Samåkningstjänsternas comeback

Of the two strongest contenders, Uber has made the boldest moves. Through a new deal with China’s Baidu, Uber plans to expand its driverless ride-hailing ambitions into Asia and the Middle East. Leveraging yet another partnership — and its earlier investment in Wayve — Uber is preparing to enter the UK following fast-tracked changes to British legal frameworks. 

Uber’s plans for its home market (beyond its current cooperation with Waymo) are also ambitious. It first announced a partnership with Volkswagen, set to launch 500 ID.Buzz robotaxis in Los Angeles next year. This was followed by a deal with Lucid and Nuro, under which Uber will acquire 20,000 Lucid Gravity EVs to be AV-enabled by Nuro. And if that weren’t enough, Uber is reportedly in talks to acquire Pony.ai’s US operations in a deal that intriguingly involves the company’s ousted founder. For those curious about Uber’s broader AV strategy, we highly recommend this podcast featuring its CEO. 

Lyft, meanwhile, has hardly been idle. While Uber turned to Baidu for Asia, Lyft struck its own deal with the Chinese company to deploy Baidu RT6 vehicles running ApolloGo software in Europe, starting with the UK and Germany. Lyft’s European push will likely build on its April acquisition of FreeNow, the mobility app formerly owned by BMW and Mercedes. In the US, Lyft has several AV initiatives in the works, with its plans to launch shared rides at airports using Benteler Mobility’s Holon bus standing out. 

Among the “traditional” AV companies, Waymo has also scored some significant milestones — most notably becoming the first ever to receive a permit to test autonomous cars in New York City. It also confirmed plans to launch commercial robotaxi services in Dallas, TX, in partnership with Avis. 

Zoox achieved a major regulatory breakthrough when federal authorities granted it an exemption from the long-standing requirement that vehicles include manual driving controls. 

Taken together, these announcements share a common theme: vehicle — and often ride — sharing, which is well aligned with Drive Sweden’s agenda. But there are also signals pointing toward privately owned AVs, a development not necessarily favorable for promoting sustainable mobility. GM, fresh off its Cruise setbacks, is reportedly reconsidering autonomous cars for private ownership. A newcomer, Tensor, has also announced plans to mass-produce a consumer robocar — though it remains to be seen whether this is a realistic ambition or simply hype.  

And finally, speaking of unmet promises, many industry observers were left distinctly underwhelmed by Tesla’s much-hyped “Cybercab” launch in Austin.