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Sophia here. I had the incredible opportunity to interview Bot Auto’s Xiaodi Hou on the Ride AI podcast last week. It was such a fun time learning about his views on why he thinks cost per mile is the real metric autonomy companies should be chasing. There may or may not have been some shade thrown as well… you’ll have to listen to find out. The interview will be posted later this week. In the meantime we already have a new episode up with Vishay Nihalani from Waymo, so be sure to follow us over on Spotify to know when the episode drops.
Also, all the Ride AI 2025 sessions are now live on YouTube! Highlights include a panel highlighting what’s going on in the Chinese robo-ridehailing scene and a chat between Ed Niedermeyer and Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua on breakthroughs and roadblocks of autonomous driving. Head over to our YouTube channel to watch.
DoorDash is rolling out Coco Robotics delivery robots in Los Angeles and Chicago, following a pilot in Helsinki earlier this year. Like similar initiatives from Uber and Lyft, the deployment of these robots is randomized and limited to orders from a select group of just under 600 participating merchants.
This isn’t DoorDash’s first foray into autonomy. The delivery company launched a pilot with drone player Wing in Christiansburg, Virginia in 2024. The trial delivered Wendy’s – and only Wendy’s – to customers within 30 minutes of a specific Wendy’s restaurant.
Coco Robotics joins other robotic delivery companies like Serve Robotics and Starship Technologies that have been serving customers in Los Angeles for several years already. I, for one, am looking forward to our robotic multi-modal future. Dear San Francisco: can we please have delivery robots also?
Nuro is joining the growing wave of interest in Japan, announcing its own data collection initiative in the country. Mirroring Waymo’s recent “road trip” campaign, Nuro says the effort is focused on gathering objective data to enhance the Nuro Driver’s environmental perception and navigational capabilities. While the company has yet to name specific partners, it expressed enthusiasm about collaborating with “policymakers, regulators, first responders, and local communities.”
As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, driving in Japan is a completely different experience from driving in the U.S. Like with Waymo, I’m curious to see how Nuro handles the unique challenges of Japanese roads. In their blog post, Nuro pointed out several key concerns—including left-hand traffic, narrow alleys, and distinctive cultural driving behaviors—that could pose significant obstacles for autonomous systems. In some situations, navigating the road in Japan requires a degree of assertiveness, like edging your way through a crowd, which could prove tricky for human-robot interactions.
Uber has opened its Waymo waitlist in Atlanta, following an accelerated testing timeline in the city. Notably, the time from initial mapping to general availability has decreased exponentially across several locations—a promising sign as Waymo continues to scale its service footprint.
I expect we’ll see this timeline continue to shrink. As Waymo adds more data to its training set, gains experience setting up depots, and refines its operational processes for launching in new cities, the gap between mapping and service launch should keep narrowing. I’m genuinely impressed by how much they’ve already reduced that timeline. Could we see launches in under 100 days—or even within a month? I think it’s entirely possible.
Alright, that’s it from me… until next week!
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