Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility \u2014 your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free \u2014 just click TechCrunch Mobility<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n Today is Juneteenth, a U.S. federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n About 10 years ago, there was a lot of chatter about who was winning the self-driving car race. One of the problems with that debate \u2014 besides assuming there would be just one winner \u2014 was that no one had a reliable way to measure it. This was an early era filled with a lot of demos and capital, but little substance \u2014 at least what the public, and folks like myself, had access to.\u00a0<\/p>\n Advisory and research startup Autnmy AI<\/strong> has developed a generative AI platform to create a benchmarking system that evaluates and ranks autonomous vehicle companies in an effort to answer that question in real time. And this week, the startup released its Road to Autonomy Index<\/a>, which searches relevant global public databases, including federal and state reports, SEC documents, public exchanges, and other data. The system weighs the company\u2019s operations, scale, revenue, commercial partnerships, manufacturing, and safety record based on that data and provides an update every 12 hours. There are four indices that rank robotaxis, autonomous driving licensing companies, autonomous trucks, and delivery bots.<\/p>\n One important note, per\u00a0Autnmy AI co-founder Rob Grant, the AI platform doesn\u2019t just scrape information off the internet. \u201cWe agreed early on, we don\u2019t scrape information,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s publicly available or if it\u2019s available under a Creative Commons license, we will use that information. We do have some license data that we pay folks for, and under that agreement too.\u201d<\/p>\n The indices take a global approach, which produces some interesting results. One of the initial takeaways that made an impression on Grant was China\u2019s stronger ranking across multiple categories.<\/p>\n As of Friday, the robotaxi leader was not Waymo<\/strong>. It was China\u2019s Baidu<\/strong> Apollo Go program \u2014 just barely. Waymo was in the secondary position, followed by Chinese companies Pony.ai<\/strong> and WeRide<\/strong>. Tesla<\/strong> was in the fifth position.\u00a0<\/p>\n I was reminded recently by a little bird to keep an eye on the Texas automated vehicle tracker tool that launched in May. And I am glad they did; looks like Tesla<\/strong>, Waymo<\/strong>, and\u00a0Zoox<\/strong> are building up their respective fleets in the state. Reminder: This doesn\u2019t mean every one of these are being used commercially. Zoox, for instance, cannot operate commercially until it receives an exemption<\/a> from the federal government. It currently has the ability to give rides in its custom-built robotaxi but cannot charge customers.<\/p>\n As of May 28, Waymo had 577 autonomous vehicles registered in the state. It now has 620 of them, about a 7.5% increase in less than a month. Tesla now has 69 registered autonomous vehicles, a 64% increase from the 42 it had on May 28. Zoox, which had 35 registered autonomous vehicles last month, now has 43.<\/p>\n Avride<\/strong>, Nuro<\/strong>, and Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA<\/strong> are holding steady at 317, 47, and 12, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at <\/em>kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a> or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O\u2019Kane at <\/em>sean.okane@techcrunch.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Cargofy<\/strong>, a logistics company that uses AI to automate freight operations, raised $11 million<\/a> in\u00a0a Series A funding round led by u.ventures, Toloka, and Movens Capital. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, and several angel investors, also participated.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carro<\/strong>, the Singapore-based online car marketplace, acquired Australian used-car platform CarPlace, Reuters reported<\/a>. Terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n Gatik<\/strong>, <\/strong>a startup that has developed self-driving trucks for short hauls, announced a multi-year partnership<\/a> with PepsiCo<\/strong>. The companies wouldn\u2019t share the value of this deal, but it does signal PepsiCo\u2019s commitment to Gatik, which is already operating driverless trucks for the food and beverage giant across Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n QuantumScape<\/strong> announced a joint research agreement<\/a> with Honda R&D Co. to accelerate solid-state battery development and associated manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n Automaker Stellantis<\/strong>, self-driving startup Wayve<\/strong>, and ride-hailing giant Uber<\/strong> struck a deal<\/a> to jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis.<\/p>\n XDOF<\/strong>, a startup focused on robot training data, raised $70 million<\/a> from Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, and WndrCo.<\/p>\n A video posted on Reddit showed a driver running a stop sign and hitting an autonomous vehicle<\/a> in Dallas. TechCrunch confirmed it was an Avride robotaxi<\/strong>, which was hailed via the Uber app. An Avride spokesperson said no injuries were reported and that data from the incident is being reviewed \u201cto continuously refine our technology and processes, as part of our standard procedures.\u201d When asked about the reaction of the self-driving system and the human safety operator who was behind the wheel, Avride said, \u201cOur safety review is currently ongoing, so we cannot provide more precise details at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n Tesla<\/strong> owners in China have discovered a workaround<\/a> to the vehicle\u2019s distracted driving monitor: tiny plastic heads<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Over on X, folks spotted a Tesla with an authorized limousine permit sticker<\/a> for San Francisco County and the San Francisco International Airport. A spokesperson for SFO told TechCrunch that \u201cTesla has been issued a limousine permit to operate at SFO. This is for traditional limousine operations, meaning the vehicles have a human driver. Tesla has not been issued a permit for any autonomous operations at SFO.\u201d<\/p>\n Mobileye<\/strong>, which has pitched itself as an autonomous vehicle technology supplier, is now making moves to become a robotaxi operator<\/a>. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service in an unnamed U.S. city in 2027. History lesson: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua told me back in 2020 that to crack the holy grail of passenger car autonomy, you needed to pursue robotaxis first.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Uber<\/strong> plans to launch a premium robotaxi service in Houston<\/a> by mid-2027, making it the second U.S. market under its partnership with EV maker Lucid<\/strong> and autonomous vehicle startup Nuro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Waymo<\/strong> recalled its fleet<\/a> of nearly 4,000 robotaxis to stop them from driving into highway construction zones. Waymo took its robotaxis off the freeways weeks ago and has identified at least 13 instances of its robotaxis driving into highway sections that were closed for construction. Here is a detail worth noting: The software fix is \u201cunder development,\u201d which means this issue is not resolved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\nA little bird<\/h2>\n
Deals!<\/h2>\n
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Notable reads and other tidbits<\/h2>\n
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