Autonomous vehicle pilots expand in Madrid and Austin

WeRide and Uber announced Spain’s first commercial robotaxi pilot in the Madrid region, scheduled for launch in late 2026. The service will initially operate with safety drivers and use the Avomo fleet‑management platform, extending the companies’ joint autonomous‑vehicle agreement that already covers several cities in the Middle East and the United States. The rollout aims to meet regulatory milestones before moving to fully driverless operation and will test European data‑privacy and safety requirements.

In the United States, Tesla expanded its unsupervised robotaxi service to cover the entire Austin metropolitan area, including suburbs such as Pflugerville and Manor, the I‑35 corridor, Gigafactory Texas and Austin‑Bergstrom Airport. While the geographic coverage has grown, the number of active robotaxis appears to have fallen from about 39 to roughly 20, raising concerns that riders may experience longer wait times if the fleet does not expand proportionally.