Autonomous is safer
(5min read) Plus: Can Congress kill California's EV mandate?
Welcome to CoMotion NEWS, your weekly roundup of news and analysis of the mobility revolution. If this email was forwarded, you can sign up here for NEWS.
Last week was a big one for mobility, and not just because of the fun that was had at CoMotion MIAMI. In the grand scheme of things, the big story has to be Waymo’s crash data: it turns out they’re already way safer than human drivers. Is this a glimpse into a future without an epidemic of road carnage? It’s early yet, but there’s a lot of cause for hope. Uber and Toyota, which are both upping their AV involvement, certainly think so.
Also: The federal government might kill California’s EV mandate, but at least 1,000 lucky people in the Golden State will still get an e-bike voucher. Plus, Indian scooter maker Ather Energy notches a big IPO, Ford EV sales plummet, and cash-strapped transit agencies across the country are considering massive service cuts.
What you need to know
Waymo is a way better driver than you: In a peer-reviewed study in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention, Waymo shows that the 56.7 million miles its driverless vehicles have traveled in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix have resulted in vastly fewer crashes than would have occurred with human-operated cars. There were 92% fewer crashes with pedestrians, 85% fewer serious injury crashes and 81% fewer crashes that triggered airbags. Assuming the data is legit, this is a major boost to the case for the expansion of robotaxis in jurisdictions that have been spooked by high-profile AV crashes.
…and Toyota notices: The Japanese automaker inks a deal with Waymo to collaborate on a new autonomous vehicle platform designed for personal vehicles.
Can Congress repeal California’s EV mandate? The House of Representatives votes to rescind the EPA waiver granted to California by President Joe Biden, which allowed the state to put in place aggressive EV mandates. Because California is such a large market, its rules have tremendous influence on the broader U.S. auto industry. There is debate about whether Congress actually has the authority to revoke the waiver; the Government Accountability Office and the Senate parliamentarian have said it does not. The Senate has yet to act. Hello Supreme Court?
“Great cities are built around transportation, and world-class cities need a world-class transportation and transit system.”
On the latest episode of Mobility Matters, John Rossant, Founder & CEO of CoMotion sits down with the Executive Director of Citizens' Independent Transportation Trust, Javier A. Betancourt for a riverting conversation on all things future mobility — how a call with Google sparked the beginning of CoMotion, why Jackonsville is taking the lead on Autonomy, how South Florida is the ideal place for Advanced Aerial Mobility to take off, and why paella was served at lunch during CoMotion MIAMI.
More robo-taxi partners for Uber: The ride-hailing giant announces a deal with Chinese AV company Momenta to begin integrating its robotaxis into its app in Europe in 2026. Meanwhile, May Mobility, another Uber partner, announces that it will begin offering autonomous rides through the Uber app in the Dallas area towards the end of this year. And remember, Waymo is already collaborating with Uber in Austin and Atlanta.
Ather’s IPO exceeds expectations: Ather Energy, the Indian electric moped maker, raises $352 million at a $1.4 billion valuation, exceeding the $308 million target it had set the week before. It looks like investors still see potential for Ather to claim a large share of what they anticipate will be an enormous market for electric two-wheelers in India, where mopeds and motorcycles are far more common than cars.
Trump does his part for transit: America’s struggling public transit agencies certainly wouldn’t regard the Trump administration as an ally. Just about everything the president is doing on transportation appears aimed at undermining them. Except one very important thing: the trade war he’s fighting is likely to substantially raise the cost of cars, which will hopefully lead to less driving and perhaps a much-needed boost to transit ridership.
CoMotion MIAMI ‘25 was a blast!
A huge thank you to everyone that made this year’s gathering so special.
This year’s edition saw Miami-Dade County DTPW Mobility Champion Awards highlight exceptional individuals and organizations leading the way in advancing transportation solutions for residents and industry. The honorees were Miami-Dade Commission Vice Chairman Kionne McGhee; Commissioners Marleine Bastien, Micky Steinberg, Roberto Gonzalez, and Sen. Rene Garcia; U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Panama Kevin Marino Cabrera; the Citizens’ Independent Trust; Transit Alliance Miami; COMTO Miami Chapter; and the Miami Marlins. Congratulations to all!
The brightest startups in transportation visibility pitched their solutions as part of the MDIA’s Enhancing Transportation Visibility Challenge — CityData.ai; Vaidio; AIWaysion — with a chance to win $100K investment and pilot in Miami.
John Rossant, CEO, CoMotion, and Mauricio Rodas, Former Mayor of Quito, Ecuador, announced the launch of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Investment Taskforce (SUMIT).
ICEX organized a roundtable lunch on Infrastructure, Technology and Advanced Mobility with a delegation of 9 cutting-edge Spanish companies discussing solutions and success stories from Shotl, Interlight, LLYC, imotion Analytics, Indra, SICE, NaviLens, Brandbits, and IDOM.
And we announced a brand new gathering — CoMotion GLOBAL in Riyadh, Dec 7-9, 2025.
Relive the magic from CoMotion MIAMI through our official event photos, now available on the CoMotion Flickr account.
Couldn’t join us in person? Replay the live sessions here.
California’s e-bike voucher lottery: California is restarting its e-bike voucher program, which offers residents up to $2,000 to buy an e-bike, after the inaugural rollout in December resulted in all 1,500 vouchers being claimed in under an hour. In the second iteration, there are about 1,000 vouchers available, but instead of first-come-first-serve, the state will hold a lottery among those who log onto the website at the designated time. Why is the state offering such large incentives to so few people? Why not offer smaller vouchers –– perhaps $500 –– to four times as many?
Aurora launches commercial driverless trucking: After more than four years of testing, Aurora Innovation, the Pittsburgh AV startup, announces it is launching commercial autonomous freight trucking between Dallas and Houston. It will be shipping about 100 loads of freight a week for customers.
San Francisco’s first curbside EV chargers: The city installs its first two curbside charging stations, the first step towards its plan to eventually put in place 1,500 chargers, hopefully making EVs more attractive to car owners without access to off-street parking. The program, run jointly by the SFMTA and the city of San Francisco, depends on several private sector partners to monitor usage and demand, including it’s electric, Urban EV and Voltpost.
Pennsylvania confronts transit crisis: Pennsylvania legislators are battling over what to do with transit operations in the state’s two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, both of which are poised to make massive service cuts in the absence of new funding. Democrats are talking about an additional tax on Uber and Lyft rides, while Republicans, who tend to distrust transit agencies, say they want Philadelphia’s SEPTA to find a private sector partner to take over bus operations.
Ford EV sales plummet: The Dearborn automaker sold 40% fewer EVs in April than during the same month last year. Sales of both the Mustang Mach-E and the F-150 Lightning are down, but the automaker sold 30% more hybrids.
What we’re reading
Higher fares might be fairer: As many of the nation’s major transit agencies confront budget deficits, David Zipper says they should be very wary of making service cuts that will only turn more people away from public transit. Hiking fares is probably a better way to close a budget gap, whenever possible. A modest fare increase will do less economic harm to the transit rider than reduced transit service, and the fare increase is unlikely to lead to reduced ridership, while a reduction in service almost certainly will.
CoMotion's mobility goodness brought to you by:
Jack Craver,
Editor, CoMotion NEWS
jcraver@comotionglobal.com
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