TechCrunch Mobility: AV companies pick their lanes

TechCrunch Mobility：自动驾驶公司各选赛道

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! 欢迎回到 TechCrunch Mobility，这里是您了解未来交通以及人工智能在其中所扮演角色的中心。想要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！

Autonomous vehicle technology is not yet ubiquitous or mainstream. Readers here might shout, “It’s everywhere!” but I can tell you that it is not — although I understand why folks in the San Francisco Bay Area might disagree. The tech is, however, being commercialized and that transition from testing to commercial product has me thinking about scale. 自动驾驶技术尚未普及或成为主流。这里的读者可能会大喊：“它到处都是！”但我可以告诉你，事实并非如此——尽管我理解为什么旧金山湾区的人们可能会有不同意见。然而，这项技术正在商业化，从测试到商业产品的转变让我开始思考规模化的问题。

A few strategies are emerging. Scale through partnerships. A couple of announcements this week highlighted this strategy. Wayve locked in a commercial partnership with Mercedes-Benz to integrate the startup’s automated driving tech into at least one model set to be deployed within the next two years. This is a Level 2 type product, meaning it handles certain driving maneuvers but still requires the human driver to remain engaged. While this is not a Level 4, or fully driverless product, it gives Wayve reach and follows similar deals with Nissan and Stellantis. Those partnerships have also opened doors for its fully driverless product. Earlier this year, Wayve announced a partnership with Nissan and Uber to launch a robotaxi service in Tokyo. 几种策略正在浮现。通过合作伙伴关系实现规模化。本周的几项公告突显了这一策略。Wayve 与梅赛德斯-奔驰达成了一项商业合作，将该初创公司的自动驾驶技术集成到至少一款计划在未来两年内推出的车型中。这是一款 L2 级产品，意味着它能处理某些驾驶操作，但仍需要人类驾驶员保持专注。虽然这不是 L4 级或完全无人驾驶产品，但它为 Wayve 提供了触达渠道，并延续了此前与日产和 Stellantis 的类似交易。这些合作伙伴关系也为其完全无人驾驶产品打开了大门。今年早些时候，Wayve 宣布与日产和 Uber 合作，在东京推出自动驾驶出租车服务。

Widespread and concentrated, all at once. As I wrote this week, Waymo’s commercial robotaxi ramp-up looks expansive, both in geographic reach and ridership. And by almost every measure, it is — until you pay attention to where the bulk of those robotaxis are actually showing up. I looked at vehicle registration data and found that, at least for now, Waymo is concentrating its efforts in just two states. About 80% of Waymo’s roughly 4,000 robotaxis are in California and Texas, and Texas is where the action is now: Waymo’s fleet there has grown by more than 49% in the past three weeks. Waymo is also scaling by seeking out new kinds of users: teenagers. 既广泛又集中，同时进行。正如我本周所写，Waymo 的商业自动驾驶出租车扩张看起来规模宏大，无论是在地理覆盖范围还是乘客数量上。从几乎所有指标来看确实如此——直到你注意到这些自动驾驶出租车实际上主要出现在哪里。我查看了车辆登记数据，发现至少目前为止，Waymo 将其工作集中在两个州。Waymo 大约 4,000 辆自动驾驶出租车中，约 80% 位于加利福尼亚州和德克萨斯州，而德克萨斯州正是目前的重心所在：Waymo 在那里的车队在过去三周内增长了超过 49%。Waymo 也在通过寻找新的用户群体——青少年——来实现规模化。

I might put Aurora, a company developing and commercializing self-driving trucks, somewhere between these two categories. Aurora is clearly focused on Texas, but it has cast a wide net when it comes to partners. CEO Chris Urmson is also clearly bullish on how the company will scale over the next four years, noting this week that Aurora has “emerged from the building stage.” The company said it’s targeting more than 30,000 driverless trucks in operation by 2030. The company plans to have more than 200 driverless trucks by the end of the year. 我可能会将开发和商业化自动驾驶卡车的公司 Aurora 置于这两类策略之间。Aurora 显然专注于德克萨斯州，但在合作伙伴方面撒下了大网。首席执行官 Chris Urmson 对公司未来四年的规模化前景显然充满信心，他本周指出 Aurora 已经“走出了建设阶段”。该公司表示，目标是到 2030 年有超过 30,000 辆无人驾驶卡车投入运营。公司计划在今年年底前拥有超过 200 辆无人驾驶卡车。

A little bird / 小道消息

Our little bird items are typically just that: small yet notable nuggets of insider information from across the transportation industry. But every now and then, a tip turns into something much bigger. That’s what happened a few weeks ago, when Zoox workers reached out to senior reporter Sean O’Kane about a problem with the company’s test fleet in Atlanta. Workers were getting sick, and they suspected it was from its test vehicles, Toyota Highlander SUVs equipped with Zoox’s self-driving system. 我们的“小道消息”栏目通常就是字面意思：来自交通行业内部的小而值得注意的信息。但偶尔，一个线索会演变成更大的事件。几周前就是这种情况，当时 Zoox 的员工联系了资深记者 Sean O’Kane，反映了该公司在亚特兰大的测试车队存在问题。员工们感到身体不适，他们怀疑是测试车辆——配备了 Zoox 自动驾驶系统的丰田汉兰达 SUV——所致。

The TL;DR: Zoox grounded its autonomous vehicle test fleet in Atlanta after safety drivers were potentially exposed to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or hydrogen sulfide gas inside its vehicles last month. Zoox says it only ever found evidence of CO2 in the vehicles. The repeated incidents led one worker to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which opened an inquiry and told Zoox to investigate the exposures. You can, and should, read the whole story here. 简而言之：在上个月安全驾驶员可能在车内接触到一氧化碳、二氧化碳或硫化氢气体后，Zoox 停飞了其在亚特兰大的自动驾驶测试车队。Zoox 表示，它只在车内发现了二氧化碳的证据。反复发生的事件导致一名员工向职业安全与健康管理局（OSHA）投诉，该局随即展开调查，并要求 Zoox 对这些接触事件进行调查。您可以（也应该）点击此处阅读完整报道。

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，或发送电子邮件至 sean.okane@techcrunch.com。

Deals! / 交易动态

Wall Street may be preoccupied by whether the buzziest AI companies will go public in 2026, but there is other IPO activity in other industries, including transportation. Many of these are companies located outside of the United States. For instance, Carro, the used car marketplace backed by SoftBank, is considering dual listing on the Nasdaq and the Singapore Exchange. Two India-based companies — used car marketplace Spinny, which is back by Tiger Global, and electric bus company PMI Electro Mobility Solutions — have both filed confidentially for IPOs. Then there’s EcoCeres, a Hong Kong-based company that produces renewable fuels, which reportedly plans to raise about $1 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering. And don’t forget just last week the U.S.-based autonomous vehicle company May Mobility said it planned to go public via a merger with a blank-check company. 华尔街可能正忙于关注最热门的 AI 公司是否会在 2026 年上市，但其他行业（包括交通运输业）也存在 IPO 活动。其中许多公司位于美国境外。例如，软银支持的二手车交易平台 Carro 正在考虑在纳斯达克和新加坡交易所双重上市。两家印度公司——老虎环球基金支持的二手车交易平台 Spinny 和电动巴士公司 PMI Electro Mobility Solutions——都已秘密提交了 IPO 申请。此外，总部位于香港的可再生燃料生产商 EcoCeres 据报道计划在香港 IPO 中筹集约 10 亿美元。别忘了，就在上周，总部位于美国的自动驾驶公司 May Mobility 表示计划通过与一家空白支票公司合并上市。

Other deals that got my attention … Ultraviolette, the India-based electric motorcycle manufacturer, raised $85 million and has brought on Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan as an adviser. Read our previous coverage on Ultraviolette here. 其他引起我注意的交易……总部位于印度的电动摩托车制造商 Ultraviolette 筹集了 8500 万美元，并聘请了英特尔 CEO Lip-Bu Tan 担任顾问。点击此处阅读我们之前关于 Ultraviolette 的报道。

Notable reads and other tidbits / 值得一读及其他花絮

Comma, the startup founded by hacker George Hotz, is facing a federal investigation after five reported crashes involving the company’s aftermarket hands-off driver-assistance tech, two of which resulted in three deaths. 由黑客 George Hotz 创立的初创公司 Comma 正面临联邦调查，此前有五起涉及该公司售后免提驾驶辅助技术的车祸报告，其中两起导致了三人死亡。
Einride, the Swedish autonomous and electric trucking company, said it plans to use Nvidia’s Hyperion platform to build the next generation of its self-driving system. 瑞典自动驾驶和电动卡车公司 Einride 表示，计划使用英伟达的 Hyperion 平台来构建其下一代自动驾驶系统。
San Francisco-based PitPro Automation has developed a robot that can change tires and has now deployed it at a shop in Canada. 总部位于旧金山的 PitPro Automation 开发了一种可以更换轮胎的机器人，目前已在加拿大的一家商店部署。
The Boring Company is working on “a simple precursor Hyperloop” between Austin and San Antonio that will reduce the journey between the two cities to less than 30 minutes, according to the tunneling startup’s founder, Elon Musk. 据隧道初创公司创始人埃隆·马斯克称，Boring Company 正在奥斯汀和圣安东尼奥之间建设“一个简单的超级高铁前身”，这将使两地之间的行程缩短至 30 分钟以内。
Tesla is finally handing over the first of its all-electric Semi trucks to customers. CEO Elon Musk is known for shaky timelines, but when I attended the Semi reveal event in 2017, I didn’t think it would take nearly a decade. One insider note from reporter Sean O’Kane: “Customers will be able to take delivery of the truck w 特斯拉终于开始向客户交付首批全电动 Semi 卡车。CEO 埃隆·马斯克以时间表不靠谱著称，但当我在 2017 年参加 Semi 发布会时，我没想到这会花掉近十年时间。记者 Sean O’Kane 的一条内部消息：“客户将能够接收该卡车……”