TechCrunch Mobility: A new robotaxi scorecard shows China’s dominance

TechCrunch Mobility：一份新的自动驾驶出租车记分卡显示了中国的领先地位

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Today is Juneteenth, a U.S. federal holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States. 欢迎回到 TechCrunch Mobility——您获取交通未来新闻与见解的中心枢纽。如需在收件箱中接收此内容，请点击此处免费订阅——只需点击 TechCrunch Mobility！今天是“六月节”（Juneteenth），这是一个纪念美国奴隶制终结的美国联邦假日。

About 10 years ago, there was a lot of chatter about who was winning the self-driving car race. One of the problems with that debate — besides assuming there would be just one winner — was that no one had a reliable way to measure it. This was an early era filled with a lot of demos and capital, but little substance — at least what the public, and folks like myself, had access to. 大约 10 年前，关于谁在自动驾驶汽车竞赛中胜出的讨论非常多。这场辩论的问题之一——除了假设只会有一个赢家之外——在于没有人拥有一种可靠的衡量方法。那是一个充满演示和资本的早期时代，但实质内容很少——至少对于公众以及像我这样的人来说是这样。

Advisory and research startup Autnmy AI has developed a generative AI platform to create a benchmarking system that evaluates and ranks autonomous vehicle companies in an effort to answer that question in real time. And this week, the startup released its Road to Autonomy Index, which searches relevant global public databases, including federal and state reports, SEC documents, public exchanges, and other data. 咨询与研究初创公司 Autnmy AI 开发了一个生成式 AI 平台，旨在创建一个基准测试系统，对自动驾驶汽车公司进行评估和排名，以实时回答上述问题。本周，该公司发布了其“自动驾驶之路指数”（Road to Autonomy Index），该指数会搜索全球相关的公共数据库，包括联邦和州政府报告、SEC 文件、公开交易信息及其他数据。

The system weighs the company’s operations, scale, revenue, commercial partnerships, manufacturing, and safety record based on that data and provides an update every 12 hours. There are four indices that rank robotaxis, autonomous driving licensing companies, autonomous trucks, and delivery bots. 该系统根据这些数据权衡公司的运营、规模、收入、商业合作伙伴关系、制造能力和安全记录，并每 12 小时更新一次。目前有四个指数，分别对自动驾驶出租车、自动驾驶许可公司、自动驾驶卡车和配送机器人进行排名。

One important note, per Autnmy AI co-founder Rob Grant, the AI platform doesn’t just scrape information off the internet. “We agreed early on, we don’t scrape information,” he said. “If it’s publicly available or if it’s available under a Creative Commons license, we will use that information. We do have some license data that we pay folks for, and under that agreement too.” 需要特别指出的是，据 Autnmy AI 联合创始人 Rob Grant 称，该 AI 平台不仅仅是从互联网上抓取信息。“我们很早就达成共识，我们不抓取信息，”他说。“如果是公开可用的，或者是在知识共享许可协议下可用的，我们就会使用这些信息。我们确实有一些付费获取的许可数据，并且也是在协议框架下使用的。”

The indices take a global approach, which produces some interesting results. One of the initial takeaways that made an impression on Grant was China’s stronger ranking across multiple categories. As of Friday, the robotaxi leader was not Waymo. It was China’s Baidu Apollo Go program — just barely. Waymo was in the secondary position, followed by Chinese companies Pony.ai and WeRide. Tesla was in the fifth position. 这些指数采用了全球化的视角，产生了一些有趣的结果。让 Grant 印象深刻的初步结论之一是，中国在多个类别中的排名更为靠前。截至周五，自动驾驶出租车的领先者并非 Waymo，而是中国的百度“萝卜快跑”（Apollo Go）项目——尽管优势微弱。Waymo 位居第二，紧随其后的是中国的初创公司小马智行（Pony.ai）和文远知行（WeRide）。特斯拉排名第五。

A little bird

一只小鸟（消息灵通人士）

I was reminded recently by a little bird to keep an eye on the Texas automated vehicle tracker tool that launched in May. And I am glad they did; looks like Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox are building up their respective fleets in the state. Reminder: This doesn’t mean every one of these are being used commercially. Zoox, for instance, cannot operate commercially until it receives an exemption from the federal government. It currently has the ability to give rides in its custom-built robotaxi but cannot charge customers. 最近，一位消息灵通人士提醒我关注 5 月份推出的德克萨斯州自动驾驶车辆追踪工具。我很高兴他们这么做了；看起来特斯拉、Waymo 和 Zoox 正在该州扩充各自的车队。提醒：这并不意味着所有这些车辆都在进行商业运营。例如，Zoox 在获得联邦政府豁免之前无法进行商业运营。它目前有能力使用其定制的自动驾驶出租车提供乘车服务，但不能向客户收费。

As of May 28, Waymo had 577 autonomous vehicles registered in the state. It now has 620 of them, about a 7.5% increase in less than a month. Tesla now has 69 registered autonomous vehicles, a 64% increase from the 42 it had on May 28. Zoox, which had 35 registered autonomous vehicles last month, now has 43. Avride, Nuro, and Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA are holding steady at 317, 47, and 12, respectively. 截至 5 月 28 日，Waymo 在该州注册了 577 辆自动驾驶汽车。现在这一数字为 620 辆，在不到一个月的时间里增长了约 7.5%。特斯拉目前有 69 辆注册的自动驾驶汽车，较 5 月 28 日的 42 辆增长了 64%。上个月拥有 35 辆注册自动驾驶汽车的 Zoox，现在拥有 43 辆。Avride、Nuro 和大众汽车子公司 MOIA 的数量保持稳定，分别为 317 辆、47 辆和 12 辆。

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, or email Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com. 有线索要提供给我们吗？请发送电子邮件至 kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com 或通过 Signal 联系 kkorosec.07，也可以发送电子邮件至 sean.okane@techcrunch.com。

Deals!

交易动态！

Cargofy, a logistics company that uses AI to automate freight operations, raised $11 million in a Series A funding round led by u.ventures, Toloka, and Movens Capital. Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom, and several angel investors, also participated. Cargofy 是一家利用人工智能实现货运业务自动化的物流公司，在由 u.ventures、Toloka 和 Movens Capital 领投的 A 轮融资中筹集了 1100 万美元。Intercom 联合创始人 Des Traynor 及多位天使投资人也参与了此次投资。
Carro, the Singapore-based online car marketplace, acquired Australian used-car platform CarPlace, Reuters reported. Terms were not disclosed. 据路透社报道，总部位于新加坡的在线汽车交易平台 Carro 收购了澳大利亚二手车平台 CarPlace。交易条款未披露。
Gatik, a startup that has developed self-driving trucks for short hauls, announced a multi-year partnership with PepsiCo. The companies wouldn’t share the value of this deal, but it does signal PepsiCo’s commitment to Gatik, which is already operating driverless trucks for the food and beverage giant across Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas. 开发短途自动驾驶卡车的初创公司 Gatik 宣布与百事公司（PepsiCo）建立多年合作伙伴关系。双方未透露交易金额，但这表明了百事公司对 Gatik 的承诺，后者目前已在阿肯色州、亚利桑那州和德克萨斯州为这家食品和饮料巨头运营无人驾驶卡车。
QuantumScape announced a joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co. to accelerate solid-state battery development and associated manufacturing processes. QuantumScape 宣布与本田研发株式会社（Honda R&D Co.）达成联合研究协议，以加速固态电池开发及相关制造工艺。
Automaker Stellantis, self-driving startup Wayve, and ride-hailing giant Uber struck a deal to jointly develop and deploy driverless robotaxis. 汽车制造商 Stellantis、自动驾驶初创公司 Wayve 和网约车巨头 Uber 达成协议，将共同开发和部署无人驾驶出租车。
XDOF, a startup focused on robot training data, raised $70 million from Thrive Capital, Spark Capital, a16z, Lux, and WndrCo. 专注于机器人训练数据的初创公司 XDOF 从 Thrive Capital、Spark Capital、a16z、Lux 和 WndrCo 处筹集了 7000 万美元。

Notable reads and other tidbits

值得一读及其他花絮

A video posted on Reddit showed a driver running a stop sign and hitting an autonomous vehicle in Dallas. TechCrunch confirmed it was an Avride robotaxi, which was hailed via the Uber app. An Avride spokesperson said no injuries were reported and that data from the incident is being reviewed “to continuously refine our technology and processes, as part of our standard procedures.” When asked about the reaction of the self-driving system and the human safety operator who was behind the wheel, Avride said, “Our safety review is currently ongoing, so we cannot provide more precise details at this time.” Reddit 上发布的一段视频显示，在达拉斯，一名司机闯红灯并撞上了一辆自动驾驶汽车。TechCrunch 证实这是一辆通过 Uber 应用程序叫到的 Avride 自动驾驶出租车。Avride 发言人表示，未收到人员受伤报告，事故数据正在审查中，“作为我们标准程序的一部分，以不断完善我们的技术和流程。”当被问及自动驾驶系统和方向盘后的人类安全员的反应时，Avride 表示：“我们的安全审查目前正在进行中，因此我们目前无法提供更精确的细节。”

Tesla owners in China have discovered a workaround to the vehicle’s distracted driving monitor: tiny plastic heads. 中国的特斯拉车主发现了一种绕过车辆驾驶员分心监测系统的方法：使用微型塑料人头。

Over on X, folks spotted a Tesla with an authorized limousine permit sticker for San Francisco County and the San Francisco International Airport. A spokesperson for SFO told TechCrunch that “Tesla has been issued a limousine permit to operate at SFO. This is for traditional limousine operations, meaning the vehicles have a human driver. Tesla has not been issued a permit for any autonomous operations at SFO.” 在 X 平台上，有人发现一辆特斯拉贴有旧金山县和旧金山国际机场（SFO）的授权豪华轿车许可证贴纸。SFO 发言人告诉 TechCrunch：“特斯拉已获得在 SFO 运营的豪华轿车许可证。这是针对传统的豪华轿车运营，意味着车辆配有人类驾驶员。特斯拉尚未获得在 SFO 进行任何自动驾驶运营的许可。”

Mobileye, which has pitched itself as an autonomous vehicle technology supplier, is now making moves to become a robotaxi operator. The company plans to launch a robotaxi service in an unnamed U.S. city in 2027. History lesson: Mobileye founder and CEO Amnon Shashua told me back in 2020 that to crack the ho… 一直将自己定位为自动驾驶技术供应商的 Mobileye，现在正采取行动成为自动驾驶出租车运营商。该公司计划于 2027 年在美国某未具名城市推出自动驾驶出租车服务。历史回顾：Mobileye 创始人兼首席执行官 Amnon Shashua 早在 2020 年就曾告诉我，要攻克……