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OEMs race toward autonomy, Renault shuts down Mobilize, Swiggy & Wabbi to raise
This week on #movingpeople
Barak Sas
December 16, 2025
#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility", focused on growth.
Top Story: OEMs Into Autonomy and Away from Shared Mobility
Into Autonomy
This week sees five new autonomous announcements by OEMs, signaling that OEMs are looking to play a more significant role in the deployment of autonomy than they did up until now.
(1) Stellantis partners with Bolt to bring L4 vehicles into Bolt’s fleet. Bolt aims to have 100,000 autonomous vehicles by 2035. Stellantis (& Bolt) recently partnered with Pony.ai to develop autonomy, with Stellantis also recently partnering with NVIDIA, Uber and Foxconn on AVs. Stellantis & Bolt’s real world trials will begin in 2026.
(2) Mercedes-Benz partners with Momenta to introduce robotaxis, based on the Mercedes S-Class. A pilot has been taking place in Abu Dhabi, and now the companies are taking it to scale. Mercedes is also looking into a partnership with NVIDIA, similar to a recent partnership announced by Stellantis.
(3) Nissan and Wayve continue their partnership - now signing an agreement in which Nissan will use Wayve’s technology to enhance Nissan’s ADAS offering, starting with models coming out in 2027.
(4) From two YouTube video uploads by 42dot, Hyundai’s autonomous division,we learn that Hyundai's tech allows it to navigate city streets, go through tunnels, change lanes, and pass through roundabouts. There is a controversy at Hyundai about those videos - as those were uploaded by 42dot just a day after the division’s CEO left the company over slow advancements in autonomy; this is 42dot’s first video upload in two years. Hyundai is very not happy with the unauthorised display of internal technology to the public, which serves the going CEO, and not Hyundai. Or as a Hyundai official said: “We need to investigate how the videos were posted and what type of information was exposed. Showcasing capabilities is fine, but unilaterally releasing core technologies under development is a serious issue”.
(5) Rivian moves toward autonomy - the company announced it will make its vehicles capable of driving themselves by adopting relevant hardware (aka Lidar but not only). In early 2026 Rivian wants to implement a hands-off (eyes-on) capability, which will come with a subscription price of $49.99/month (or $2,500 one-time). Eyes-off will come at a later stage, once lidar is integrated into vehicles.
Away from Shared Mobility
Mobilize, by Renault, exits car sharing by shutting down Zity. Last week it was reported that Zity is exiting Milan, and this week Mobilise announced it will end all car-sharing (Madrid is the last city) and electric micro-car operations. This is a part of a much larger play: “Mobilize Beyond Automotive is no longer a standalone entity… the commercial use of the Mobilize brand continues for Mobilize Financial Services and will be assessed, for other offers, over the coming months”.
Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Waymo fully autonomous 24/7 in 10 cities.
Tesla starts testing robotaxis in Austin with no safety driver. For now, with no passengers onboard.
In Zhuzhou, a Baidu vehicle runs into two pedestrians, who are rushed to intensive care. Two Waymos bump into each other. A woman gives birth in a Waymo. A (different) woman finds a man hidden in a Waymop trunk.
Uber installs physical kiosks at airports, starting with LaGuardia. Airports are a big business for ride-hailing/taxi, so every bit helps. These kiosks are designed for customers without a data plan, who ran out of battery, or just like the comfort of booking via a kiosk.
Uber Advertising introduces Uber Intelligence, a data & insights platform. Partnering with LiveRamp, Uber will allow advertisers aggregated data about users’ travel and eating preferences, to create tailored ad solutions. The ad division is expected to reach $1.5 billion revenue in 2025. Uber Japan strikes a deal with Rakuten; Uber ride-hailing and food delivery customers will earn Rakuten points when using Uber. Uber Shuttle expands to Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).
Bharat Taxi is a new government-backed cooperative ride-hailing app in India working on a zero-commission model, with fixed fares and driver ownership. Namma Yatri won a multi-year contract to power Bharat Taxi’s tech stack. Government partnership is a strategic play by Namma Yatri’s partner company, Moving Tech, which wasn’t able to translate the early success it had in Bengaluru nationwide. This is because the zero-commission innovation Namma Yatri brought to India was quickly copied by Uber and Ola. This is the 4th government partnership for Moving Tech.
Meanwhile in Mumbai, Ola and Rapido are experiencing challenges from the government over operating licenses for bike-taxi services.
The Israeli taxi market is heating up, after the government announced it would act to legislate gig-drivers, which would open the door for the likes of Uber, Bolt etc. to enter the country. As of now, only taxi drivers are allowed to pick up passengers, with Gett controlling 80%++ of the ‘digital’ hailing market.
In Israel, TAXIGO is a new app, offering zero subscription fees and taking a lesser (benchmark Gett) 8% commission from drivers. TAXIGO is also offering riders 5% cashback and booking partnership with a restaurant reservation app and physical payment terminals at businesses, as part of its go-to-market strategy. Meanwhile, Yango is asking the anti-competition authority to declare Gett as a monopoly.
In Barcelona, taxi drivers are protesting to make sure the new law being proposed, to limit ride-haliers such as Uber and Cabiify, is approved as-is.
Angkas is now available on HUAWEI’s smartwatches.
Last week I visited Elmo to understand their remote-driving technology. Estonia has advanced regulation, with Elmo’s solution being able to carry passengers on public roads. I got to trial teledriving - this is how it looks like:
DRT, Bus-Based Mobility & AV shuttles 🚍🚌
Ruter AS, Oslo’s public transport authority, partners with MOIA and Holo to accelerate autonomous deployment. MOIA will bring its turnkey autonomous solution and VW’s ID. Buzz vehicles; Holo its on-ground operational expertise; and powered by Mobilieye tech. This takes Ruter AS from limited trials to commercial autonomous deployment. We know launch is set for spring 2026, but no more details on Ruter AS’ future plans.
ComfortDelGro and Pony to launch self-driving shuttles on public roads in Punggol, Singapore. Trials will start with five seven-seater AV shuttles.
Atlanta to launch an eight-vehicle autonomous public transport system in 2027, with Beep as leading implementation partner.
Studio Galilei, DRT tech, partners with the MK Group, taxi company, to launch DRT services in Japan under the MK brand.
Shift Happens is a new newsletter from Switch - this edition sees Switch interviewing Wayla, the nightly on-demand service in Milan. Bottom line: execution matters; the importance of being a part of the network and the city one operates in; and using (clean) data. Read here.
Car Sharing/renting 🚗
Poppy partners with Touring, Belgian roadside assistance, to use remote-driven vehicles to pick up people and bring them to their replacement car in case of a roadside breakdown. The pilot will use two existing teledriven vehicles based in the Port of Antwerp.
Greenwheels grows in the Netherlands. In 2025 the company added 500 vehicles, bringing the total to 3,400; and expanded to 19 additional municipalities, bringing the total to 191. Free2Move enters Hawaii via a local partnership.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
Turkey toughens scooter regulations, mandating real time location and identification data transfer to the government.
Delivery - from bikes & cars to bots & drones 🍽🧺
DoorDash and Uber join forces to sue the city of New York, in order to block the requirement that delivery tipping must be available during checkout and set to at least 10%. Short history & economic lesson:
New York city set a relatively-high minimum wage rule back in Q4/2023
As a result, companies (Uber, DoorDash & others) increased service fees, to subsidize the new pay rate; and moved tipping to after checkout, so delivery costs wouldn’t seem too high for consumers
Result: tipping fell by 64% while fees increased by 45%
And that’s how we got here. What can we learn from this:
Newton’s third law of motion is very much relevant for regulation
For some reason, tipping in the US is a god-given right
Swiggy shareholders approve company's plan to raise Rs 10,000 crore (roughly $120M) via QIP (issue shares or convertible securities directly to large institutional buyers). Based on existing share price, this move will see a 10% delusion. Funds to be used to sustain the quick commerce war in India.
Coupang’s CEO resigns after a massive data breach of over 30 million people (South Korea has 52 million people). Crisis communications errors and half-hearted apologies caused users to leave the platform, hence departure of the CEO.
Since January 2025, Delivery Hero’s stock has dropped by 19%. A letter to the shareholders by the CEO and the Chair of the Supervisory Board details all the financial and operational achievements over the past years (revenue & Adj. EBITDA improvement, Talabat IPO etc.) and ends with a promise to “create value for our shareholders” by some future strategic moves. TBC.
In Japan, Eams Robotics tests delivery drone service over railroad tracks. In Dubai, Yango partners with noon, online shopping, to deploy autonomous delivery robots.
AV Freight & Logistics 🚛🚜
Aurrigo launches licensing hubs programme to promote airport autonomous solutions. The new hubs will open in North America (Cincinnati), South East Asia (Singapore and Malaysia), the Middle East (Dubai) and Europe (Amsterdam), and are designed to work with local partners to develop a commercial offer aimed at airports.
Wabbi is said to be in talks to raise $750M in a $3 billion valuation (that’s 25% pre-money).
In other news 📰
Europcar launches Mobility app - integrating its own car rental offer + MILES car sharing + (soon) Dott micromobility solutions. First two markets: Germany and Ireland.
Standard Fleet acquires Bytebot.
Archer partners with Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation.
Vertical Aerospace introduces Valo - new eVTOL expected to come into service in 2028.
Inrix’s Global Traffic Scorecard:
Getting ready for 2026? A list of 70+ mobility & electrification events:
People 🧑🤝🧑
David Carroll is the new VP, Commercialization @ Motional.
Gavin Bailey is the new Head of Business Development - Europe @ Aimsun.
Congrats and good luck!
#movingpeople is a weekly mobility & delivery newsletter - from Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi through Remote-Driving & Delivery Drones to e-bikes and Autonomous Freight & Logistics.
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