AV/Robotaxi Scaling and Regulation

Waymo's Ojai platform with Gemini shifts focus to passenger psychology; NHTSA deregulation includes Zoox 2-year exemption for 2,500 vehicles/year; Rivian announces L4 robotaxi by 2028; GM introduces in-car AI assistant; AV aging and predictive maintenance emerge as operational bottleneck. New: Wayve and Uber receive regulatory approval for London autonomous rides, with 100k signups in 8 weeks, using AV2.0 no-HD-map approach. NVIDIA Alpamayo 2 Super open VLA model raises bar, but validation becomes key bottleneck with UNECE WP.29 R185. DrivingWorld world model achieves 40s high-fidelity future frames. A new article reframes AV perception as prediction, not raw data.