Today is something a bit different. We’re announcing Ride AI, a new executive-oriented summit focused on the intersection of autonomous vehicles and AI-driven hardtech, taking place in Los Angeles on April 2, 2025.

Ride AI is all about digging into the real work happening in AV today—what’s working, what’s still challenging, and what it takes to make driverless tech an integrated part of our world. With cutting-edge programming led by Timothy B. Lee (Understanding AI) and Edward Niedermeyer (Autonocast), each conversation will bring important and unexpected insights about the future of mobility technology.

We’re gathering CEOs and other leaders at NeueHouse Hollywood for a full day of meaningful discussions, inspiring presentations, and in-depth networking. We’re excited to announce that Waymo is joining us as our launch partner, with more partners and speakers to be revealed soon.

If you would like to join us, we have a handful of “Early Access” tickets available for $500. Keeping the group small allows us to elevate the level of seniority of the participants and ensure the programming is top-notch, so space is limited. Apply now to increase your chance of getting a spot.

If you’re interested in sponsoring, please let us know. Or if you want to speak, you can submit a proposal by clicking here. Hope to see you in LA on April 2nd.

What You Need to Know Today

Toyota and Japan’s NTT announced plans to invest $3.26B to research and develop AI software to improve self-driving tech, with the goal of having a working system ready to sell by 2028.

Tesla has been secretly testing its robotaxi service in the Bay Area for most of the year. Using a prototype ridehailing app, Tesla employees are able to summon a self-driving CyberCab with a human safety driver behind the wheel.

Waymo finalized a previously announced $5.6B investment from its parent company, Alphabet, to scale up robotaxi operations. Andreesen Horowitz, Silver Lake, Fidelity, Tiger Global, Perry Creek, and T. Rowe Price all joined the round.

Waymo also revealed it is now doing 150,000 paid trips per week in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Timothy B. Lee points out that Waymo trips have been growing at 20% month-over-month for the last year and a half.

NYC got permission to quadruple the size of its redlight camera program.

With funding running dry, Chinese self-driving car companies are turning to IPOs to score cash. “In Hong Kong’s biggest share sale this year for a primary listing, Horizon Robotics raised HK$5.4bn ($696mn) in an initial public offering this week. The chipmaker for self-driving cars… sold 1.36bn shares at HK$3.99 to value the company at $6.7bn — about 23 per cent lower than the $8.7bn it was worth based on its last funding round in December.”

Meanwhile other Chinese AV startups are lobbying Beijing to allow them to go public in the US. Last week Guangzhou-based WeRide saw its stock surge 19% immediately following its Nasdaq debut.

Wayve, the extremely well-funded British self-driving software developer, will begin testing its technology in the US, starting in San Francisco.

Almost exactly one year after a pedestrian-dragging incident forced Cruise to halt its robotaxi service, the GM-owned company is removing humans from the driver seat in Houston.

… meanwhile GM CEO Mary Barra says Cruise might still make a custom-built AV someday, despite scrapping plans to build the Origin.

Mapless AI is partnering with Aero, one of the largest North American franchisees of the Avis and Budget brands, to pilot remote teleoperations technology for rental cars.

Outrider, a provider of AV yard operations for logistics hubs, has raised $62M in Series D funds, led by Koch Disruptive Technologies and New Enterprise Associates.

J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Mobility Confidence Index Study finds consumer confidence in fully self-driving vehicles is rising again after a brief dip, but remains low overall (39 on a scale of 100).

Beacon AI, a startup that develops AI copilots for aviation, has raised $15M in Series A funding, led by Costanoa Ventures.

Applied Intuition has acquired the IP of defunct AV startup Ghost Autonomy.

A new video shows the Tesla robotaxi’s wireless charging capabilities.

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