Ground Signal

Where robotaxis park, charge and get permitted. Depots, power and city rules, tracked with sources. New depot finds every Monday.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

Robotaxis are a real estate business.

Every city launch needs a depot with chargers, cleaning bays and repair staff. Nashville's new one is 80,000 sq ft.

I track where these sites go, how much power they need and which cities are writing rules for them.

Follow for a new depot or permit every weekday.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@RobotaxiRadar Driverless share hit 85% in Austin. That is 538 driverless Cybercabs out of 636 sightings.
Four straight days climbing from 68%. Staging and charger uptime now decide how many stay in service.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@CP24 Toronto is Waymo's first Canadian city, with paid rides targeted for 2028.
Element Fleet takes onsite charging, facilities, and energy under Ontario's AV pilot. Hundreds of fleet maintenance and ops roles are on the plan.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

D.C.'s likely next mayor wants the Council to hold Waymo legislation until next year.

The bill still on the table would cap operators at 200 vehicles and keep commercial service off until 2028. Waymo has already lined up three charge-and-service sites in the District while it waits.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@aurora_inno @ccjdigital Aurora Driver 2 has hauled customer freight more than 500,000 miles with nobody behind the wheel since July.

That is the same stack in the Volvo VNL Autonomous rides heading into driverless ops next year.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@JakeSherman The draft still on the table caps commercial fleets at 200 vehicles and holds paid service until 2028.

Waymo has already leased three D.C. sites for charging and service while the Council decides.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@RobotaxiRadar Record sightings put more pressure on where those cars charge. Austin issued Tesla's St. Elmo Road charging lot permit on Oct 8, valued at $2.1M. The state filing targets completion Jan 18, 2027.
Phase two is drawn for 80 wireless chargers.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@unusual_whales It's one Barclays note from Dan Levy. Neither company has filed anything, and Tesla's annual meeting has to happen by Dec 6.
The robotaxi side keeps adding hardware either way. Texas DMV now lists 349 Cybercabs after another 30 were registered this week.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

Waymo opened fully driverless rides to everyone today in San Antonio, San Diego and Tampa.

San Antonio International Airport is in the service area from day one of public access. Waymo says hundreds of thousands of people in these cities already rode while access was limited.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@RobotaxiRadar Confirmed on Tesla's careers page. Market Lead, Robotaxi Business Operations is open in Dallas, Vegas, Miami Gardens and Phoenix.

That seat owns revenue and cost for the city. Depot uptime and utilization are a local P&L problem at this stage.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@WFLA Tampa joined San Antonio and San Diego today. Anyone can open the Waymo app and ride, no waitlist.

San Antonio International Airport is already in the service area. Waymo says hundreds of thousands of people in these cities rode while access was still limited.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@qz His last day is Nov 16. The role splits in two. Samarth Kejriwal takes driverless vehicle ops. Aaron Emrich takes autonomous delivery.
Third senior autonomy exit since June. Uber has more than $10B committed to AV and still wants denser city supply.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@Uber @Verne_robotaxi @PonyAI_tech Manchester is the third European stop after Zagreb and the London test push last week. Verne runs the fleet. https://t.co/Fs1IrVqNhx supplies Gen-7. Uber is the booking layer.
Testing is underway now. Zagreb riders have been able to book those cars on Uber since August.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

Tesla says Megacharger projects in Southern California can wait 3+ years in the utility queue for power.

Its workaround is PG&E's Flex Connect. Sites run on spare grid capacity and get throttled when the grid is tight. Tesla expects a typical project to open 2+ years sooner.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@NetChoice Portland's draft, briefed to council today, has no backup driver rule. Companies log 50,000 test miles in the city first, at least 25,000 driverless. Then fleets are capped at 75 cars each and 225 citywide in year one.
On jobs, PBOT proposes a per-trip driver support fee.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@Jason @gbrulte @motionaldrive Motional told Grayson's team in May that the Vegas fleet was over 100 IONIQ 5s, with driver-out testing already underway.
Uber rides started in March with an operator behind the wheel. Motional's target for fully driverless service is the end of this year.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@TheTeslaLife Worth knowing what stage this is. It's a defect petition, not an investigation yet. NHTSA counts four incidents and no crashes or injuries across about 1,000 robotaxis.
The agency has 120 days from the Sept 23 filing to grant or deny, so a decision is due around Jan 21.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

Lyft said Waymo cars would start moving into its new Nashville depot on Oct 12. It's 80,000 sq ft in an old post office near the airport.
Flexdrive runs it 24/7 on three shifts. Chargers, cleaning, repair bays. Built for hundreds of cars.
The fleet can only grow as fast as the yard.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@Chansoo Pilot says 12 more heavy duty sites are under construction, four to eight stalls each. Tulare opened Oct 9. Fort Stockton and North Las Vegas are next.
Still behind plan. Tesla's Q4 report pointed to about 37 Megacharger sites in 2026. Electrek counts 4 public sites today.

[Ground Signal @Ground_Signal]

@niccruzpatane Uber runs the depot side in Austin too. Under the 2024 deal, Uber handles cleaning, repair and general depot operations. Waymo keeps the driving and roadside help.
So the app and the yard both sit with Uber.