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Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Stellantis, Wayve and Uber partner to bring even more robotaxis to the world. Stellantis will provide the vehicles; Wayve the L4 tech; and Uber will offer those on its network. While no specifics were formally given (e.g. number of vehicles, timeline) - expect the first vehicles to arrive to market in 2028.
I’m focusing on two takeaways:
The autonomous cars market is developing by and for ride-hailers. This leaves out existing gig-drivers and the general public.
Vehicle & infrastructure ownership in the robotaxi age - not only asset light:
Uber to launch robotaxis in Zurich with WeRide, planned for later this year. The two companies partnered in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Riyadh, and a couple of weeks ago announced a similar partnership in Madrid, as part of a strategy to jointly roll-out in 15 global cities. Fleet management will be managed by Rydera.
From the PR: “the deployment reflects WeRide’s asset-light operating strategy”. Who then owns the fleet? Is it Uber, Rydera, or a different financing entity? Regardless of which balance sheet vehicles are, Uber is the key stakeholder and likely is the main risk holder.
The vehicle ownership issue raised above links to comments made last week at MOVE by Jevgeni Kabanov, Bolt’s President and Head of Autonomous Driving, which clearly mentioned vehicle ownership as Bolt’s own challenge moving forward; this was in relation to the Stellantis deal.
Also Uber to launch in Houston in 2027, in partnership with Nuro and Lucid. Last week Uber signed a long-term lease for a 50,000-square-foot Houston depot, as part of its commitment to spend $100M on new fast charging hubs. In an interview with Axios, Samarth Kejriwal, Uber's global head of autonomous fleet operations, said: "We do think making smart investments in the infrastructure will enable us to bring down cost per mile”.
These quotes and other information indicate that, in the robotaxi age, in which assets replace drivers, it is the ride-hailing companies that will partly own, and tightly control, cars and infrastructure needed to operate at scale. A change to the strictly asset-light model.
And, Saudi Arabia introduces new regulation to govern self-driving vehicles, placing legal responsibility for autonomous vehicles on the vehicle owner. This policy, which will probably be relevant in many markets, further challenges the vehicle owner within the autonomous value chain.
Uber and WeRide in Zurich
Mobileye to initiate its own robotaxi operations, aiming to launch 100 robotaxis in an unknown US city in 2027 and 17,000 vehicles within the next five years. Moovit will also be a part of the deployment, supporting the rider management and app. This new business line will sit next to the existing technology licensing business, managed today with MOIA / VW and with Holon.
My take: this announcement is more PR than it is a roadmap.
Mobileye’s tech is struggling - the company lost Rivian (at MOVE, Rivian’s founder-CEO RJ Scaringe was very clear of what he thinks of Mobileye’s tech) and recently lost Verne, which launched in Zagreb with Pony.ai. It has MOIA / VW and Holon as customers, with both to have yet to launch commercial operations, and Holon recently losing the Jacksonville deployment.
Wayve is offering a similar L2+ product, recently signing deals with Stellantis and Nissan, and achieving higher valuation.
Moovit? Only in April the company was up for sale - now it is a central strategic pillar.
I’m not doubting the actual pivot to robotaxi. That makes sense. My argument is that this move is born out of an unfavourable strategic position; that the vehicle numbers are exaggerated; and that Moovit is irrelevant for this pivot.
Go, Japan’s largest taxi-haling company, completed an IPO, raising ±$550M, Japan’s biggest IPO in 2026. The company will focus on robotaxis and strategic acquisitions. Yet with a market cap of roughly $1.27 billion, the company might become an acquisition target itself.
Lyft’s “out” and “up” strategy, two quotes I found most interesting:
Within the next 12 months we will have one global app for all of our rideshare, taxi, and micromobility options
We are working hard to bring more black car and professional driver options to new cities
Waymo recalls all of its fleet - roughly 4,000 vehicles - to limit them from driving on freeways while it improves vehicle behaviour around construction zones. Per Waymo: “The remedy is currently under development. In the interim, Waymo modified the scope of vehicle operations to restrict freeway driving. Waymo will update the ADS software to detect when the vehicle is in and to avoid entering construction zones, free of charge”. The recall comes after 13 known instances of Waymos driving into freeways that were closed for construction. Last month Waymo had a fleet-wide recall over vehicle tendency to drive into flooded roads.
Element, a publicly-traded Canadian fleet management company, partners with Waymo for fleet operation in San Diego. “Element will support the fleet through vehicle lifecycle management, charging infrastructure and energy management, maintenance coordination, and operational fleet optimization, ensuring high vehicle readiness and service reliability”.
Momenta moves closer to Hong Kong IPO, receiving a green light from the Chinese regulator. Dubai launches $1.2M self-driving transport challenge as city pushes for 25% autonomous journeys by 2030. Bolt and Klarna partner on payments - In Sweden, Germany, Finland and Norway, users can now pay for car rides and scooters with Klarna, with car rentals also available in Germany.
The Road to Autonomy publishes its Robotaxi Index - a ranking system focused on on-road commercialisation, with 70% of the score being ther level of autonomous operations, scale, revenue. It finds that China leads - with Baidu at #1, followed closely by Waymo, and then Pony.ai and WeRide far behind. More here.
#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business - a consultancy focused on Innovation, Growth and Autonomy in the Mobility industry.
Jennie Lucas developed a unique course, designed for bus drivers: Dementia Awareness for Transport Professionals. She tells me that bus trips, such as weekly visits to a supermarket, are often among the last maintained routines of people with dementia, and that transport serves as a vital enabler of independence. More in this link:
The Ultimate 2026 Mobility & Electrification Events Calendar
Micromobility 🚲🛴
SOCAR (Elecle) and Kakao Mobility (T Bike) killed merger talks for their shared e-bike units; the reason why is not clear. SOCAR, which was interested in diversifying from e-bikes, will now adjust to reach business unit profitability. SOCAR, which is the #1 car-share player in South Korea, is now focusing on autonomous driving.
A deep dive on Brussels' decision to ban e-scooters, by Fluctuo: “too many accidents, too much disruption, too much abuse”. E-scooters were used in 25 shootings across the city in 2025, and as a way to escape police.
Delivery - bikes to cars, bots & drones 🍽🧺
Uber is reaching out to regional companies with interest in acquiring local Delivery Hero operations, in order to ease the anti-competitive scrutiny that is expected to come with a take over, which Uber is working toward. Meanwhile, Ninja submitted an indicative offer for HungerStation, Delivery Hero’s Saudi Arabia unit; and DoorDash is interested in the entire Middle East operations, including Talabat.
In China, Alibaba is offering $1.5 billion to acquire Chinese grocery delivery firm Pupu. This follows Meituan’s $717M acquisition of Dingdong Fresh Holding back in February. Three major companies control the Chinese delivery market: Alibaba, Meituan and JD.com.
Manna's South Dublin (Dundrum) drone hub refused planning permission. The site, an underused car park behind a church, raised awareness because of the proximity to the church. Eventually, the Council's reasons focus on noise and possible biodiversity impact concerns (site is within the M50…). Much has been said about European regulation holding back innovations, and a paragraph by Bobby Healy tells is best:
“We are not ending operations in Ireland by choice. We simply don't have the planning regulations we need to be able to scale here, and so we must deploy operational growth capital where we can: the USA”.
In an interview, Aravind Sanka, Rapido’s co-founder, outlined their growth strategy (aggressive) and India’s growth potential and dismissed an IPO in the near future. Rapido’s numbers are said to be:
Over 7 million daily rides and 3 million drivers across 400 cities, serving 74 million active users (of a population of 1.4 billion, or 5.3%)
Market share: 72% in bike-taxi, 51% in auto-rickshaw, and 31% in cabs (Uber leads)
Uber’s acquisition of Getir cleared by the Turkish competition board. ASOS partners with Deliveroo for on-demand delivery of football shirts; available in London and Manchester.
Robotaxi Index - now for the delivery bot index. Neolix leads with Starship closely behind.
AV Freight, Industrial & Logistics 🚛🚜
Applied Intuition expands SDS platform to Japan. The platform enables OEMs to deploy L2++ technology, with a pathway to L4; not to be confused with existing truck L4 activity Applied has in Japan.
Mars Auto, an autonomous trucking startup, expanded its autonomous freight route in the U.S., now performing a 7,000 km round-trip, in partnership with LX Pantos, a global integrated logistics company.
Cargofy, logistics startup which deploys AI agents to automate freight operations, raised €9.6M, consisting of €5.2M in primary capital and €4.3M in secondaries. Funds will be used for scale.
NexDash raises €2.5M from EIT Urban Mobility. NexDash acquires mid-sized carriers, transforms their fleets to electric, and manages performance through NexOS, the company’s unique operating system.
ecoro, industrial freight automation, is raising €5M and calling potential investors. The company, which uses infrastructure, not mainly vehicles, to achieve industrial autonomy, has so far secured €1M. This is not an investment recommendation nor am I associated with the company, but feel free to check them out: ecoro.
Robotaxi Index - now for the autonomous truck index. Kodiak and Aurora lead, but very surprisingly, no non-North American player is in the list.
In other news 📰
Electreon, wireless charging, shows Kia EV9 integration.
Zenobe raises £980M to finance 1,200 additional electric buses and related charging infrastructure in the UK and Ireland.
Rivian is laying off ±2% of its 15k people workforce, so circa 200-300 employees.
Volteum, electrification and EV fleet software, raises €2.5M.
Mexico government-backed EV prototype is unveiled - expected to sell for $8,600. Sales to begin summer 2027.
People 🧑🤝🧑
Abdur-Rahman Adeniji is the new Launch Manager @ Yango.
Adina Sheldon is the new Director of People & Talent @ Optibus.
Avinoam Rubinstain is the new Venture Partner @ NetZero Tech Ventures.
Fahad Alkathiri is the new Investment Strategy Manager @ stc.
Gady Vekslar is the new Deputy Chief Executive Officer @ Eye-Net Mobile.
Kurtis Hodge is the new Chief of Staff to the CEO @ May Mobility.
Maksim Osipov is the new Deputy CEO & Director of Development @ Expomobility.
Michael Smith is the new Head of Operations @ Addison Lee.
Ryan Monahan is the new Senior Director, Strategy & Business Development @ Inspiration Mobility Group.
Simon Brown is the new Senior Director & Global Head of Franchise Growth @ Hertz.
Tom Veitch is the new Business Development Manager @ Express Taxis.
Congrats and good luck!
Thank you for reading #movingpeople. If you like what you're reading, please share it with your friends and colleagues so they can benefit from it too.
