Welcome to the Ride AI Newsletter, your weekly digest of news and intelligence at intersection of technology and transportation.

The Ride AI summit is heading to Hollywood, Los Angeles on April 2nd, 2025 for an exclusive day of networking and insights with CEOs and other leaders in auto(nomy), robotics, and tech. With programming curated by Edward Niedermeyer and Timothy B. Lee, you can bet you’ll be surrounded by brilliant people doing interesting things wherever you turn.

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What You Need to Know Today

Waymo is going international, with plans to begin testing robotaxis in Tokyo in early 2025. The Japan trials, which will be done in partnership with taxi operator Nihon Kotsu and ride-hailing app GO, will be the first to train Waymo’s AI on left-hand driving. But more importantly, the announcement underscores Waymo’s global ambitions, which may be closer to reality than previously thought.

As we’ve seen before, once Waymo gains a foothold in a new city, its growth is relentless. The Alphabet-backed company’s market share is reportedly now equal to Lyft’s within its San Francisco service area (although Lyft’s CEO disputes the accuracy of the data).

Last word on Waymo: A lot people have been dunking on the company after one of its empty vehicles was filmed getting stuck in a roundabout for 37 laps. It's a silly mishap, but if you really want to understand the technology’s potential to transform cities, watch this video of a Waymo robotaxi that miraculously swerved at the last minute to save the life of a scooter user who fell in the middle of traffic.

Zoox has hired away Zheng Gao, Tesla’s head of Autopilot hardware.

Fresh off its IPO, Chinese AV firm Pony.ai is planning to expand its robotaxi fleet from 250 vehicles to at least 1,000, prioritizing large cities like Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

The incoming Trump administration reportedly wants to scrap a requirement that companies report automated vehicle crash data, a rule that Elon Musk personally opposes.

German regulators have given the greenlight to Mercedes-Benz’s L3 driver-assist system to go nearly 60mph on the Autobahn.

Slip Robotics, maker of warehouse bots that can load a truck in five minutes, has raised $28M in a Series B round that was led by DCVC.

Tesla is wide-releasing FSD v13.

Volvo and DHL have begun autonomous freight operations in Texas using Volvo’s self-driving truck, equipped with Aurora Innovation’s technology.

Suzuki and Applied EV have unveiled a “tabletop” chassis for autonomous delivery and industrial applications.

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