Waymo goes London. China’s fleets go global.

Kodiak AI Goes Public, Uber, Lucid & Nuro: First Gravity Delivered, Gatik Plans 50-Truck Canadian Deployment

👋 Welcome back from the Azores.

While American companies have focused on domestic scaling, Chinese players are aggressively expanding internationally—and now US leaders may finally be responding. From Waymo’s London hiring spree to Chinese firms deploying 100 vehicles in Dubai, the race for global AV dominance is heating up.

This edition covers Waymo’s potential Europe entry amid growing Chinese competition and how Middle Eastern cities are becoming testing grounds for international expansion

⏱️ ~3300 words, ~14 min read

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🚗 The Global AV Race Heads to Europe—And China Has a Head Start

Is Waymo Finally Preparing for Europe?

American autonomous vehicle leaders have remained conspicuously focused on their home market. Waymo serves over 250,000 paid riders weekly across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Phoenix, and Atlanta, cutting its city launch timelines from four years in Arizona to just 14 months in Atlanta and Austin. Tesla pursues its vision-based approach with supervised ride-hailing in Austin and the Bay Area. But international expansion? Minimal—Waymo has only initiated testing in Tokyo.

Meanwhile, Chinese players have moved decisively into Europe and the Middle East, launching pilot programs and forming local partnerships to capture first-mover advantages in markets hungry for autonomous mobility solutions.

This strategic divergence makes this week’s news particularly significant: The Telegraph reported that Waymo has launched a hiring spree in London, posting roles that suggest the Alphabet-owned company may finally be joining the global race in earnest.

The positions reveal serious operational intent. Waymo is recruiting a “Fleet Readiness Lead” for London—responsible for maintaining driverless vehicles, ensuring operational readiness, and managing the logistics of keeping autonomous cars on the road. This isn’t a research hire; it’s the kind of position you fill when preparing to run a commercial service.

Equally telling is the search for an “Incident Response Manager” who will develop protocols for remote assistance, coordinate with emergency services, and manage public communications during accidents or breakdowns. These are operational capabilities required for any company planning to deploy driverless vehicles carrying paying passengers.

Beyond operations, Waymo is hiring Machine Learning Engineers across simulation, AI foundations, and infrastructure, with at least one posting explicitly noting plans to “set up a team in London UK to work with the teams in Mountain View and Oxford.”

If Waymo follows through, it would mark a significant strategic shift—from North American consolidation to global competition at a moment when Chinese firms have already established European beachheads.

London: Europe’s First Three-Way AV Battle

Should Waymo launch in London, the city would become Europe’s first genuine three-way autonomous vehicle battleground—pitting American technology, Chinese operational scale, and European AI innovation against each other in one of the world’s most challenging driving environments.

The UK government’s regulatory timeline creates the opening. Britain plans to allow small-scale driverless passenger services starting spring 2026, with full commercial authorization by 2027.

Waymo would face formidable competition from the outset. Wayve has already partnered with Uber to launch autonomous rides in London with pilots starting in 2026. As the homegrown champion, Wayve brings a critical advantage: its AI has been trained on British roads, learning London’s unique driving patterns, complex roundabouts, and traffic culture.

“Our business model is we build our AI model large-scale to understand general-purpose driving,” CEO Alex Kendall explained in a Bloomberg interview this week. “We license this AI to the most innovative fleets and automakers around the world.”

This approach took concrete form with Wayve’s landmark Nissan partnership, which unveiled its first prototype in Tokyo this week. The Japanese automaker will integrate Wayve’s AI into the next generation of ProPilot driver assistance, launching in production vehicles by fiscal year 2028.

Kendall emphasized that Wayve’s AI doesn’t rely on high-definition maps, making it viable for rural areas where creating detailed maps would be economically impractical. “Rural areas, there is no case to build a high definition map,” he noted. “Our AI will enable them to drive in these environments and bring this technology to more people.”

Chinese player Baidu adds another dimension. The company announced a partnership with Lyft to deploy its Apollo Go robotaxis in the UK and Germany starting in 2026. Baidu brings operational experience at massive scale—Apollo Go runs one of the world’s largest robotaxi fleets across Beijing, Guangzhou, and Wuhan, conducting millions of autonomous rides in Chinese cities.

This convergence transforms London from just another market into a proving ground for competing technical philosophies. The outcome will reveal more than which technology works best in London—it will indicate which approach can scale across diverse international markets with different infrastructure, regulations, and driving cultures.

Europe’s Regulatory Momentum Creates Opportunity

London isn’t the only European opportunity accelerating. Regulatory efforts to harmonize autonomous vehicle requirements across the EU are driving pilot programs in France, Germany, Luxembourg, and Switzerland—creating multiple entry points for both established players and newcomers.

Mobileye is playing a key role as a technology provider, partnering with multiple automakers and mobility operators. Its pilot already runs in Hamburg, Germany with passengers and safety drivers, with fully driverless service expected by 2026.

Wayve tests on public roads in several cities. ADASTEC, collaborating with Turkish OEM Karsan, has deployed its SAE Level 4 autonomous bus in Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, with ongoing pilots in urban and airport settings.

But the most aggressive international expansion comes from Chinese firms. Baidu plans to launch robotaxi operations in Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK. Pony.ai’s recent pilot in Luxembourg illustrates its strategy to align with EU regulations and establish operational credibility in Western markets. WeRide is pursuing parallel strategies across multiple European cities.

Source: S&P

These aren’t just technology demonstrations—they’re strategic positioning to capture first-mover advantages before American giants fully engage internationally.

The Robobus Advantage: China’s Tactical Edge

Chinese companies have identified a tactical opening that could accelerate their European expansion: autonomous buses.

Robobuses face significantly lower technical barriers than robotaxis. Operating on fixed routes with predetermined stops, they don’t require the dynamic navigation capabilities needed for on-demand ride-hailing. This makes them easier to deploy, and faster to approve.

Chinese companies are strategically prioritizing robobus deployments alongside robotaxis to accelerate adoption. These vehicles fit naturally into European transit ecosystems, supplementing strained municipal bus systems while demonstrating autonomous technology’s viability to regulators and the public.

The approach is proving effective. Chinese autonomous bus deployments are advancing faster than robotaxi approvals across Europe, building operational experience, safety records, and political relationships that will support broader autonomous mobility rollouts.

For cities struggling with public transport driver shortages and rising costs, fixed-route autonomous buses offer immediate practical value—creating receptive local partners eager to pilot the technology.

Why Europe Needs Autonomous Vehicles

Europe’s push toward autonomous mobility isn’t driven by technological fascination—it’s a response to converging economic and policy pressures that make driverless vehicles increasingly necessary.

Cities are under constant pressure to cut emissions, ease congestion, and accelerate the shift toward shared, electrified transport. Autonomous fleets—whether robotaxis or robobuses—fit neatly into this agenda by lowering cost-per-kilometer and boosting efficiency. When integrated into Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platforms, they make multi-modal journeys smoother: one app to plan, book, and pay across trains, buses, and AVs.

The labor market amplifies the urgency. Public transport systems across Europe struggle with driver shortages, aggravated by high wage levels in places like Switzerland, an aging workforce, and waning appeal of the job for younger generations. Add policies such as London’s congestion fees and low-emission zones, and the economics tilt further toward electric, autonomous fleets.

The long-term vision extends beyond passenger transport. Eventually, autonomous vehicles could transform hub-to-hub freight and logistics automation across the continent.

Opportunities and Challenges: A Complex Landscape

Europe offers compelling opportunities for US and Chinese autonomous vehicle companies, but success requires navigating distinct operational, regulatory, and geopolitical challenges.

The opportunities are substantial. Strong government support for mobility innovation creates favorable conditions. Premium markets like Switzerland provide high-cost environments where autonomous technology delivers faster ROI. First movers can convert pilot projects into profitable, long-term commercial operations, leveraging urban demand.

But the challenges are equally significant. For Chinese firms, Europe’s strict regulatory landscape around data governance, cybersecurity, and localization creates substantial barriers. Autonomous vehicles generate sensitive data subject to stringent GDPR rules and national security considerations.

Several EU countries restrict foreign access to or storage of critical geospatial data, making it difficult for Chinese companies to operate without local infrastructure and transparent data-sharing frameworks. This isn’t just regulatory compliance—it’s a trust barrier that affects public acceptance, political support, and long-term viability.

European players, such as Wayve, familiar with local regulations and backed by established compliance infrastructure, enjoy structural advantages. They operate within the regulatory ecosystem rather than adapting to it, reducing friction with authorities and building public confidence more easily.

Infrastructure variability across European markets compounds these challenges. Unlike China’s coordinated smart city rollouts or America’s relatively consistent urban patterns, Europe presents 27 different regulatory environments, dozens of languages, and centuries of accumulated infrastructure diversity.

Success requires more than technical capability—it demands deep ecosystem integration, adaptive regulatory strategy, and patient relationship-building with local governments, transit agencies, and the public.

Looking Ahead: First-Mover Advantages and Long-Term Competition

Waymo’s potential London entry—if confirmed—marks an important strategic moment, but the company arrives to find Chinese competitors already executing on international expansion strategies that began years ago.

Baidu, Pony.ai, and WeRide are establishing operational footholds, building local partnerships, and demonstrating technology to European regulators while Waymo was consolidating its US market position. These early-mover advantages matter—first deployments shape regulatory frameworks, and first successes build public confidence that later entrants must work harder to earn.

But the race remains open. Chinese firms’ lead in Europe is measured in months and small-scale pilots, not years of commercial operations. If Waymo can successfully adapt to London while maintaining its industry-leading safety record, the company’s technical credibility could overcome Chinese firms’ timing advantage.

The competition will ultimately turn on execution: which companies can navigate complex regulations, build trusted local partnerships, deliver consistent safety performance, and achieve unit economics that support sustainable operations. Technology alone won’t determine winners—operational excellence, regulatory sophistication, and cultural adaptation will prove equally important.

One thing seems certain: the autonomous vehicle race is no longer just happening in Phoenix, San Francisco, and Chinese megacities. The global competition has begun, and Europe is the proving ground where American technology, Chinese operational scale, and European innovation will directly confront each other.

🔗 The Telegraph / Forbes / S&P Global / Bloomberg (1) / Bloomberg (2)

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🌏 Chinese AV Companies Accelerate Middle East Push as Commercial Launch Nears

Above, we examined how Chinese autonomous vehicle players are moving early in Europe to establish first-mover advantages. But Europe isn’t their only target. This week underscored just how aggressively Chinese AV companies are also pressing into the Middle East—an emerging hotbed for robotaxi deployment, backed by sovereign wealth, smart-city agendas, and favorable regulation.

Dubai Becomes the Testing Ground for Chinese Robotaxi Ambitions

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority delivered a clear timeline this week: commercial robotaxi services will launch in the first quarter of 2026, with Chinese companies leading the charge. The announcement caps months of intensive testing that has seen Chinese firms deploy substantial vehicle fleets across the emirate.

Currently, 60 autonomous vehicles are conducting trials across Dubai—50 operated by Baidu’s Apollo Go and 10 by WeRide. The scope is expanding. Apollo Go received 50 additional autonomous driving trial licenses from Dubai authorities this week, allowing it to double its fleet size in the UAE to around 100 cars.

Baidu has moved with particular speed since beginning work with Dubai’s RTA in March. By April, the first batch of vehicles had arrived. Road trials started in May. Within just four and a half months, 50 cars were deployed for testing—and now that number is set to double with the new permits.

The testing has yielded the first safety metrics. Liang Zhang, Managing Director of EMEA at Baidu Apollo, reported that the company provided “at least 40 trips to invited passengers from RTA, and it was 100 percent success with zero intervention from the safety driver.” More broadly, Apollo Go’s RT6 vehicles have completed hundreds of trial rides across areas including Jumeirah, Dubai Festival City, and Zabeel with zero safety incidents reported.

By July, Baidu secured Dubai’s first autonomous driving test license plate (No. 001) and open-road permits, authorizing operations in zones covering over 400 square kilometers of the city. The company now operates in some of Dubai’s busiest districts and plans to expand its fleet to more than 1,000 fully driverless vehicles over the next three years.

Chinese Players Eye Southeast Asia and Australia

The Middle East operations are serving as a launchpad for broader international ambitions. Halton Niu, general manager for Apollo Go’s overseas business, used a Bloomberg TV interview this week to outline Baidu’s global expansion targets—revealing the scope of Chinese companies’ international aspirations.

“Beyond that, we’re talking with governments in Southeast Asia and also Australia,” Niu confirmed, noting that Apollo Go is “in talks with governments in Australia and parts of Southeast Asia to explore bringing autonomous vehicles to those markets.”

The expansion strategy leverages economic advantages that Chinese companies have built through their domestic operations. Apollo Go has achieved unit-level profitability in several Chinese cities—not just Wuhan, where it operates its largest fleet, but across multiple markets where the division operates at scale without human drivers.

“Each vehicle can be profitable today. Each single unit can be profitable, in several cities in mainland China,” Niu explained, though he noted that Apollo Go achieving profitability as an entire division remains “still some time away.”

This unit-level profitability provides crucial validation for international expansion. Chinese companies can point to unit-level profitable operations when pitching international partners and regulators.

The lower cost of Chinese vehicles—benefiting from China’s advanced electric vehicle supply chain—gives them a competitive edge over American rivals like Waymo. This cost advantage becomes particularly compelling in emerging markets where price sensitivity is higher than in premium US cities.

Baidu isn’t alone in these global ambitions. Pony AI announced plans to deploy 1,000 robotaxis across the Middle East by 2028.

Funding the Next Wave

Meanwhile, other Chinese AV firms are working to secure the capital required to match these ambitions.

Momenta, backed by heavyweights like Temasek, Tencent, and Toyota, is seeking to raise several hundred million dollars at a valuation north of $5 billion. The Beijing-based startup already partners with Uber in Europe (Munich pilot slated for 2026) and sells ADAS tech to OEMs such as GM and SAIC. A new funding round would position Momenta for an eventual IPO and keep it competitive with Baidu, Pony, and WeRide as they accelerate abroad.

Pony AI and WeRide both went public in the US last year, fueling hopes for a revival of Chinese tech listings despite autonomous driving remaining a flashpoint in US-China rivalry.

Rather than operating vehicles themselves, companies like Momenta prefer providing underlying technology and partnering with carmakers and ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Grab to deploy fleets.

Strategic Implications: First-Mover Advantages in Emerging Markets

The aggressive international expansion by Chinese autonomous vehicle companies represents more than opportunistic market development—it’s a strategic race to establish first-mover advantages before American companies fully engage globally.

Chinese firms are leveraging several structural advantages: proven operational experience at scale in their home market, lower vehicle costs enabled by China’s EV supply chain, and willingness to adapt business models and data practices to local requirements.

The Middle East provides an ideal testing ground for this strategy. Countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia offer supportive regulatory environments, substantial financial resources, and strong political motivation to showcase technological leadership. Success there creates operational experience, safety records, and case studies that can be leveraged for expansion into more challenging markets.

For American companies like Waymo and Tesla, the Chinese expansion creates a strategic dilemma. Continuing to focus on domestic market consolidation risks ceding international first-mover advantages to Chinese competitors. But premature international expansion could strain resources and expose technical or operational weaknesses in unfamiliar regulatory environments.

What’s clear is that the global autonomous vehicle race is accelerating, with Chinese companies currently setting the pace in markets beyond their borders.

🔗 Gulf News (1) / Gulf News (2) / Bloomberg (1) / Bloomberg (2) / WSJ (1) / WSJ (2)

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💡 Quick Takes

💼 Waymo for Business: Robotaxis as a Corporate Perk

Waymo has launched “Waymo for Business,” letting companies open accounts so employees can commute via robotaxi in Phoenix, LA, and SF. Early adopters like Carvana can subsidize rides, set geo-fenced pickup zones, and monitor budgets through a new portal. It’s Waymo’s first structured B2B push—turning robotaxis from a consumer novelty into a corporate mobility benefit

🔗 TechCrunch

📈 Kodiak AI Goes Public

Kodiak AI completed its SPAC merger with Ares Acquisition Corp II, listing on Nasdaq under ticker KDK with a $2.5 billion valuation and raising $212.5 million. The public listing provides capital for commercial scaling but also brings scrutiny on deployment timelines and path to profitability.

🔗 Transport Topics

🚗 Uber, Lucid & Nuro: First Gravity Delivered

Lucid has handed over the first Gravity SUV to Nuro for retrofitting, kicking off the massive 20,000-vehicle robotaxi deal with Uber. The prototype, now undergoing integration with Nuro’s driver stack in California, marks the start of a massive contract. Getting from engineering prototypes to full deployment won’t be easy, but the guaranteed order volume—something rarely seen in AV deals—may reshape how car manufacturers, AV stack developers, and ride-hailing companies divide economics in the robotaxi era.

🔗 The Verge

🚚 Gatik Plans 50-Truck Canadian Deployment

Gatik will operate 50 self-driving freight trucks in Canada by end of 2026 under a $50 million deal with supermarket chain Loblaw, starting with 20 trucks this year. The vehicles will run dedicated routes in the greater Toronto area and move to fully driverless operation within months of public road deployment. If achieved, this would be North America’s largest self-driving truck deployment, signaling autonomous freight is gaining commercial traction beyond pilot programs.

🔗 Bloomberg

🇸🇦 Tier IV + Elm target Saudi Vision 2030

TIER IV signed an MOU with Saudi digital services firm Elm to develop autonomous mobility solutions adapted to Saudi Arabia’s driving environment and regulations. The partnership aims to make 15% of Saudi public transportation autonomous by 2030 under Vision 2030 economic diversification plans, combining TIER IV’s Autoware platform with local engineering talent development.

🔗 PR Newswire

📝 Zoox Seeks Commercial Robotaxi Approval

Zoox submitted a petition to NHTSA for exemption from eight federal motor vehicle safety standards to enable commercial deployment of its purpose-built robotaxis, which lack traditional steering wheels and pedals. This follows Zoox’s August demonstration exemption and free public robotaxi service launch in Las Vegas, positioning the company for potential commercial operations. NHTSA is reviewing the application and will seek public comment, with approval potentially enabling one of the first purpose-built robotaxi services in the US.

🔗 Tech Crunch

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📚 Worth Reading/Listening

Junko Yoshida: Has Waymo Gone End-to-End AI?

🔗 Junko's Tech Probe

Harry Campbell: Fleet Management for an AV Future with Tower Mobility

🔗 Driverless Digest

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🏢 AV Industry Jobs

Vehicle Testing Specialist | 📍Stuttgart, Germany On-Site | Full-Time | €26–28/hr | 1-Year Contract via Eric Garcia

Autonomous Vehicle Operator – Data Collection | 📍 Stuttgart, Germany On-Site | Full-Time | €20–22/hr | 12-Month Contract via Eric Garcia

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📊 Weekly Performance

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