Parent company Stellantis said it would be integrating Wayve’s tech into its STLA AutoDrive platform to enable “hands-free, door-to-door supervised automated driving across both urban streets and highways.” Think of it as Stellantis’ answer to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving. The automaker also has a preexisting deal with Nvidia, Uber, and Foxconn to make robotaxis.
With imports from China effectively blocked, Israeli drone company Flytrex is opening a new “manufacturing and maintenance facility” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the capacity to produce “thousands” of drones annually. The company says the new facility is key to its plan to open 60 new delivery sites across DFW by mid-2027. Flytrex currently operates a drone delivery service with Uber Eats and DoorDash, with some of its drones capable of delivering a couple pizzas at a time.
The rocket company says it’s ‘highly dependent’ on Musk’s leadership. And that his other companies are possible competitors.
A bipartisan bill that was just introduced in the House would levy an annual fee of $130 on everyone who owns an electric vehicle. The reasoning is that EV owners need to help pay for road and infrastructure improvements, since they don’t pay the gas tax that funds the Highway Trust Fund. But EV advocates are miffed that they’re being asked to pay almost twice what the average car owner pays each year in gas taxes, especially at a time when high gas prices are leading some consumers to give EVs a new look.
Business Insider thinks so, pointing to some recent evidence like Uber’s CTO tweeting about a “scary Waymo moment” and an Uber white paper that emphasizes a hybrid model of human- and robot-powered rides over an AV only model. Driverless Digest’s Harry Campbell is also predicting that Waymo and Uber’s partnership may be running out of steam.
[Business Insider]
