Brought to you by Autolane and the AV Coverage Checker.
The lane is changing. Every week we’ll bring you our quick take on what’s moving, what’s stalling, and who’s building the future of autonomous commerce. No fluff, all signal…and we’ll keep it brief.
The Big One This Week
Waymo Is Taking Its Riders Back From Uber. Restaurants Should Take Note.
Waymo told Bloomberg on Wednesday that it will end its exclusive deal with Uber in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028. From then on, Waymo will offer rides in its own app in both cities, the same way it does everywhere else. The current contract runs through May 2028, and Uber says it will keep hosting Waymo for as long as both sides agree.
The reason is the customer. Waymo’s co-CEO said it matters to have a direct relationship with the rider, and that riders in these two cities asked for it. She described the Uber experience as a gamble, since a rider could never be sure a Waymo would be the car that showed up. Uber tells it differently. It says it offered a dedicated robotaxi option inside its app and Waymo turned it down.
Either way, the pattern is clear. Waymo needed Uber’s scale in the early days. Once it had scale of its own, it wanted to know its riders by name.
A restaurant owner has lived this story. A delivery marketplace brings you reach, and it also keeps the customer. The order comes in under their brand, the data stays on their side, and the next time that diner is hungry, the app decides who they see first. That trade makes sense when you are new. It gets expensive when the marketplace is most of your delivery business.
Nobody is telling restaurants to leave the apps. The smarter move is the one Waymo is making on a long timeline. Keep using the marketplace for reach, and build a direct line to your own customers so you are never starting from zero.
Autolane offers two ways to do that. Autolane Courier lets a customer order from a restaurant’s own menu and pay the menu price plus a flat $1.99, with no tip. And in Austin, one of the two cities in this story, Autolane runs the autonomous fleet behind TSO Chinese Delivery & Takeout’s deliveries, with Nash deciding which orders go autonomous. 👉 goautolane.com/autolane-courier
image source: Autolane
AV Roundup
Tesla’s Texas robotaxi fleet is 15 cars behind Waymo’s. Texas registration records now list 1,244 Tesla robotaxis against 1,259 for Waymo, and 573 of Tesla’s are Cybercabs. Registered does not mean carrying riders, and Tesla has said it is building Cybercabs faster than it can put them to work. Cybercab rides are expected in Dallas this month.
Uber says AI agents booked 4 rides in its busiest week. On its earnings call, Uber said that during Halloween week, out of about 320 million trips and orders, AI agents booked just 4 rides and placed about 500 Uber Eats orders. Its CEO called the traction very early and very limited. After last week’s split between Amazon and Walmart over AI shoppers, this is a useful reality check on how many orders actually start with an agent today.
Tesla takes the Cybercab to Detroit and Europe. About two dozen Cybercabs are now testing around Metro Detroit, running alongside Waymo, according to the Detroit News. The test cars carry temporary steering wheels and test drivers. Separately, Tesla’s nine-stop European Cybercab tour opens Thursday at Auto Zurich and runs into January.
The Last 50 Ft Podcast
This week on The Last 50 Ft, Cam sits down with Conor Begley of Fathers Brewing. Conor sold a startup for $70 million, then took on a very different business in beer, and the conversation follows that jump from tech to a physical product. They dig into what carried over, what did not, and how a small brand thinks about getting its product to customers. It is a good listen for anyone building something real. 🎧
👉 Watch on YouTube | Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎧
Autonomous Commerce Brief Take
Everyone in this week’s brief is working on the same question. Who gets to own the customer.
Waymo spent years renting its riders from Uber and decided it wanted to know them. Uber just reminded us that almost no one starts an order with an AI agent, so the app on the phone still holds the relationship. Tesla keeps adding cars and will eventually want its riders too.
If you run a restaurant, that is your cue. Use every channel that sends you hungry people, and keep a direct line of your own. A customer who knows your name and your menu will find you again no matter whose app is in front of them.
The lane is changing. Let’s make sure it leads somewhere worth going. 🏁
Subscribe to the Autonomous Commerce Brief at goautolane.com/newsletter-signup
Join the Autolane Courier waitlist at goautolane.com/autolane-courier