Many of you have reached out about our team in Los Angeles amid the devastating wildfires—thank you. Our LA team members are all safe, although we are all deeply affected by these tragic losses. Our hearts go out to everyone impacted by this disaster.

Because many have asked, we want to reaffirm our intention to hold the Ride AI summit in Hollywood on 4/2. In the weeks and months ahead, the emphasis will turn toward rebuilding our communities. We believe one of the most tangible ways we can support LA’s recovery is by moving forward with our event and supporting the local economy.

For those looking to help, we also recommend supporting relief efforts through the California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund, which provides critical assistance to affected communities. Thank you.

What You Need to Know Today

New podcast: Alex Kendall, founder and CEO of Wayve, shares how Wayve's unique end-to-end AI approach allows their self-driving system to generalize across different countries and driving cultures—from London to California. The discussion explores how Wayve (which recently raised $1 billion from Softbank and others) combines vision, language, and action to create more intuitive human-AI interactions, why synthetic data matters for safety testing, and how their lean hardware strategy could make autonomous technology more accessible to automakers worldwide. Listen in.

The Biden administration is placing a final round of restrictions on AI chip exports to dozens of countries, including Russia and China. The measures would curb the ability of US chipmakers like Nvidia to sell advanced processors to adversary nations—and could hinder global AV development.

The outgoing administration also finalized rules banning the sale of Chinese and Russian connected vehicles by 2027. The new rules would also prohibit companies from those countries from testing robotaxis on US soil, a move which will impact Pony AI and WeRide specifically.

Meanwhile WeRide announced it will pilot its driverless shuttles alongside Switzerland’s national railway operator at Zurich Airport—the Chinese company’s third trial in Europe.

In the wake of GM folding Cruise in late 2024, the US feds are closing their probe into the robotaxi outfit.

Trump’s pick to lead USDOT says he will allow safety investigations into Tesla’s ADAS to proceed.

What it was like riding in a Zoox robotaxi during CES. “Both of my Zoox robotaxi rides felt safe. The vehicle accelerated smoothly and changed lanes with confidence and without the stutter or hesitation that I’ve experienced in numerous demo rides with other companies over the years. However, Zoox still has a few areas to improve on the comfort front, and at times the self-driving system made choices that one might expect from a less-experienced driver.”

Li Auto CEO Li Xiang on the great lidar vs camera debate: “I believe that if Musk had ever driven on different highways in China deep in the night, he would have chosen to keep a lidar in the front as well.”

High-viz clothing may actually be harder for automated crash prevention systems to detect than normal clothing on pedestrians, a new IIHS study suggest.

Aurora is challenging federal regulators in court over truck safety requirements. The autonomous trucking company filed a lawsuit after the FMCSA denied its request for an exemption from rules requiring physical warning triangles to be placed on the road when trucks are stopped on highways. Needless to say, this is a hard to rule to follow when your trucks don’t have drivers. (We spoke at length about the importance of the warning triangle exemption for AV operators with Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson on last month’s podcast).

Mercedes will be the first carmaker to use Google’s Automotive AI Agent.

Related: Apple filed a patent application for voice-enabled AV commands.

China’s robotaxi race is heating up, but is the tech any good? Sophia Tung tried out some of the top Chinese apps amid daunting driving conditions.

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