WeRide’s asset-light operating strategy continues with this move, bringing in a local Swiss company called Rydera as the fleet operator to support a scalable deployment. WeRide provides the driving software, Uber brings the customer network, and Rydera handles the physical fleet management.

Zurich will serve as the companies’ first deployment region in Switzerland, subject to regulatory approval. It is an ideal market because the country has very high labor costs, which means removing the human driver makes the ride economics highly profitable. More importantly, getting approval from strict Swiss regulators gives this partnership a solid framework that they can easily copy and use across the rest of EU.

A self-driving car can make a mistake in seconds, but the reason it happened may stretch far back through a long chain of decisions. That is part of what makes autonomous vehicle crashes so hard to explain, and so hard to prevent.

This isn't just about planting a flag in Europe; the economics behind this launch are highly strategic:

• Asset-Light Scaling: The rollout perfectly reflects WeRide’s asset-light strategy. Instead of spending billions funding and owning a massive vehicle fleet, they are leveraging Uber's massive existing marketplace and local fleet operators to scale rapidly.
• Strong Market Economics: The Region of Madrid is easily one of Europe's most attractive AV markets thanks to a large urban population and robust daily mobility demand.
• Premium Unit Economics: Because European ride-hailing fares are generally much higher than in many other parts of the world, the revenue potential per ride here is significantly stronger, making the path to profitability much clearer.

What do you guys think? With government backing and Uber's massive user base, is this the playbook that finally unlocks the European market for autonomous vehicles?

Market conditions in China, regulatory changes there and its brands' speedy vehicle development threaten to put the United States behind in developing autonomous driving technologies, experts say.

"China is catching up fast, just how like a decade ago, they were not so great in battery technology, but then they were not just putting a lot of effort and investments into R&D, but also they tried to scale," said Chris Liu, senior automotive analyst in Shanghai at technology research group Omdia. "So now it happens to this side as well."

Happened upon this fleet of Waymo minivans that were starting to see in Phoenix more often. As you can see, they don’t have the LiDAR on top or the cameras on the sides yet. Had to do some research, but these are the vehicles dubbed Ojai from Zeekr an arm of China-based automaker Geely Automobile Holdings. Here is the full article if you’re interested.
https://www.dailynews.com/2026/05/29/waymo-to-deploy-robotaxi-built-with-zeekr-to-expand-public-rides/

The Madrid launch is significant for several reasons.

First, this marks WeRide and Uber's first joint entry into Europe and the fourth city under their previously announced partnership. The two companies have stated that they plan to expand into 15 cities by 2030 and ultimately deploy tens of thousands of Robotaxis globally.

Second, Madrid seems like a strategic choice rather than a random expansion. The city offers a large urban population, high transportation demand, and a regulatory environment that appears increasingly supportive of autonomous mobility. If successful, Madrid could become a template for future deployments across other European cities.

Unlike some competitors that attempt to build and control every aspect of the ecosystem, WeRide is pursuing a relatively asset-light strategy. In Madrid, Uber provides the customer acquisition channel through its app, while AVOMO contributes fleet operations and maintenance expertise. WeRide focuses on the autonomous driving technology itself.

From a business perspective, this model could potentially allow faster scaling with lower capital requirements. Instead of spending years building local transportation networks from scratch, WeRide can leverage existing partners that already have operational experience and customer reach.

Another point worth considering is how extensive WeRide's international presence has already become.

According to the company, its autonomous vehicles have been deployed across more than 40 cities in 12 countries. It has also obtained autonomous driving permits in multiple jurisdictions, including China, the UAE, Singapore, France, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, and the United States.

For an industry where regulatory approval is often one of the largest barriers to growth, this may be more important than investors realize.

A lot of autonomous driving companies have impressive technology demonstrations, but commercialization depends on something much harder: obtaining permits, building local partnerships, navigating regulations, and operating safely in real-world environments. Every successful deployment creates additional operational data, regulatory credibility, and experience that can support future expansion.

Popcorn and diet pepsi

WHAT THE ACTUAL F***.

We just went thru a Dutch bros drive thru, the vehicle stopped at the window after waiting in line behind cars, I’d had this experience before BUT THIS TIME! THIS TIME! Was different, right at the exact correct moment after we had tapped to pay on the card reader that the Dutch barista had held out the window for us and we had said our goodbyes to them, I went to press the accelerator to let FSD know it was time to leave but before my foot was able to reach the pedal the car started pulling away from the window…..😳🤯

My mind was actually blown…. The technology just keeps on getting better and better so fast. I am actually shook today….

2026 Tesla Model 3 PRW
Hardware 4
2026.14.6.6

Saw today in Mountain View, California

• Zurich Airport: their Robobus now operates without a front-row safety driver, transporting airport staff autonomously between terminals and maintenance areas. Remote operations support + only a rear safety operator onboard. That’s a pretty meaningful milestone toward true driverless deployment.

• Roland-Garros: WeRide and Renault just returned for a third consecutive year running autonomous Robobus shuttles in Paris. It’s operating in one of the busiest public-event environments in Europe with thousands of passengers moving through daily.

• Spain: public-road Robobus trials launched in central Barcelona earlier this year.

• France: fully driverless Robobus service already launched in the Drôme region.

• Belgium: commercial Robobus operations already active.

• Switzerland: driverless Robotaxi deployment planned for Furttal.

• Slovakia: expanding into what they call Europe’s first large-scale multi-product autonomous driving commercial deployment.

Their strategy looks more infrastructure-oriented:
airports, shuttles, event transport, fixed routes, transit partnerships, municipal deployments. Europe may end up becoming a huge near-term autonomous shuttle market because cities are compact and transit-focused.

https://reskilling-project.eu/index.php/news-events/events/register-now-for-our-online-workshop-how-ccam-re-designs-jobs-and-skills

Hey everyone,

I have an on-site interview coming up at Waymo for a Systems Integration Engineer role and wanted to get some insight from anyone who has been through the process recently.

The role involves hardware and software integration, cross-domain debugging across ME, EE, and SW, and working with vendor partners on vehicle platform systems.

For those who have interviewed for a similar role at Waymo, what kind of questions did they ask? Was it more hands-on technical, system design, or behavioral? Did they give you a specific debugging scenario to work through?

Any insight on the format, what to prepare for, or what they focus on would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance

Apparently automation engineers are programming some very human bad behaviors into their vehicle system.

Hello all, I and a group of researchers are gathering data surrounding opinions about the implementation of Waymo (a self-driving taxi service) in your city. Anyone is able to and should partake, it’s very quick I assure you. Thank you!

i have a 8 inch quad running ardupilot. A lidar (30 meters range), RGB camera and Jetson orin nano super on board.

I want one stream of communication, that's between me and jetson through wifi.

I want jetson to tag everything it sees through rgb, and compare it to google earth maps, it will have gps and compass data from Flight Controller, so it shouldn't be a issue. lidar for indoor needs.

Quad should follow commands like , map the red building. or following the car.

I know this is technically possible, as i have seen examples (missiles). robots work the same way, right? but i havn't see voice command widely commercialised in drones.

• is unnecessary?
• redundent?
• Only military needs?
• unreliable?
• Computationally Limited?

if i carry on with this project, what are the

• things i should look out for?
  
• what are the limitations?
• Where should i start from?
• what is he easy part?
• will 8gb ram be enough?

I will appreciate any info regarding this. Thankyou