Our acclaimed Urban Autonomy Summit series is headed to Texas! Join us in Austin on October 14th, 2026.
The Lone Star State has emerged as a real hot-spot for autonomous trucking — with the likes of Bot Auto, Gatik, Aurora and Kodiak AI — carrying real loads on the state’s long highways. Concurrently, cities like Austin and Dallas are now hubs for robotaxis, delivery bots and autonomous drones, thanks to players like MOIA, Avride, Tesla, Waymo, Coco Robotics, Serve Robotics, Zoox, Wing, Flytrex and Zipline.
Thank you to Nexar, our presenting sponsor. And additional thanks to Voltera, Autolane, Terawatt, TaskUs, The Ride Platform, Gridwise, EVKON, CharterUP and Verizon, our partners helping build this rich AV ecosystem. Please reach out to join us as a speaker or partner. The Urban Autonomy Summit, presented by Nexar, brings together operators, fleet managers, investors, regulators, policymakers, researchers, media and more. Join us — October 14th in Austin.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Way mo’ Waymo: Waymo received CPUC approval to drastically scale up its operations in California; the new ODD covers parts of eighteen counties in both SoCal and NorCal.
Other AVs expand too: Uber is teaming up with Chinese OEM Pony.ai, bringing 2,000 robotaxis to four new European cities. Uber is also deepening its tie-up with Baidu’s Apollo Go, with a launch in Dubai. Meanwhile, Tesla is bringing its Cybercab hardware to Austin.
Newly served? While last week saw Serve Robotics’ tie-up with Uber go a bit sideways, this week things are looking far rosier. The Bay Area company just launched a partnership with Wonder / Grubhub, going live with 100 merchants in Chicago and 200 in LA. It’s also beefing up its integration with DoorDash, as its bots hit the streets of San Jose and Washington D.C. Also interesting: new countertop hardware for restaurants and expanded ad options.
No houses, no growth: Population growth took a huge hit in major cities across the country, with 86 of America’s 92 largest metros seeing slower growth, greater declines, or a shift from growth to decline compared to the previous year. While growth was a tad stronger in the ‘burbs than in city centers, basically the whole country is now grappling with high housing costs, plus reduced immigration inflows.
Grounded, ungrounded: Detroit startup Grounded just raised $5M for its sweet, custom vans; the company upfits for everything from medical to retail uses. While its vehicles were initially exclusively electric, the death of GM’s BrightDrop (RIP) means the co. also does gas-powered models as well. Meanwhile, ALSO just closed on a $150 million Series D, led by Prysm Capital, as it scales up its e-bike and e-quads, and seeks to build “multiple autonomous form factors.” The company has now raised a whopping $655M in the last year and a half…
Droning on: Speaking of not grounded, it seems drone startups are having a moment (likely for sad, scary geopolitical reasons.) Neros just raised $250M, tied to plans to reshore drone manufacturing in the U.S. And Terra Industries closed on $52M to bring drone infrastructure to Africa and other developing economies.
Micromobility in the macro city: Our friends at the Next Mile Coalition released their Micromobility Roadmap Tracker, finding that NYC’s new mayor is making decent progress to encourage the safe adoption of electric bikes and scooters. Of all the docs policy recommendations, perhaps most interesting would be a proposal to use city funds to buy back illegal e-motos.
Modern Delivery, summer break quick hits: Uber partners with Zipline to hit one million drone deliveries per day by 2029. Instacart adds Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, and Champs Sports. DoorDash partners with Gap, plus Barnes & Noble, Carter’s and Kohl’s. Amazon Prime Air launches first UK hub amid expanded U.S. operations, brings locker network to colleges. Extreme heat endangers more and more workers (especially couriers.)
Clean Mobility Forum 2026: Join the CMF2026 on Sept 30 & Oct 1 in Sacramento or virtually! Connect with clean mobility partners, share lessons learned, and network at this two-day hybrid event. Register with code cmfpromo26 to save 15%.
A few good links: Logistics deals falter amid Iran war. U.S. retail sales fall too. Austin light rail project back in appeals court. Watch a Chinese autonomous delivery van drive straight into a ditch. (H/T TDD.) West Seattle rail extension delayed until 2035. Trump admin looks to undo rule that mandates airlines display full fare price. Valley Plaza Mall adds paid parking for closest spots — if it can work in the urbanist mecca of Bakersfield, it can work anywhere! (H/T PRN.) SPACs are back: Fort Robotics looks to go public at $556.6M val. Physical AI funding takes off. How to cut costs on NYC’s SAS Phase 2. East River Tunnel reopens. Feds back NJ drivers looking to kill NYC congestion pricing. NJ e-bike restrictions hurt sales, do little to keep streets safe.
See you in Austin!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew