TechCrunch Mobility: RIP, Tesla Autopilot, and the NTSB investigates Waymo

TechCrunch Mobility: RIP, Tesla Autopilot, and the NTSB investigates Waymo

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A fast little bit of breaking news that hit just as we have been about to ship this e-newsletter out. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into Waymo after its robotaxis have been noticed illegally passing stopped college buses quite a few instances in a minimum of two states. Read the full story right here.

Now onto our common programming …

Tesla made a few strikes this week — and just before its quarterly earnings drops — designed to point out its progress, and even dominance, in automated driving technology. But, maintain up, there may be more to it than mere optics. 

The week began with Tesla providing passengers robotaxi rides in Austin without a human security driver in the entrance seat. If you recall, Tesla launched a restricted service in Austin last 12 months with a fleet of modified Tesla Model Y automobiles working a more superior version of the company’s driving software often known as Full Self-Driving Supervised (this one being “unsupervised”). Human security operators have been using in the entrance passenger seat as a precaution since the rollout.

Not all of Tesla’s fleet in Austin will probably be totally driverless, and there may be apparently a chase automobile behind those that are. Still, it’s notable and suggests Tesla is transferring towards a broader ramp-up. 

Meanwhile, Tesla has killed Autopilot, the superior driver-assistance system that was initially launched to its automobiles in 2014. Autopilot has gone by way of a number of software and {hardware} iterations over the years with new capabilities. 

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Autopilot was immediately fashionable and controversial, partly because the identify implied the system was more succesful than it really was. (Drivers are accountable and are speculated to have their palms on the wheel when Autopilot is engaged.)

Tesla finally made a basic Autopilot system customary in all of its automobiles, while launching and charging for a more strong system identified now as Full Self-Driving (Supervised). The basic version, which is now useless, included traffic-aware cruise management, by which the automobile maintains a set distance with automobiles ahead, and Autosteer, a feature that facilities the automobile in the lane and steers it.

Its determination to kill what was customary ADAS comes one week after Tesla said it could cease charging a one-time $8,000 payment for the FSD software and transfer all prospects to a month-to-month subscription. 

These choices when taken together provide a simple sufficient rationalization: Tesla desires to acknowledge more income from FSD because it positions itself as an AI and robotics company. 

But there may be another attainable purpose. The company is dealing with a 30-day suspension of its manufacturing and vendor licenses in California after a choose dominated in December that Tesla engaged in misleading advertising and marketing by overstating the capabilities of Autopilot and FSD. 

The ruling has been stayed for 60 days to permit Tesla to conform. Dropping the Autopilot identify while cashing in on FSD is a moderately daring transfer. But maybe Tesla believes this is sufficient to satiate the DMV.

Deals!

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Zipline, the autonomous drone-delivery and logistics startup, has been round for more than a decade, beginning in Rwanda delivering blood. Its progress has been slow and regular, notching wins in other African international locations and increasing to the United States. That trajectory sped up after it launched a new drone platform in 2025 called P2 that focuses on residence supply of meals and other items. 

Now, fueled with $600 million in new funding, its expansion ambitions have grown. The company, which is now valued at $7.6 billion, is bringing its service to Houston and Phoenix and plans to increase to a minimum of 4 more U.S. states in 2026. 

Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global participated in the funding round.

Other offers that obtained my consideration …

ABZ Innovation, a Europe-based maker of heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones, raised $8.2 million in a funding round led by Vsquared Ventures, with participation from Assembly Ventures and Day One Capital.

Ethernovia, a San Jose, California-based startup that makes Ethernet-based programs for autonomous automobiles, raised $90 million in a Series B funding round led by Maverick Silicon — an AI-focused fund created in 2024 by hedge fund Maverick Capital.

Serve Robotics, the sidewalk supply robotic company backed by Nvidia and Uber, acquired Diligent Robotics in a deal that values the widespread inventory at $29 million. Diligent builds robots named Moxi that are designed to help in hospitals by delivering lab samples, provides, and other duties. Note: Watch for more autonomous automobile tech-robotics crossovers in the coming 12 months. 

Terralayr, a German grid-scale battery storage company, raised €192 million in a round led by Eurazeo. RIVE Private Investment, Creandum, Earlybird, Norrsken VC, and Picus Capital also participated.

TrueCar founder Scott Painter reacquired the company in a $227 million deal by way of his agency Fair Holdings, and companions AutoNation, PenFed Credit Union, Zurich North America, and others. TrueCar will now not be publicly traded, and Painter has returned to the CEO spot.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Image Credits:Bryce Durbin

Austin Russell, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt lidar company Luminar, agreed to settle for an digital subpoena for data on his cellphone pertaining to the company. The subpoena is expounded to Luminar’s ongoing chapter continuing.

Chinese automaker Geely Holding Group launched its five-year blueprint, and among its many targets is a bit on robotaxis. The company said that by 2030 its Cao Cao Mobility ride-hailing unit will function a fleet of 100,000 robotaxis overlaying major cities in China. It also hinted at plans to increase past China “in the future.”

General Motors is transferring manufacturing of two gas-powered automobiles away from China and Mexico and to a U.S. manufacturing unit in Kansas. That change will also imply the end of its rebooted Chevrolet Bolt EV, the only automobile at the moment constructed at the Fairfax Assembly Plant in Kansas. Read more to be taught when manufacturing of the Chevy Bolt EV will end. 

Tesla goals to restart work on Dojo3, the company’s beforehand deserted third-generation AI chip. Dojo3 gained’t be geared toward training self-driving fashions. Instead, CEO Elon Musk says will probably be devoted to “space-based AI compute.”

Waymo has opened its robotaxi service in Miami. Riders will probably be accepted on a rolling foundation, to the almost 10,000 local residents on its waitlist. 

One more factor …

Alex Roy, who co-hosts the Autonocast with me and Ed Niedermeyer, just traveled from Los Angeles to New York in a Tesla Model S, by which the automobile’s Full Self-Driving Supervised software dealt with all of the driving. This “Cannonball Run” route is one Roy is acquainted with; he set the transcontinental driving document in 2007 when he traveled the route in 31 hours and 4 minutes. He has gone on to make other Cannonball Run data in EVs. Others have adopted and since overwhelmed those data. 

According to Roy, who captured the complete run on video, the FSD (version 14.2.2.3) drove 100% of the 3,081-mile journey. That included exiting the freeway and parking at EV chargers. The time was 58 hours, 22 minutes.

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