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Today, the email sender is “Barak Sas”, that’s me. Soon, the sender is going to become #movingpeople. I am giving advance notice, change will occur toward the end of March.
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Uber Everywhere: Motional + Zoox + Wayve & Nissan + Elite + Women + AV Insurance
New partnerships and plays from (and with) Uber dominated the mobility & autonomy industry this week. As a way to highlight Uber’s role - this week Uber is featured in its own section.
Uber partners with Motional to launch robotaxis in Las Vegas. Riders can be matched with Motional’s robotaxis if they request UberX, Uber Electric or Uber Comfort, at no extra cost. For now, safety driver included. Interestingly, press releases included reference to the 2022 10-year framework agreement between the two companies, which was paused in 2024 due to Motional’s restructuring and (back then) defocusing on commercial operations. The mentioning implies that the agreement is back on track.
Uber partners with Zoox to add Zoox’s robotaxis to Uber’s network, beginning with Las Vegas this summer. This is the first time Zoox partners with a 3rd party demand platform; Zoox will keep its own app.
Uber, Wayve and Nissan collaborate on robotaxis in Japan. The companies aim to launch a pilot in Tokyo toward the end of 2026, using the Nissan Leaf vehicle, Wayve AV-tech and Uber booking platform. Wayve has been testing in Japan since early 2025.
Uber introduces Uber Elite - its new luxury vehicles + chauffeur drivers ride category. The chauffeur category is on fire (I wrote about it 4 months ago):
Uber launched Elite after ‘taking’ a senior leader from Blacklane
Lyft acquired TBD Global Chauffeuring for £83M (+$110M) back in October 2025
Around that time, Bolt launched its own Chauffeur ride category, in London and elsewhere
Why are ride-hailings taking on Blacklane, the category market leader? Chauffeur is (1) the only remaining category in ride-hailing not currently addressed by ride-hailiers; (2) is an important corporate proposition; and (3) represents a high margin revenue opportunity.
Uber Elite is live in Los Angeles and San Francisco and will soon launch in NYC; vehicles include the Cadillac Escalade, Lucid Air and Lincoln Navigator; and each ride includes complimentary amenities such as chargers, bottled water, mints, and hand-sanitizing towelettes.
Uber expands women preferences across the US, enabling women riders to match with women drivers across the U.S. Women Preferences allows to set preference to women drivers and also to pre-book & request on-demand women drivers. The option is also extended to Uber Teens. Launched as a pilot in the US in August 2025, the feature is now being expanded to 60 cities.
Marsh Risk and Apollo launch Insurance Facility to support Uber’s autonomous vehicle expansion. The Autonomous Vehicle Insurance Program (AVIP) includes technology developers, fleet operators, vehicle manufacturers and owners, as well as original equipment manufacturers involved in the development and operation of driverless ride-hailing and delivery services.
Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕
Rapido is in the midst of a financing round that will add ±$600M to its war chest .The round, valuing the company at $3 billion, is led by Prosus. According to intelligence platform Sensor Tower, Rapido had 74 million monthly active users in Jan.-Feb. 2026, ahead of Uber’s 39 million and Ola’s 28.1 million.
Zoox is expanding to Dallas and Phoenix, its ninth and tenth testing locations. Zoox currently has robotaxi operations only in Las Vegas.
VW is larger-scale producing the ID.Buzz - 500 units are expected to roll out of the Hanover plant this year.
WeRide and Geely’s Farizon partner to produce more robotaxis, targeting an additional 2,000 GXR units by the end of 2026, bringing the global fleet to over 2,600 vehicles.
Waymo driving mistakes: (1) In Austin, a Waymo stops past train guard gates. A similar incident occurred a while ago; (2) In San Antonio, a man in the driver's seat of a Waymo (i.e. safety driver) has been cited after the autonomous vehicle ignored barricades and drove onto the scene of a house fire; and (3) in Arizona, A Waymo was trying to cross highway traffic and got “dumbfunded”, stopping in front of incoming traffic.
#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business - a consultancy focused on Innovation, Growth and Autonomy in the Mobility industry.
Autonomous Shuttles, DRT & Bus-Based Mobility 🚍🚌
Aurrigo wins a £6.28M contract with Ultra Global to build 25 autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) for a leading rapid transit system specialist. That comes out to £251,000 per vehicle.
BusUp 2025 results:
Revenue up 24% to €46M
Over 160 corporate customers
Operating in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, the United States and Brazil; also has a presence in Colombia and Italy
Over 190 transport operators and a team of 200+ people
2026 outlook: €66M revenue & positive EBITDA
Micromobility 🚲🛴
More on the Zeus - Superpedestrian acquisition:
Goal: achieve economies of scale
Acquisition includes ”only” Superpedestrian and the LINK & Wisk brands; it does not include SURF Beyond
Brand strategy to be reviewed in 2027; for now continuing with existing brands of Superpedestrian, LINK, and ZEUS
Delivery - bikes to cars, bots & drones 🍽🧺
InDrive acquires Krave Mart, Pakistani grocery delivery platform, after making an initial investment and working together since December 2024. The all-stock deal was concluded last year, and was now approved by the local Competition Commission. Foodpanda (by Delivery Hero) is the leading food delivery platform; while InDrive holds the #1 position in ride-hailing.
And an analysis on Grubhub and its Wonder-backed comeback, by Maxx Freedman. Key takeaways:
Grow demand: Grubhub is growing market share in NYC, after being practically dead
Multiple channels: Restaurant listing and promotions started to appear on Wonder
Dine-In & loyalty: the Claim (dine-in rewards app) acquisition opened up dine-in and loyalty
Would this bring Wonder to be the 3rd player in delivery? For more here.
New delivery bot by Neubility.
I love meeting new people and learning about innovation in mobility. Let’s get-to-know / catch up.
In other news 📰
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approves a pilot program that will allow companies to test their eVOTLS across 26 US states, even though they have not received full regulatory certification. This follows an executive order from Trump on the subject. Companies include Archer, Beta, Joby, Elroy Air and Wisk.
Also Archer answers to Joby’s trade secret theft lawsuit by accusing Joby of defrauding the U.S. government and its competitors by falsely presenting itself as an American-made company - while having deep ties with China.
Google Maps is introducing a Gemini-powered conversational “Ask Maps” feature along with an updated “Immersive Navigation” experience.
Uber founder Travis Kalanick now founded Atoms. According to the website, the company focuses on the food, mining and transportation industries - using Physical AI - specialized robots, not humanoids.
Gridwise 2026 Annual Gig Mobility Report - selected findings:
Most gig workers can be found in food delivery (71%), followed by ride-hailing (36%) and grocery delivery (32%); 35% of gig workers are women ; only 8% of gig workers continue in the trade after 6 years
Biggest challenges include unpredictable earning (44%) and vehicle maintenance costs (31%)
Customer prices rose 9.6% while driver gross pay per trip grew just 3.6%
Multi-apping is lower than usually perceived - only 24.3% use more than one app
This report is extremely detailed and deserves a read - download for yourself here.
People 🧑🤝🧑
Andy Fisher is the new Strategy Lead @ National Highways.
Chisom Anoke is the new Regional Head English-speaking Africa @ Yango.
James Barber-Chadwick is the new Interim Co-CEO @ Transport for All.
Kevin Hart is the new Board Member @ Jersey Community Transport (JCT).
Louis-Nicolas Amedee-Manesme is the new Directeur Général (Chief Executive Officer) @ ECOV.
TaeGyun Kim is the new Executive Director @ Studio Galilei.
Thiagarajan Iyer is the new Lead Product Manager Data & AI @ HudHud Maps.
Yochai Abadi is the new Chief Executive Officer @ Pcentra.
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.
