Autonomous Driving

Today's Stories

1. 1

   Uber expands beyond rides and food with hotels, travel, and autonomous-vehicle data play

   Uber rolled out hotel bookings (via Expedia partnership), boat rentals in Europe, and "shop for me" concierge features this year, framing the push as a travel strategy. The company also launched AV Labs six months ago, a separate business unit deploying sensor-equipped vehicles to collect driving data independently from its regular driver network. Travel represents what Uber calls "the third leg of the stool" alongside rides and delivery—1.5 billion trips yearly happen outside users' home cities. Uber One membership now has 51 million members and accounts for roughly half of bookings; the company reports cross-selling is working, with delivery-only users adopting mobility and vice versa. Uber Eats has been independently profitable for several quarters. The AV Labs data operation appears designed to give Uber leverage with autonomous-vehicle partners (including Waymo, which it competes with in some cities) while hedging its own exposure to autonomous-vehicle development.

   Uber emphasizes it is "not trying to be everything to everyone"—it partners on some services (boat rentals hand off to booking partners) and integrates deeply on others (Expedia hotels). The company wound down its Waymo pilot in Phoenix while scaling in Austin and Atlanta, and holds equity in several autonomous-vehicle partners it also competes against directly.

2. 2

   Tesla AI5 chip for self-driving completes design at Samsung

   Samsung Electronics has completed the tape-out (finalized the chip design) of its version of Tesla's AI5 chip for self-driving systems, with manufacturing planned at Samsung's Taylor, Texas facility using the company's 2nm process. The AI5 chip is central to Tesla's autonomous driving capability. By moving production to Samsung's Texas fab, Tesla gains manufacturing capacity closer to home while Samsung deepens its role in the AI chip supply chain—a strategically important position as demand for AI processors grows.

   The chip is now ready to move into the manufacturing phase at Samsung's Texas facility, though no timeline for when production will begin or when the chips will reach vehicles has been announced.

3. 3

   Apple skips M6 chip, accelerates M7 with Neural Engine upgrades for 2027

   Apple is skipping the Pro, Max, and Ultra versions of its upcoming M6 chip and instead accelerating development of the M7, which should arrive in the first half of 2027 with significant Neural Engine upgrades. The M7 Ultra is expected to be the basis for a new server product from Apple as well, with support for up to 1.5TB of RAM. Apple's powerful on-device AI processing capabilities stem from the Neural Engine, which originated in the company's failed self-driving car program. By concentrating on Neural Engine improvements rather than broad M6 iterations, Apple is doubling down on hardware as a cornerstone of its AI strategy going forward, differentiating itself through on-device processing that supports privacy by reducing cloud data transmission.

   The M7 is scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2027 with significant Neural Engine upgrades. The M7 Ultra will support up to 1.5TB of RAM for the new server product.

4. 4

   South Korean startup Mobilint pushes NPUs for robots, drones, autonomous vehicles

   Mobilint, a South Korean AI semiconductor startup, is building neural processing units (NPUs)—specialized chips for edge devices—to power physical AI applications like robots, autonomous vehicles, and drones, as AI work shifts from cloud computing to on-device processing. Physical AI (AI embedded in machines that interact with the physical world) represents a new frontier beyond cloud-based language models; edge processing means faster response times and lower latency, which are critical for real-time autonomous systems. For businesses deploying robots or autonomous vehicles, this shift may reduce their dependence on cloud infrastructure and improve performance.

   Mobilint CEO Shin Dong-joo is urging South Korea to accelerate development in this area, suggesting the company sees government support as key to competing in the emerging physical AI chip market.