# autonomous vehicles
Latest news and articles about autonomous vehicles
Total: 13 articles found
Uber Pours $100m+ into Fast-Charging Hubs as It Prepares for an Electric, Autonomous Fleet
Uber will invest over $100 million to build DC fast-charging hubs for autonomous electric vehicles at its operations bases and along key city routes. The move is intended to reduce vehicle downtime and support a future scale-up of electric, autonomous ride-hailing, but it faces logistical, regulatory and grid-infrastructure challenges.
Driverless, With Help: Waymo Pays Delivery Couriers to Close Car Doors in Atlanta
Waymo has begun paying DoorDash couriers in Atlanta to close car doors when passengers leave them ajar, a pragmatic fix for an operational snag that prevents autonomous vehicles from resuming service. The pilot highlights the persistent need for human intervention in advanced automation and raises questions about liability, labor and the pace of engineering solutions.
China Readies L4 Autonomous Bus Pilot in Suzhou as CRRC-Tiantong Partnership Brings Self‑Driving Tech into Public Transit
TianTong Weishi and China CRRC plan to deploy Level‑4 autonomous buses in Suzhou’s Taihu New City in Q1 2026, linking a university campus to Metro Line 7. The pilot is a contained, strategic test of driverless public transit that could inform safety rules, urban planning and commercial rollouts if it proves reliable under real‑world conditions.
XPeng Begins Open‑Road Trials of L4‑Capable GX SUV, Packing 3,000 TOPS of Onboard Compute
XPeng has started open‑road validation of its GX six‑seat SUV equipped with four Turing chips and roughly 3,000 TOPS of onboard compute, marking a step toward Level‑4 autonomy. The tests in Guangzhou are technical verification rather than an indication of immediate commercial availability, and significant regulatory and safety hurdles remain.
Grab to Distribute Chinese LiDAR Maker Hesai Across Southeast Asia — A Power Play for Mobility Hardware
Hesai has named Grab its exclusive distributor of lidar products across Southeast Asia, leveraging Grab’s platform to commercialise sensing hardware among fleets and logistics operators. The deal promises faster regional deployment but brings integration, regulatory and competitive challenges.
Waymo’s $16bn Windfall: A Record Bet on Robotaxis That Comes with Regulatory Risk
Waymo has secured a record $16 billion financing round valuing the company at about $126 billion, signalling investor confidence in robotaxis. The deal accelerates global expansion plans but arrives amid safety incidents and federal probes that underscore regulatory and operational risks.
China’s L3 Breakthrough Reignites a Strategic Split: Regulated Stepwise Rollout vs. Skipping Straight to L4
China’s first L3 automated‑driving permits, issued at the end of 2025, have intensified a strategic divide between firms that favour a regulated, scenario‑limited rollout and those aiming to leap directly to L4 autonomy. The debate is shaped by rapid L2 adoption, certification standards that increasingly demand L4‑like fail‑safe behaviour, and the commercial limits of narrow ODDs.
Alibaba’s Cainiao Consolidates Autonomous-vehicle Arm with Jiushi Intelligent — A Step Toward Integrated, Data-driven Last-mile Logistics
A NetEase headline reports a strategic integration between Cainiao’s unmanned-vehicle arm and Jiushi Intelligent. Though the original post lacked detail, the move would fit a broader pattern of Chinese logistics platforms vertically integrating autonomy technology to cut costs, capture data and accelerate last-mile automation.
Lantu Aims for an L3 Breakthrough: Four New Models, One Hardware Bet for 2026
Lantu has unveiled four new models for 2026—covering SUV, FUV and MPV segments—with each vehicle fitted with Level‑3 autonomous driving hardware. The Taishan Ultra will lead the rollout with deliveries slated for March, and a luxury MPV priced around RMB 500,000 is planned for later in the year. The announcement signals a hardware‑led push into autonomous driving, but commercial success depends on software, regulation and consumer acceptance.
Richard Liu’s Autonomous Convoy Brings New‑Year Goods to His Home Village — and a Showcase for JD’s Rural Logistics
Richard Liu organised a high‑profile delivery of New Year goods to his home village in Suqian led by JD’s sixth‑generation autonomous “Independent Wolf” vehicles. The event doubled as both a charitable distribution and a live demonstration of JD’s rural last‑mile logistics capabilities, underscoring the commercial and political stakes of scaling autonomous delivery in challenging rural environments.
Musk’s $0.20-a‑Mile Robotaxi: Tesla’s Cybercab Stakes a Claim to Crush Ride‑Hailing Costs
Elon Musk has announced that Tesla’s Cybercab robotaxi could operate for as little as $0.20 per mile — about half the projected cost of Waymo’s next‑gen vehicles and far below current ride‑hailing and private‑car costs. The target rests on energy efficiency gains, an ‘unboxed’ manufacturing approach that trims parts, and the elimination of driver labour, but faces production, regulatory and safety hurdles before it can reshape urban mobility.
China’s 6G Pitch: How Integrated Communication-and-Sensing Could Rewrite Industry Connectivity
Professor Wang Jiangzhou urged that 6G should be built around integrated communication and sensing, arguing 5G cannot meet the latency, reliability and situational awareness needs of industrial and safety‑critical applications. He stressed multi‑station cooperative sensing, shared hardware and unified waveforms as central technical directions, and positioned China’s policy moves alongside global efforts to capture leadership in 6G.