This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss field reports from Nashville, Dallas and Houston, takeaways from Tesla’s earnings call, Waymo’s accelerating fleet growth, a mysterious effort to stop robotaxis in Washington, D.C.
In Nashville, Grayson tours two Waymo depots near Nashville International Airport (BNA), including a hillside facility with an estimated 300-to-500-vehicle capacity that he dubs the most secure depot the show has visited. His 25-minute round of autonomy roulette on the Lyft app yielded zero matches, but the airport walk from the terminal door to the Waymo pickup zone clocked in at a seamless 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
In Dallas, which Grayson crowns the robotaxi capital of America, Waymo and Avride continue to scale as hundreds of unbadged Tesla Cybercabs sit in a staging lot near Dallas Love Field. In Houston, at the Uber/Nuro/Lucid depot, Grayson spotted just six robotaxis and zero unsupervised operations.
Turning to the Tesla earnings call, the hosts analyze FSD attach rates hitting 75%, renewed plans allowing owners to loan personal vehicles into the fleet, and the slip of the 24/7 service target to year-end. Grayson also connects the dots on why Tesla announced its four expansion cities (Las Vegas, Jacksonville, Phoenix, and San Antonio) in an order directly tracking physical depot construction.
Meanwhile, Walt reacts to a Semafor report projecting Waymo could scale to 20,000 vehicles by the end of next year, surpassing his own 15,000-vehicle estimate, as Waymo launches service at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) and eyes Madrid (2027) and Toronto (2028).
Closing out on the Foreign Autonomy Desk, a VW MOIA van was spotted testing in Europe bearing Wayve decals instead of Mobileye, while France signaled renewed regulatory backing for autonomous fleets.
Episode Chapters
0:00 Nashville Field Report
08:38 Dallas Field Report
13:20 Avis Waymo Depot Buildout in Dallas
15:36 Houston Field Report
19:55 NHTSA Administrator Morrison Interview
21:08 Tesla Earnings
25:15 Waymo and Tesla Depot Infrastructure Buildout
27:17 Semafor Report: 20,000 Waymos by End of Next Year
28:43 Tesla Unsupervised Miles and 24/7 Service
31:17 Robotaxi Pricing vs. Rideshare
33:08 Tesla’s Four New Cities and the Depot Ground Truth
33:45 Waymo's Las Vegas Airport, Madrid and Toronto Expansions
35:08 Uber Nears 100 Fully Autonomous WeRide Vehicles in the UAE
37:19 Hertz, Avis and the Depot Market
39:46 GM’s $20 Billion Buyback
45:12 People First Transportation Alliance
51:06 London Driver Protests and TfL Robotaxi Caps
51:56 Santa Monica Leases Lots to Zoox
55:01 Foreign Autonomy Desk
56:08 Next Week
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