the app presenting the price upfront. That amount does not change even if traffic, detours, or delays extend the trip. Evans also said Amazon’s long-term financial backing gives Zoox room to avoid short-term capital pressure. The company says its custom-built bidirectional vehicle, opposite-facing seating layout, and AI-based traffic and fleet monitoring can help push utilization above the industry’s current 54% average, a metric widely watched in robotaxi economics.

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Cathie Wood

2026-07-26 03:05:14

Cathie Wood names Tesla and SpaceX as her top AI stock picks

ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood said in an interview that Tesla and SpaceX are her favorite artificial intelligence stock picks. Wood said investors are underestimating the business opportunities available to the two companies across Robotaxi, the Optimus humanoid robot, frontier AI models, and orbital data centers. She added that each of those areas could represent a "multi-trillion-dollar opportunity." The item was cited by Coin Bureau and published by Odaily.

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Tesla

2026-07-23 23:57:02

Tesla shares fall more than 14% after earnings as Wall Street points to AI spending pressure

Tesla shares closed down 14.52% after the company released its second-quarter results, according to market data from BIT (bit.com). The stock later edged up 1.16% in after-hours trading to $323.4. While Tesla posted record-high revenue and vehicle deliveries for the quarter, investors focused on weaker profitability, negative free cash flow and a sharp rise in capital expenditure. Those figures raised concerns about near-term financial pressure. Several Wall Street institutions said Tesla is moving into a phase of large-scale investment in artificial intelligence and robotics. In their view, that spending is weighing on short-term earnings, even as Robotaxi and the Optimus humanoid robot remain the main drivers of the company’s long-term valuation.

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Tesla

2026-07-23 09:05:14

Musk Says FSD Is 10x Safer Than Humans, but Robotaxi Crash Rate Runs 4x Higher

Elon Musk claimed Tesla FSD will be more than 10 times safer than human drivers, even as NHTSA escalated its probe and reported Austin Robotaxi data showed a crash rate about four times higher than human driving.

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