En vecka för robotaxins tungviktare

There’s simply no stopping the avalanche of news from the AV industry, and the past few days have delivered an overwhelming stream—this time driven by the industry’s heavy hitters.

Granted, NVIDIA’s core products are already widely used in AV implementations, but last week—at GTC, the company’s own AI conference—brought a flood of new automotive announcements. On the OEM side, BYD, Geely, Isuzu, and Nissan are all set to adopt NVIDIA’s DRIVE Hyperion system for developing Level 4 vehicles. Meanwhile, Hyundai and Kia will expand their existing relationship with the chipmaker.

NVIDIA didn’t stop there. Bolt strengthened its already aggressive plans by announcing a partnership with NVIDIA, in which Europe’s largest ride-hailing company will accelerate its AV efforts by leveraging a range of NVIDIA technologies. And from a ride-hailing perspective, perhaps the week’s most notable announcement was Uber’s partnership with NVIDIA to deploy robotaxis in 28 cities globally by 2028.

Last year, we covered Uber’s rapid expansion as it wove a web of partnerships—and apparently, it’s still at it. Another recent development is its staged investment of up to $1.25 billion in Rivian, aimed at deploying up to 50,000 robotaxis based on Rivian’s R2 model. Already today, in Las Vegas, Uber has added driverless Hyundai vehicles enabled by Motional to its service. Globally, Uber, Nissan, and Wayve are planning further robotaxi deployments, starting in Tokyo.

So everything’s quiet on the Waymo front, you might think? Of course not. While many of the developments above remain plans, the reigning AV leader has added four more cities to its service footprint, bringing the total to 10 U.S. cities where you can hail a Waymo. And doing so appears to be getting safer—the company has shared new, and quite impressive, safety statistics.

Taking in all these bold and ambitious statements at once easily brings back memories of the AV hype cycle from about a decade ago. Back then, it was largely the automakers who competed in overpromising how soon cars would be able to drive themselves—only for the dreams to collapse in the years that followed.

The key difference today, however, is continued technological develeopment. At that time, no one had actually experienced a fully Level 4–capable ride; expectations were shaped by early pilots that made autonomy seem easier than it was. Today, several companies have demonstrated to paying customers that this is no longer a technological pipe dream, but a viable and increasingly safe way to transport people.

Finally, for those of our readers who can’t get enough AV news, here are a few additional highlights from around the world:

• Slovakia emerges as a new robotaxi deployment market, powered by WeRide
• A U.S. federal agency is preparing to modernize vehicle legislation to accommodate AVs, and has hosted a hearing with many key AV stakeholders participating
• The conflict in Iran has forced robotaxi services in the Middle East to be suspended
• Uber’s previous CEO and , who pioneered its investments in driverless vehicles, is back in the game – sort of.
• And yes—yet another NVIDIA-related announcement: ride-hailing company Lyft plans to leverage its acquisition of FreeNow by investing in NVIDIA-based AV technology