Robotaxis are in their “study abroad” era

TL;DR: Like an intrepid traveler collecting passport stamps, robotaxis are about to hit the road in a slew of cities around the world. This week, Uber revealed plans to bring robotaxis to its network in Japan and said it’s teaming up with three different AV tech providers—the latest example of robotaxi companies leveraging partnerships to boost growth plans. It seems that analysts’ predictions that 2026 would be the year that robotaxis meaningfully scaled beyond the US and China were on point.

What happened: Uber, Nissan, and Wayve (an AV tech provider) announced on Wednesday that they plan to launch a robotaxi service in Japan—with a trial run kicking off in Tokyo later this year. Nissan will supply the vehicles, outfitted with Wayve’s end-to-end autonomous driving software, and Uber will work with a licensed taxi partner to offer autonomous rides on its network (and the ride-hailing giant said today that it’s adding new robotaxis to its network in Las Vegas).

The companies described the move in Japan as “the next milestone” in their global robotaxi rollout, which “includes planned services across more than 10 cities worldwide, including London.” Robotaxis from numerous companies are already ferrying riders around cities in China and a limited but expanding number of cities in the US, as well as making forays into the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of Asia. Chinese robotaxi companies are behind many of these moves—opening yet another front in the US-China tech competition, even as American companies like Uber and Lyft lend their platforms to companies around the world.

New market opportunity: Robotaxi companies see Japan as a natural next step for expansion because of the country’s demographic trends. “When you layer in Japan’s aging and shrinking population, it becomes clear that the demand for autonomous vehicle solutions is at an inflection point,” Tom Tang, chief people and customer operations officer for AV company May Mobility (which operates in Japan), told Tech Brew, citing driver shortages in the country.

Teamwork makes the dream work: Like a college senior, the AV sector is in networking mode. Uber has been on a partnership spree, with more than two dozen deals announced in the last couple of years.

Earlier this week, Amazon-owned Zoox said it’s teaming up with Uber to put its AVs on the ride-hailing company’s platform in Las Vegas later this year and in Los Angeles next year. And today, Hyundai-backed Motional announced that Uber riders traveling to and from a handful of destinations in Las Vegas can now match with Ioniq 5 robotaxis. Riders can accept or decline a driverless ride—and there’s an option in the Uber app for customers to indicate their preference.

Partnering with ride-share companies “can save billions of dollars and many years by leveraging” those networks’ customer bases, Tang said. May Mobility has partnerships with Uber, Lyft, and Grab (a Southeast Asia-based “superapp”).

The bottom line: For years, robotaxis have been limited to a handful of US markets like San Francisco and Phoenix, and to major cities in China like Beijing and Shanghai. Now, the industry is in growth mode, with players like Waymo and Uber racing to significantly scale their AV operations. But some regulatory hurdles remain: New York still requires a human behind the wheel, keeping the largest US taxi market off-limits to robotaxis for now. —JG