Autonomous Vehicles

Waymo's eight-vehicle NYC pilot lapsed March 31 with no incidents and no renewal, capping a year of restrictive testing as Governor Hochul abandoned statewide expansion and Mayor Mamdani signaled a worker-first stance.

Croatia becomes Europe's first country with a paid commercial robotaxi service, as Verne, Pony.ai, and Uber open Gen-7 autonomous rides to the public in Zagreb.

Select Uber employees in San Francisco can now hail Nuro-equipped Lucid Gravity SUVs through the rideshare app, a critical deployment milestone ahead of a public robotaxi launch planned for later in 2026.

Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA America and Uber begin testing autonomous ID. Buzz minivans in Los Angeles, targeting commercial robotaxi service by late 2026 and fully driverless operations with 500-plus vehicles by mid-2027.

Kodiak AI completes its first autonomous trucking demonstrations outside the Sun Belt on Interstate 70 in Ohio and Indiana, as the Level 4 autonomous trucking market accelerates toward a projected $7.8 billion by 2036.

Canadian startup Upside Robotics closes a $7.5 million seed round to expand solar-powered autonomous robots that micro-dose fertilizer in corn fields, claiming 70 percent input reduction across 1,300 acres.

The International Maritime Organization will vote on a non-mandatory MASS Code at its May 2026 session, establishing the first global regulatory framework for autonomous vessels as national regulators scramble to keep pace with commercial deployments.

Tesla begins Cybercab mass production at Giga Texas, targeting one unit every ten seconds, as its Austin robotaxi service logs 14 crashes and operates fewer than ten unsupervised vehicles.

Chinese AV firm WeRide and Southeast Asian superapp Grab begin public autonomous rides in Singapore's Punggol district, marking the city-state's first driverless service open to everyday residents.

A TechCrunch investigation identifies at least six incidents where police and firefighters had to manually drive Waymo vehicles during emergencies, including an Austin mass shooting and a California wildfire.

Waymo's weekly paid robotaxi trips have grown tenfold in under two years, reaching 500,000 across 10 cities even as school bus safety incidents draw federal scrutiny

General Motors has deployed more than 200 test vehicles on highways in California and Michigan to validate its next-generation Level 3 autonomous driving system, which will allow drivers to look away from the road entirely when it debuts in the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ.