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Hey hey, it’s a new year! I’ve missed you these past two weeks. But I’m back, and in Las Vegas for CES 2025. As always, announcements from the show came fast and furious — some more material than others.
My big takeaway: Autonomous vehicles are back, and the trough of disillusionment days are in the rearview. At least, that was the sentiment from most of the folks I spoke to while walking around the Las Vegas Convention Center. Meanwhile, U.S. automakers were absent this year with the exception of Scout Motors, the VW Group spinoff.
Waymo had its largest exhibit yet on the CES convention floor, where it showed off the Zeekr RT. There were plenty of other autonomous vehicle startups (or AV adjacent companies) with exhibits, including Applied Intuition, May Mobility, Japanese company Tier IV, Polymath Robotics, and Zoox. John Deere even got in on the automated driving action. Numerous other AV startups, as well as companies related to automated driving, had executives milling about, including folks from Aurora, Serve Robotics, and Waabi.
The mood was uplifted — excited, even — but without the same unchecked hypey-ness I experienced six or seven years ago.
Still, extreme challenges remain on the capital and operational front. Even Waymo, which arguably is the dominant force, has struggles, including an incident where a customer got stuck in one of its robotaxis.
A little bird
We love being at CES because it gives us a chance to talk to a lot of little birds in person for a change. This week, that included some of the top brass at Volkswagen Group, who had a lot of confidence in the company’s new offshoot startup Scout Motors.
Scout is still a few years away from production and is still early in the process of building its factory in Columbia, South Carolina. But Volkswagen Group expects big things from Scout. Executives said that could even include using Scout’s factory to build other vehicles as the startup ramps up production — potentially even from new VW joint venture partner Rivian, which is currently expanding its own factory in Illinois and has delayed plans for a new plant in Georgia.
Volkswagen looks at it this way: Its factories are built around producing platforms versus specific vehicles. If there are enough commonalities between various cars or SUVs in the larger portfolio — something that is bound to happen as Rivian-VW software and electrical architecture start to power more VW Group vehicles — then, in the company’s eyes, it makes sense to let them share manufacturing space and resources.
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Deals!
NXP, a Dutch semiconductor giant, plans to acquire TTTech Auto, an Austrian company that specializes in safety software for autonomous vehicles. The all-cash transaction is valued at $625 million.
NXP specializes in semiconductors for automation across industries, and it provides chips for sensors and cameras that are critical to core automated driving functions. The acquisition comes as chip companies — including Nvidia and Qualcomm — double down on providing automotive-grade supercomputers and toolkits that can help automakers offer autonomous vehicle technology.
Other deals that got my attention …
Amazon AWS entered into a 10-year, $1 billion partnership with Here, which specializes in mapping and location tech. As part of the deal, Here can use AWS’s cloud infrastructure to help auto manufacturers get the resources they need to develop and deploy automated driving features.
Serve Robotics raised $80 million from unnamed institutional investors via a direct offering. This raise came the day after Serve announced that it had raised $87 million throughout the month of December through a combination of an ATM and exercise of warrants. Together, these funds will help Serve extend its runway past 2026 and build its fleet to 2,000 sidewalk robots by the end of 2025.
Notable reads and other tidbits
CES roundup
Before we jump into the other news, here are some more CES highlights that you might have missed:
BMW is revamping its in-car user interface, starting with the Neue Klasse sedan later this year, including a widget-based system that lets users customize the layout in a way that projects visuals onto the windshield.
Delta Air Lines announced a slew of updates, including an AI-powered assistant in its app and upgraded in-flight entertainment system, complete with free onboard YouTube Premium and Music. The airline also announced an exclusive deal with Uber that will see SkyMiles members earn miles through Uber rides and deliveries.
Honda unveiled the latest in its futuristic 0 Series, a midsized electric SUV prototype called the 0 SUV. Honda promises to debut a production version of the 0 SUV in the first half of 2026.
Segway came to play this year with two sick new e-bikes. The first is Xyber, a dirt bike that’s not even road-legal yet, and the second is Xafari, a more classic, customizable step-through bike. Both are packed with tech and come in under $3,000.
Scout Motors, the VW spinoff, stood out at CES for having a more classic approach to its two vehicles, the Traveler SUV and Terra pickup. They’ve got normal door handles, optional gas-powered range extenders, and, miraculously, buttons! Instead of all touchscreens! That doesn’t mean the cars are light on tech, though; one cool feature they’ll have is built-in satellite connection.
Uber also teamed up with Nvidia this year, announcing it would use the chipmaker’s new generative world model simulation tool, Cosmos, and cloud-based AI supercomputing platform, DGX Cloud, to support the development of AVs.
Vay, the Berlin-based startup that uses teleoperations technology to have humans pilot empty vehicles to rental customers, is expanding operations in Las Vegas, with plans to increase its fleet size to 100 vehicles.
Xpeng Aero HT unveiled its “modular flying car” that’s essentially a huge electric van with a small, foldable eVTOL that can roll out and launch into the skies. And, apparently, Xpeng is getting ready to mass-produce this year.
ADAS
Tesla’s “Actual Smart Summon” feature, which lets Tesla owners use their app to summon their car to them autonomously, is under federal investigation following several crashes.
Autonomous vehicles
Aurora Innovation has lost Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as one of its board members after he resigned last week, citing a desire to focus on his responsibilities at his ride-hail and delivery company.
A Serve delivery robot and a Waymo robotaxi collided at a Los Angeles intersection. No robots were hurt, but it’s an interesting case study of what happens as our streets become filled with different types of AVs.
Electric vehicles, charging, & batteries
Lucid produced and delivered a record number of vehicles in 2024. The EV startup met its production target with 9,029 EVs and delivered 10,241 vehicles.
Rivian delivered 51,579 electric SUVs, trucks, and vans in 2024, up 3x from 2023. The company also built 49,476 EVs last year, which is 8,000 fewer than Rivian’s July guidance.
Tesla saw fewer deliveries last year compared to 2023, marking the automaker’s first ever year-to-year drop. Not even the Cybertruck, Tesla’s first true new model since 2020, boosted Tesla’s growth. (Bonus: Check out all the promises Elon Musk made for Tesla in 2024.)
Turo was involved in some seriously messy business after two individuals rented EVs from the peer-to-peer car-sharing platform and used them to perform acts of violence. First there was the guy who drove a Ford F-150 Lightning into a crowd of people, then the guy who drove a Tesla Cybertruck to the Trump hotel in Las Vegas and allegedly blew it up. Both individuals had clean records, so what could Turo have done to prevent this?
Miscellaneous
Tesla directors will now have to pay up to $919 million back to the company after a Delaware judge approved a settlement, resolving allegations that they overpaid themselves.
This week’s wheels
Within hours of landing in Las Vegas, I headed to Zoox’s operations center, which is located off the Strip. My mission: take a ride in a Zoox robotaxi. Mission accomplished. And twice, for that matter. Stay tuned for my full writeup and video in the next day. But until then, here are a few thoughts.
During my two separate Zoox trips, both of which were at night, the robotaxi handled numerous complex situations, including construction zones, two car crashes (we were not involved), double-parked vehicles, and turning right on a red light. This experience felt normal, even though logically I understood this was not normal. At least not yet.
Zoox still has a bit of work to do, though. While the robotaxi obeyed all traffic rules and operated safely, there were a few times when it hit the brakes a bit hard. The suspension could also use some work to make it a more comfortable ride.
What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.
