What You Need to Know Today

Trumpworld insiders say one of the president-elect’s top priorities is to create a federal framework for self-driving cars. What would that entail? For starters, the incoming administration could revise federal regulations limiting the deployment of driverless vehicles to 2,500 units annually. Already many in the industry are lobbying to raise the number to 100,000. (Related: Trump reveals his pick for Sec of Transportation: former Wisconsin Rep. and Fox News host Sean Duffy.)

The new DOT chief could also rethink the rule prohibiting the use of self-driving vehicles without traditional controls. In fact, Amazon-backed Zoox may be banking on that outcome, because it just rolled out its its custom robotaxi—which features neither pedals nor a steering wheel—in San Francisco and Las Vegas.

Speaking of the feds, GM’s self-driving unit Cruise is getting fined another $500k for submitting a false crash report to NHTSA.

Waymo has ended its waitlist in LA, meaning anyone within the company’s 80-square-mile service area can now hail a robotaxi whenever they want. (It also means you will be able to catch a ride in a Waymo to our first-ever Ride AI summit in Hollywood next spring.)

Lyft, apparently feeling the pressure to keep up with Uber’s nonstop barrage of autonomous driving collaborations, just announced three new self-driving partnerships: One with May Mobility to introduce AVs on the Lyft app in Atlanta by 2025; another with Mobileye which will enable vehicles equipped with the Intel-owned company’s technology to connect with the Lyft platform; and lastly a data-sharing agreement with Nexar which will give Lyft insights to improve the training of autonomous driving systems.

Related: What happens when Uber and Lyft don’t have to pay drivers? How robotaxis could reshape the economics of ridehailing.

As part of a broader update to its AV test reporting requirements, California will now require companies to report incidents where AVs get stuck during operations.

Nuro is expanding the deployment area for its L4 test fleet in both Houston and the Bay Area. The news comes two months after the startup announced it was pivoting its business model to focus on licensing its driverless tech to manufacturers and TNCs.

Amazon has earned FAA approval to fly its newer, smaller delivery drones in Arizona beyond the visual sight line of pilots.

Meanwhile Skydio, the largest manufacturer of drones in the US, has raised a $170M extension round amid a spike in defense investments.

Waymo compiled a massive dataset on pedestrian, cyclist, and motorcyclist injuries to analyze safety risks for vulnerable road users.

Chinese AV startup Pony is seeking to raise up to $224M through its upcoming US IPO.

Monarch Tractor is laying off 10% of its staff and will shift its business strategy to license its autonomous technology, including to non-agricultural customers.

Computer vision startup Roboflow has raised $40M in a Series B round led by Scale Venture Partners.

Baidu says it has brought the production cost for the new generation of its Apollo robotaxi down to $34,525 per unit.

Vecna Robotics, a Massachusetts-based warehouse automation startup, has raised $14.5M. The company also appointed Karl Iagnemma, former CEO of Motional, as its new chief executive.

After announcing their partnership earlier this year, Uber Eats and Avride have officially begun dispatching sidewalk robots to deliver food in Austin.

NHTSA warned Tesla not to share online posts that imply its cars are robotaxis.

A new video answers the question of who would win in a race, Waymo or Zoox?

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