Mobility Week: Tesla Shifts, Waymo Probe, Zipline Raises $600M

TechCrunch Mobility: This Week in Transportation

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Breaking: The National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into Waymo after repeated reports of its robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses in at least two states. Read the full story here.

Tesla's Latest Moves: Robotaxis, Autopilot Retired, and FSD Strategy

Tesla made several high-profile changes this week ahead of its quarterly earnings. The company appears to be pressing its advantage in automated driving — and shifting how it charges for autonomy.

Driverless rides in Austin

Tesla began offering robotaxi rides in Austin without a human safety driver in the front seat. This follows a limited rollout last year using modified Model Y vehicles running an advanced version of Tesla's driving software. Previously, human safety operators sat in the front passenger seat as a precaution.

Not every vehicle in the Austin fleet is fully driverless; some still run with a chase vehicle following them. Still, the move signals a broader ramp-up toward unsupervised operation.

Autopilot name retired

Tesla has removed the Autopilot name from its vehicles. Introduced in 2014, Autopilot combined traffic-aware cruise control and Autosteer. It proved popular but controversial because its name implied greater capability than the system actually offered. Drivers are supposed to remain responsible and keep their hands on the wheel.

Over time, Tesla made a basic Autopilot standard while selling a more full-featured package as Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised. Now the basic ADAS branding is gone.

Why the changes matter

• Revenue: Tesla recently moved FSD to a subscription model and waived the one-time $8,000 purchase. Dropping Autopilot while emphasizing FSD likely aims to increase recurring revenue as Tesla positions itself as an AI and robotics company.
• Regulatory pressure: A California judge ruled Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing by overstating Autopilot and FSD capabilities. That ruling put a 30-day suspension of manufacturing and dealer licenses on the table, though it's been stayed for 60 days to allow compliance. Rebranding may help Tesla satisfy regulators.

Deals and Funding Highlights

Investment activity in robotics, autonomy, and energy continued to pick up this week.

Zipline's expansion

Zipline, the drone-delivery pioneer that started in Rwanda delivering blood, raised $600 million and is now valued at $7.6 billion. The company launched its P2 drone platform in 2025 to focus on home delivery. With the new funding, Zipline will expand service to Houston and Phoenix and target at least four more U.S. states in 2026. Investors include Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, Valor Equity Partners, and Tiger Global.

Other notable rounds

• ABZ Innovation (Europe) raised $8.2 million for heavy-duty agricultural and industrial drones. Lead: Vsquared Ventures.
• Ethernovia (San Jose) raised $90 million in Series B to build Ethernet systems for autonomous vehicles. Lead: Maverick Silicon.
• Serve Robotics acquired Diligent Robotics, valuing the common stock at $29 million. Expect more crossovers between autonomous vehicles and robotics.
• Terralayr (Germany) raised €192 million for grid-scale battery storage. Lead: Eurazeo.
• TrueCar was taken private by founder Scott Painter in a $227 million deal via Fair Holdings, with partners like AutoNation and PenFed.

Notable Reads and Industry Tidbits

• Former Luminar CEO Austin Russell agreed to accept an electronic subpoena tied to the company's bankruptcy proceedings.
• Geely released a five-year plan that includes scaling Cao Cao Mobility to 100,000 robotaxis across major Chinese cities by 2030 and hinted at future international expansion.
• General Motors will shift production of two gas-powered models to its Kansas plant, ending Chevrolet Bolt EV production at that site. Read more for timing details.
• Tesla says it plans to restart work on Dojo3, a third-generation AI chip. Musk indicated Dojo3 will focus on "space-based AI compute" rather than self-driving model training.
• Waymo launched a robotaxi service in Miami and is onboarding riders from a waitlist of nearly 10,000 local residents.

Feature: A 3,081-Mile FSD Drive

Alex Roy, my Autonocast co-host, completed a Los Angeles to New York run in a Tesla Model S using FSD Supervised (version 14.2.2.3). According to Roy, the car handled 100% of the 3,081-mile trip, including highway exits and parking at EV chargers. The elapsed time was 58 hours, 22 minutes.

This contrasts with Roy's 2007 Cannonball Run record of 31 hours, 4 minutes. The new run highlights how far EV range, charging infrastructure, and automated systems have progressed, while also underlining remaining gaps between supervised autonomy and true driverless operation.

Why this matters (and a note for gaming news readers)

The mobility sector is accelerating on multiple fronts: autonomy, robotics, drones, and energy storage. These advances will affect urban design, logistics, and even how people game with and experience simulations. For readers who follow gaming news, expect tighter integrations between real-world vehicle data and virtual environments, more realistic driving sims, and new opportunities for cross-industry storytelling and product tie-ins.

Bottom line: Regulators, business models, and technology are all moving at once. Watch for rapid change in autonomous operations, subscription-based autonomy revenue, and increasing crossover between robotics and vehicle tech.

That's it for this issue. Stay tuned for more updates on the rapidly changing world of mobility.