All Research / Automotive & EVs, Robotaxis & Autonomy, +1 more
The July newsletter highlights key developments across Waymo’s entry into Europe, upcoming IPOs, humanoid robot updates and more. RobotaxiMap.com also recorded several notable updates, including planned robotaxi launches in Zurich and Madrid, new entrants coming to Houston and Miami, and geofence expansions.
The newsflow in robotaxis and humanoid robots can be overwhelming. Each month, Martin Viecha and the MV Motion team summarize the most important news stories, share our perspective, and comment on the latest deployments on RobotaxiMap.com. Stay on top of the industry in 5 minutes - or dig deeper, if you prefer!
This month, we present you with 8 exciting news story picks and 5 Robotaxi Map deployment updates!
Waymo is quietly laying the groundwork for a broader European expansion, registering local entities across several European countries. This marks the first signal of Waymo entering the EU, bracing for taking on Chinese robotaxi companies that have been actively pursuing EU roll-out for several months now.
Europe is likely to become the ultimate battleground between Chinese, American and European robotaxi companies. Such competition is not allowed in the US or China. When it comes to business models, Waymo has built its lead through a relatively vertically-integrated operating model, but Chinese rivals are increasingly expanding through local partners: WeRide, for example, is using Uber for distribution while working with third-party fleet operators to pursue a more asset-light rollout.
Waymo and Uber ended their robotaxi partnership in Phoenix, with Waymo vehicles no longer available through Uber’s app after nearly three years. Uber said the pilot ended at its contracted end date and is preparing a new AV partnership in the market, while Waymo returned the vehicles to its own fleet. The partnership involved just over a dozen Waymo vehicles and completed hundreds of thousands of Uber trips, while Waymo remains available through Uber in Austin and Atlanta.
While we still believe that ridehailing companies will act as "booking.com" for smaller robotaxis companies, it is becoming clearer that Waymo is increasingly doing it alone. Waymo launched five new cities in recent months, all of which solely with their in-house ridesharing app, and no ridehailing partners. This feels like the next step in the same direction.
Zoox unveiled an updated version of its purpose-built robotaxi, refining the vehicle’s design ahead of broader commercial service. The core platform remains unchanged, including the steering-wheel-free cabin, bidirectional driving, carriage-style seating, moonroof, and 40-sensor perception suite.
We applaud Zoox's vehicle design as truly autonomy-first design. The challenge is that the capacity for this vehicle is just 100/week or 5k/year, which we think is not competitive enough. Other robotaxi makers are likely to launch far more than 10k robotaxis in 2027. For a true land-grab strategy, the capacity needs to be higher.
Waymo faced resident complaints in June over robotaxis crowding the shared garage at San Francisco’s Soma Grand condo complex. Residents said Waymo vehicles queued at entrances and exits, got stuck in tight garage spaces, and added several minutes to daily commutes, with some delays estimated at 15–20 minutes. Waymo said it added resident charging stations, free visitor parking, parking-cost coverage, safety mirrors, and speed bumps as means to get into the residents' good grace - but past instances show that this is no easy feat.
We have long argued that infrastructure buildout is going the be the main bottleneck for robotaxi deployment for any company that truly solves robotaxi software (there are not many of those). Figuring out how to park, charge, clean and maintain thousands of robotaxis in each city, will certainly have impact on neighborhoods, particularly due to the intent to maximize robotaxi utilization rate. Building robotaxi parking capacity will come with challenges that are not yet commonly understood.
Momenta Global launched its Hong Kong IPO, seeking to raise up to $750 million to fund autonomous-driving R&D and robotaxi rollout, with trading expected to begin on July 8. Momenta plans to use about 60% of the proceeds to increase R&D spending, increasing AI computing power, data storage and engineering staff, while about 20% will support faster rollout of its Robotaxi services. Momenta's software was used in 680k vehicles including brands such as Mercedes, Toyota, BYD and others.
After Pony.AI and WeRide, we see yet another Chinese autonomous driving company IPO. Momenta is pushing for wider ADAS rollout, as well as robotaxi launch in Munich and Abu Dhabi. Nevertheless, sustained financing remains critical: Pony.ai and WeRide still trade down YTD, despite rapid growth, early signs of profitability, and breakeven economics in some cities. Building a competitive robotaxi market will require patient capital willing to back several credible contenders through the long road to scale.
NVIDIA announced Halos for Robotics, a full-stack safety system for robotics and physical AI. The system combines IGX Thor compute, Holoscan Sensor Bridge, Halos OS, and NVIDIA’s AI Systems Inspection Lab to support safety functions, sensor connectivity, validation, and certification preparation. Agility is the first robotics company using Halos for its Digit humanoid in industrial settings.
It's increasingly feeling like humanoid software and humanoid hardware will often be made by different companies. In addition, it seems like Nvidia would like to provide not only the AI compute for humanoids (and robotaxis), but also the software itself. The "safety system" software could be the first of many steps towards an end-to-end humanoid software stack.
Agility Robotics agreed to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI at a $2.5B pre-money equity value. The transaction is expected to provide more than $620M in gross proceeds, with $420M in cash and $200M of incremental financing via PIPE, with the combined company expected to trade as AGLT. Agility's humanoid, Digit, is already operating with customers including Schaeffler, GXO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and Mercado Libre, with 65,000+ operating hours and $300M+ of multi-year Digit v5 orders secured (subject to milestones).
As we highlighted in our humanoid robotics report Can Humanoid Robots do any actual Work?, Agility is one of the few companies that has moved beyond demos and into commercial deployment. Its operating hours, customer roster, and order backlog give it a stronger foundation than most peers. The next challenge is broader task generalization: to justify its valuation and long-term potential, Digit (Agility's humanoid robot) will need to progress beyond repetitive tote-moving workflows and prove it can perform a wider range of economically valuable tasks across industrial environments.
BMW is deploying Figure 03 humanoid robots at its Spartanburg plant to expand the use of physical AI in production. Figure 03 succeeds Figure 02, which supported production of more than 30,000 BMW X3 vehicles, and will perform logistics sequencing tasks using upgraded hands, tactile sensors, and safety features. The deployment is part of BMW's broader effort to integrate humanoid robots into manufacturing.
Figure AI's latest generation humanoid robot already performed impressively sorting out packages, it will be interesting to see how it performs at BMW's production plant. Ultimately, we need to see announcements that humanoid robots have taken over a specific job at a factory on a 24/7 basis, not just a pilot or a trial. Perhaps, Figure 03 will be the humanoid that gets us there.
WeRide and Uber plan to launch commercial robotaxis in the Greater Zurich Region later this year via the Uber app, with Rydera operating the fleet and a gradual path toward fully driverless service. Baidu’s Apollo Go is also entering Greater Zurich/Eastern Switzerland through PostBus’s AmiGo service, creating a rare early European head-to-head between Chinese AV companies. This market stands out because Switzerland is European but non-EU (so not directly subject to wider EU regulation harmonization efforts), and because Alpine winter conditions make this one of the first real robotaxi deployments where snow is unavoidable. As we have pointed out in the reports All About the Weather, and Can Ride-hailing Survive the Age of Autonomy, bad weather remains one of the key technological bottlenecks to growth. We are very curious to see how this will be dealt with in a real commercial setting.
WeRide and Baidu in Northeastern Switzerland
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
WeRide, Uber and AVOMO are bringing a robotaxi pilot to Madrid, marking WeRide and Uber’s first joint market entry in the EU, and Spain’s first planned robotaxi pilot. The service is expected to launch later this year through the Uber app, initially as supervised rides, before scaling toward unsupervised robotaxi operations across core urban areas. The Madrid rollout is part of WeRide and Uber’s broader 15-city partnership, with AVOMO (Waymo's teleoperations partner in Atlanta and Phoenix, where Waymo has been deploying with Uber) supporting fleet operations and the partners targeting hundreds of robotaxis in Madrid as performance milestones are met.
WeRide's second EU announced launch, after Bratislava
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
Houston is on course to become a three-way robotaxi battleground, with Uber, Nuro and Lucid planning to launch a robotaxi service in the city by mid-2027. The launch would put Uber into direct competition with Waymo and Tesla, bringing the largest ride-hailing network, the leading scaled robotaxi operator and Tesla’s vertically integrated autonomy push into the same market. Nuro is already running 24/7 supervised testing, while Uber has secured a 50,000-square-foot Houston depot and an additional pitstop to support future robotaxi fleet operations.
Nuro robotaxis will follow established Waymo and Tesla operations
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
Tesla expanded its Austin unsupervised robotaxi program in June, rolling out robotaxis across the Austin Metro area after nearly a year of operating the service in the city. Tesla has also begun supervised public-road testing of its first production Cybercab in Austin, with a safety monitor in the passenger seat, while the unsupervised paid robotaxi service still uses Model Y vehicles rather than the purpose-built Cybercab.
Old Tesla unsupervised ODD
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
New Tesla unsupervised ODD
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
Tesla launched its robotaxi service in Miami, extending its autonomous ride-hailing network into Florida. The initial rollout is geographically limited, with a small geofence covering parts of West Miami and stretching toward Doral and Sweetwater, rather than the city’s main coastal districts. Tesla’s entry adds another competitor to Miami’s emerging robotaxi market, where Waymo already operates a substantially larger service area with several smaller companies undergoing tests.
Tesla's geofence in Miami
Source: RobotaxiMap.com
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