Waymo exists. Sort of.
You can hail one in San Francisco. You can probably see them gliding past. But saying robotaxis have “arrived” feels like saying a toddler who walked to the cookie jar is now a professional sprinter. Technically yes. Spiritually no.
It’s conditional.
Waymo paused services in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Why? Because rain. Specifically, the kind of rain that floods roads. The cars couldn’t decide whether to drive through or stay dry. A classic edge case. So the company pulled the plug.
Then they extended that pause to Austin and Nashville.
Right after that pause another one happened. Waymo stopped letting robotaxi’s drive on freeways in SF LA Phoenix and Miami. They are trying to figure out construction zones.
This is the reality for now. Launching isn’t finishing. It’s just the beginning of fixing things.
Waymo leads the pack in fleet size and actual rides taken. That matters. But every new city unlocks new weirdness.
Musk’s family reunion
I skipped my usual “little bird” tips this week. Space is big this time around.
Specifically the SpaceX IPO filing. It landed last week and it exposes how intertwined Elon Musk’s companies really are. I usually don’t write about space but this involves Tesla too. And money moving between pockets.
The filing shows the details. SpaceX isn’t just rockets. It buys Tesla batteries. Lots of them. $506 million worth of Megapacks in 2025 alone. That is a threefold jump from the year before.
They bought Cybertrucks too. $131 million worth.
They paid The Boring Company $1 million to dig tunnels in Bastrop Texas. And Musk’s social media firm X—now merged into SpaceX after being acquired by xAI—leased space from The Boring for another $1 million.
Tesla’s investment in xAI turned into SpaceX equity after the buyout.
What comes next is bigger. Terafab a chip factory. Macrohard an AI platform using agents to help humans.
Here is the real question though. Will they merge?
Cash flow
Startups raising money this week.
- Aboard raised $13M for electric travel trailers. Pre-Series A led by Ondine Capital. Fun detail: They hired Richard Kim the guy behind the BMW i3/i8 and the dead Canoo project as a consultant.
- Quartermaster pulled $43M to make sense networks for ships. Series A from First Round and Quiet Capital.
- May Mobility partnered with Ecarx. Ecarx (backed by Geely boss Li Shufu) will supply robotaxis. Deployment next year full commercial rollout by 2028 $750M total project value.
- Scapia an Indian travel booking app got $63M led by General Catalyst.
- Uber bumped its stake in Delivery Hero to 19.5%.
Tidbits
- MIT’s Bryan Reimer gave a talk saying AI’s future hinges on trust and human behavior. Governance matters more than code maybe.
- The global EV economy is K-shaped. One country is falling behind the curve.
- Lyft published a blog saying they want both humans and bots driving. This tracks with Uber’s view. Politically it keeps gig workers calm. Practically robotaxis still aren’t everywhere.
- Nuro hired Michael Mancini as CFO. He comes from Energy Recovery and Astranis.
- Stellantis is bringing Wayve self-driving tech to cars by 2028. They also announced a $70B turnaround plan. Yes new Chryslers are coming.
- Tesla’s FSD (Supervised) is live in Lithuania. Only the second European country. This hits close to Musk’s $1Tr pay package. He needs 10 million subscriptions by 2035 to get that cash. Europe is key.
- A doctor in SF dropped his lawsuit against Waymo after they fixed the bug that called him a terrorist. Resolution reached.
Driving the Leaf again
The last time I drove a Nissan Leaf it felt… meh. It was a 2024 model. Mixed feelings.
I got into one again recently. This time a 2026 Platinum+ costing about $42k.
It felt different. Better.
The interior is lighter more modern. Upscale almost. The range improved to 259 miles EPA with some trims pushing past 300. I liked the lighting at night. My version had a wireless charger a panoramic roof a heads-up display and a wide curved screen.
I used to hate that it lacked tech for a car this price. No high-res backup cam? Unacceptable.
Not anymore. Standard now are a 360-degree cam wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and adaptive cruise.
I was happy to be back behind the wheel. Maybe Nissan finally listened.
