All articles tagged with #autonomous driving
Chinese automakers, led by Huawei-backed Maextro with its S800, are pushing into the luxury EV space by offering advanced software, autonomy, and lower prices to take on Rolls‑Royce, Mercedes‑Maybach and BMW, signaling a rising upmarket challenge to European ultra-luxury brands.
Beijing Auto Show 2026 set a record for size and premieres, signaling a shift in which China leads electrification and AI-enabled driving across price tiers. The show showcased high-tech features like lidar, drive-by-wire, and AI chips across affordable and flagship models—from XPeng’s Level 4-focused GX and Li Auto’s L9 Livis, to Geely’s robotaxi EVA Cab and a wave of affordable lidar-equipped EVs. Global automakers partner with Chinese suppliers (Huawei, ByteDance, Momenta, Qualcomm), VW rolls out a range-extended ID. Era 9X, and even a flying-car “land carrier” by Aridge. With Xiaomi’s Vision Gran Turismo concept and other bold concepts, the event underscores China’s rising dominance in EV tech, AI, and new mobility formats rather than a cheap-versus-premium divide.
Elon Musk acknowledged that Tesla’s Hardware 3 cannot deliver unsupervised Full Self-Driving, contradicting years of promises; the company is shifting to Hardware 4 and possible retrofits, but execution timelines, costs, and ongoing legal actions are weighing on investors and raising questions about autonomy timelines and the stock.
Tesla’s upcoming Q1 report is expected to show about $22.2 billion in revenue with earnings around 37 cents a share, but investors are focusing on the company’s long‑term bets—robotaxi expansion, humanoid robots, and potential SpaceX ties—over the near‑term results, amid questions about scaling, regulatory hurdles, and the pace of rollout in new cities.
Tesla’s robotaxi service began in Dallas, but a rider’s experience exposed ongoing reliability and safety concerns: after a long app wait, the vehicle navigated city streets, missed an exit, and briefly pulled onto an 80–90 mph highway before a human operator took over and steered it off. The 11-mile, 54-minute ride wandered to the wrong location and a hotel loop before being redirected, costing about $18. The incident illustrates the promise of autonomous ride-hailing alongside persistent glitches and skepticism about readiness for everyday use.
Uber has expanded a broad slate of robotaxi partnerships with Zoox, Wayve-Nissan, Rivian and others to keep the market open and competitive by avoiding a single dominant supplier. Positioned as the demand aggregator, Uber aims to attract investment into a diversified ecosystem rather than chase one winner. While this could expand the overall ride-hailing market and give Uber more negotiating leverage, most partners have yet to deploy fully driverless paid services and cost/scale remain the main challenges.
Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai and Kia) expands its partnership with NVIDIA to accelerate data-driven autonomous driving using the DRIVE Hyperion platform, enabling Level 2+ deployment in select vehicles and Level 4 robotaxi development via Motional, by uniting SDV capabilities, large fleet data, and NVIDIA's AI/accelerated computing across production vehicles with ongoing data collection, training, simulation and deployment.
Tesla has doubled down on a vision-only approach, removing radar and relying on eight cameras and a neural-network world model to drive autonomy. The company argues sensor fusion with radar/LiDAR creates conflicting data that can undermine safety, a stance it has pursued since 2021, with radar still present on some cars but not used for FSD. Tesla trains depth and velocity from vast camera data using ground-truth measurements from auxiliary sensors, and uses a foveated processing approach to keep compute scalable by focusing high-res on distant “priority” regions while downsampling the rest. The gamble aims for cheaper, scalable autonomy, contrasting with rivals’ sensor-fusion stacks.
Geely, which controls Volvo, plans to build cars in the U.S. via Volvo’s South Carolina plant, but a new Commerce Department rule requires that all software and connectivity tech be free of Chinese control. Software for model years 2027+ must be certified, with per-model/year authorizations, and hardware bans begin for 2030; no waivers have been issued yet. Volvo may help navigate approvals, but Geely would need to prove software origin and data governance for every model/year before selling in America.
Uber is set to report Q4 and full-year results, with analysts expecting EPS of $0.79 on $14.32 billion in revenue. Beyond the headline numbers, Uber is advancing autonomous-driving pilots with partners like Nvidia, expanding Uber Eats partnerships with Kroger and Loblaw, and possibly exploring mobility-related acquisitions. Options traders anticipate about a 7% post-earnings move, while analysts maintain a Strong Buy with an average target of $112.40 for roughly 44% upside.
A leaked photo of the upcoming 2027 Mercedes S-Class hints at a facelifted design with star-pattern DRLs and a black-framed grille inspired by the E-Class, likely AMG-Line styling, and rumors of a new flat-plane V8 plus enhanced autonomous driving tech ahead of the official reveal.
Tesla will stop selling FSD as a one-time purchase and will require new buyers to subscribe for $99 per month after February 14. Three owners offered mixed views—from safety concerns and reluctance to pay a recurring fee to enthusiasm for the ongoing tech and hopes prices may eventually drop. Analysts say the move signals growing confidence in FSD, but prices could rise and bundles or license transfers for existing buyers may emerge as the program evolves.
Tesla’s robotaxi rollout remains limited and not fully autonomous, despite Musk’s public promises of a seismic financial shift. With robotaxi service in Austin and the Bay Area requiring safety monitors, two locations only by early 2026, and core EV sales down in 2025, investors are reassessing Tesla’s growth path as Waymo and BYD gain ground in autonomous driving. Safety investigations add to the challenge, suggesting a looming reckoning if robotaxis don’t deliver on expectations set by Musk.
Tesla’s ambitious robotaxi program, once touted as a transformative profit engine, has lagged behind promises and remains available in only two metros with safety monitors on board. As the company’s core EV sales slump (down 9% in 2025) and rivals like BYD take the lead, analysts warn that overblown robotaxi projections threaten Tesla’s growth story and share price, especially as Waymo expands autonomous rides and safety investigations mount.
Top investor Daniel Sparks questions Tesla’s long‑term bull case, citing high capex near $9B and the potential for a costly, commoditized robotaxi market with tight margins; despite Q4 delivery declines, TSLA trades above $440 and analysts yield a cautious view (mostly Hold) with downside risk to targets.