Even More Waymo

Waymo’s self-driving vehicles, once thought to be the stuff of science fiction, provide more than 250,000 paid weekly trips across Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin, and Waymo is preparing to bring its autonomous ride-hailing service to Atlanta, Miami, and Washington, D.C. in 2026.

And that’s just the beginning of Waymo’s plans for expansion. cnet.com

Last October, Waymo announced a partnership with Hyundai to bring the next generation of its technology into the Ioniq 5. waymo.com

In December, Waymo announced its first international expansion into Tokyo, partnering with Nihon Kotsu and the ride-hailing app GO to integrate autonomous technology into the city's complex urban environment. The initial phase will deploy 25 manually operated vehicles to map key districts, but there are no immediate plans for public ride-hailing. arstechnica.com

At the beginning of this month, Waymo released a new study, saying its fully driverless vehicles outperform human drivers after 56.7 million miles on American roads. theverge.com

Fast forward to last week, Waymo and Toyota announced a partnership to “explore a collaboration focused on accelerating the development and deployment of autonomous driving technologies.” theverge.com

Waymo has 1,500 Jaguars operating across its four main markets: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin.

It plans to add 2,000 more vehicles by 2026, for a total fleet size of 3,500. waymo.com

Those new Waymos will be assembled at a manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona. This initiative, in partnership with Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International, aims to expand their fleet of autonomous Jaguar I-PACE and onboard new Zeekr-built vehicles. forbes.com.au

Although hesitation still exists around using self-driving tech in vehicles, people are really into Waymo in certain markets. Uber passengers in Austin seemingly can't get enough of Waymo's robotaxis, with the 100 or so Waymo vehicles operating on the Uber app already busier than the human drivers they share the road with. businessinsider.com

The tech is really good, but not perfect. Errors still happen.

Becky Levin Navarro took to TikTok last month after her Waymo ride to the Deep Eddy Cabaret suddenly stopped underneath the MoPac Expressway, in a spot near where two lanes merge, and locked her and other passengers inside the vehicle. chron.com

And as part of their road testing in Tokyo, a Waymo was pulled over by local police. teslarati.com

Back home in the US, Waymo continues testing in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, upstate New York, and Truckee, California, to evaluate driving in different weather conditions. arstechnica.com

And while we wait to see if Elon can deliver on the promise to bring the Cybercab to market, knowing that Tesla’s own internal analysis suggests that Cybercab robotaxis won’t sell very well, I expect you’ll see way more Waymo self-driving robotaxis on the street before you ever get into one from Tesla.

China’s Automotive Expansion

Geely launched their new Galaxy Starshine 8 PHEV with a 1,600 km range and MSRP of about $17,400 USD. carnewschina.com

Geely wants to take its luxury EV unit Zeekr off the New York Stock Exchange one year after the company’s debut, per Zeekr filings. techcrunch.com

Xiaomi recently faced backlash after a software update restricted the SU7 Ultra’s maximum output from 1548 hp to around 900 hp during normal driving conditions. Their CEO issued an apology on Weibo. carnewschina.com, carnewschina.com

Xiaomi signed a partnership deal with the Nürburgring, making the company a premium partner of the world's longest permanent race track. cnevpost.com

BYD expects that half of its future sales will come from outside of China by 2030. electrek.co

Must-Know Musk News

Elon struggles to make friends with his Texan neighbours. techcrunch.com

Tesla’s attempt to trademark the term “Robotaxi” has been refused by the US Patent and Trademark Office for being too generic. techcrunch.com

Tesla's insurance arm is taking a beating by paying out more than it earns from premiums, according to data from S&P Global. insideevs.com

Tesla confirms it has given up on its Cybertruck range extender. electrek.co

Spacex’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is directly benefiting from the Donald’s tariff bullshit, according to leaked State Department memos obtained by the Washington Post. washingtonpost.com, techcrunch.com

SpaceX was granted permission by the FAA to launch and land its massive Starship rockets and Super Heavy boosters up to 25 times per year from the company’s Starbase spaceport in Texas. SpaceX was previously restricted to five Starship launches per year from the site. cnbc.com

Rise Of The Machines

WIRED magazine calls the Matic Robot Vacuum “the best robot vacuum we’ve tested,” and it scored a rare 10 out of 10. wired.com

A new restaurant concept in Los Gatos, California, uses robots to assemble meals. The restaurant, unveiled by ABB Robotics and BurgerBots, uses ABB’s IRB 360 FlexPicker and YuMi collaborative robot. interestingengineering.com

Horse riding simulation robot helps strengthen your hips. youtube.com, kuka.com

Amazon introduces the first robot with a sense of touch. aboutamazon.com

A Unitree H1 humanoid robot goes haywire and attacks human workers. boingboing.net

Energy

Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and TotalEnergies are sticking to aggressive production growth plans, as profits decline and oil prices soften. oilprice.com

Sunoco has made a friendly takeover bid for Parkland worth $7.7 billion, potentially ending the Calgary-based fuel distributor’s boardroom battle with its largest shareholder. theglobeandmail.com

Shell is considering buying BP. reuters.com

Nissan abandoned its plan to build a $1.1 billion EV battery plant in southern Japan. reuters.com

CATL has rolled out a new energy storage system called Tener Stack, the world's first production-ready 9 MWh ultra-high-capacity energy storage system solution. cnevpost.com

BYD Energy Storage introduced a new home battery system, the Battery-Box HVB. This new residential battery marks the fourth generation of BYD’s home storage systems, first introduced in 2015. pv-magazine.com

In countries like Germany, balcony-mounted solar panels are all the rage. But from breaker-masking to voltage mismatches, America’s grid isn’t ready for it—yet. wired.com

The American energy sector is set to invest $100B in battery storage by 2030. electrek.co

Japan plans to beam solar power from space to Earth next year. space.com

But Wait, There’s More

Motor1 put together a nice piece on the history and evolution of the popemobile. motor1.com

Automotive New put together a good summary of all this tariff bullshit. autonews.com

Ford and GM blasted President Donald Trump's trade deal announced with the UK, saying it would harm the US auto sector. reuters.com

Ford is jacking up prices on three of its Mexico-produced models, becoming one of the first major automakers to adjust sticker prices as a direct result of The Donald’s tariff bullshit. autonews.com

Ford joins the list of OEMs who have suspended their financial guidance for 2025, blaming the Donald’s tariff bullshit. bloomberg.com

A Ford employee stole millions of dollars worth of parts straight from three of their factories. motor1.com

Audi could shift more production to three US production facilites in response to tariff bullshit. autonews.com

Mitsubishi plans to launch a new EV in North America in 2026 based on Nissan’s third-generation Leaf platform. theverge.com

Mitsubishi is in talks with Foxconn to develop and build a new EV that they plan to sell in Australia and New Zealand in the latter half of 2026. techcrunch.com

Hyundai has an electronic oil pump problem. caranddriver.com

Volvo has a software problem. motor1.com

Rivian beat Wall Street’s expectations for the first quarter and confirmed its 2025 earnings targets, but negatively adjusted its 2025 targets for deliveries and capital spending due to tariff bullshit. cnbc.com

Rivian is investing $120 million in a new supplier park in Illinois. bloomberg.com

Uber invests $100M in WeRide to fuel robotaxi expansion across 15 more cities. techcrunch.com

Aurora adds night driving and new routes as it ramps up driverless trucking. techcrunch.com

Tesla’s NACS connector will be used by Mazda’s EVs in Japan. electrek.co

A UK company is dropping V6 Jaguar engines into refurbished Mazda Miatas for the US market. motor1.com

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