The autonomous vehicle sector is undergoing a transition that feels familiar to anyone who lived through the early decades of the automobile—a shift from experimental prototypes toward genuine commercial deployment, accompanied by no small amount of competing claims about who is winning and why. The total addressable market projections are striking: analysts consistently estimate annual recurring revenue exceeding $165 billion by 2035 42,43, a figure that explains both the intensity of competition and the willingness of investors to sustain years of losses.
Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo has emerged as a leading incumbent in this landscape, but the claim set makes clear that its position is far from unassailable. Waymo operates commercial robotaxi networks across ten major U.S. metropolitan areas 49 and captured 27% market share in San Francisco within 20 months of launch 50—genuine operational achievements. Yet the financial reality is sobering. HSBC estimates Waymo loses billions of dollars annually, with a projected seven to eight years before reaching cash-flow break-even 50. This tension between operational progress and financial sustainability defines the strategic challenge facing Alphabet.
The competitive environment is defined by fundamental technology divergence—LiDAR and radar-based sensor systems versus camera-only approaches 27,44—as well as differing strategic philosophies, regulatory dependencies, and a critical question about whether autonomous vehicle operators will ultimately control their customer relationships or cede that role to aggregator platforms.
Competitive Intensity and Market Fragmentation
The autonomous vehicle market is, by multiple accounts, "intensely competitive" 36. Seven major autonomous vehicle companies have been identified in the U.S. alone—Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox 12—though this list excludes the Chinese leaders that constitute a separate but equally significant competitive front. The competitive battleground extends across multiple dimensions: safety and regulatory trust, unit hardware costs, compute performance and latency, sensor redundancy, global expansion capability, and platform partnerships 44.
The Chinese Competitive Threat
A substantial body of claims highlights Chinese original equipment manufacturers and autonomous driving firms as a material and growing competitive force. BYD, Geely, Xiaomi, NIO, XPeng, Li Auto, and Zeekr are all identified as competitors 1,4,34, with BYD repeatedly singled out as a primary long-term threat to Tesla 4. The competitive pressure extends beyond electric vehicles into the core autonomous driving technology itself: Chinese firms including Baidu Apollo Go, Pony.ai, WeRide, and Momenta have strong iterative development capabilities and extensive operational experience in complex traffic scenarios 43,54.
Multiple sources project China as a likely leader in robotaxi deployment, supported by government backing including vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications infrastructure, lower operational costs, and active standard-setting 42,43,50. The numbers are difficult to dismiss. Baidu's Apollo Go has completed over 17 million robotaxi rides 44 with a fleet exceeding 1,200 vehicles 44, and its sixth-generation robotaxi unit cost is below $30,000—a cost advantage the company explicitly leverages against competitors 44.
However, Chinese players face significant geographic restrictions. They are not currently permitted to operate in U.S. markets 33, and expansion into Europe requires local partnerships to comply with strict regulations and data-compliance rules 54. The competitive geography is thus bifurcated: Chinese firms dominate their home market, U.S. firms dominate theirs, and the global battleground will be decided in Europe, the Middle East, and other third markets.
Legacy Automaker Dynamics
The response from legacy original equipment manufacturers presents a more nuanced picture than the binary of "incumbent versus insurgent." Tesla's emergence prompted major automakers including General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and Toyota to accelerate their electric vehicle programs 41, and legacy manufacturers continue expanding their EV lineups 1. Yet several major players—notably Ford and General Motors—withdrew from the robotaxi market entirely, citing cost and profitability concerns 50. This retreat underscores the capital intensity and economic uncertainty of the sector.
European carmakers including Volkswagen are developing robotaxi services but remain in a catch-up position on core autonomous-driving technology compared to leaders in China and the United States 54. European firms retain manufacturing advantages 54, and the relationship between Chinese and European autonomous driving players is characterized as "largely complementary"—Chinese firms lead on autonomy software while European firms lead on vehicle manufacturing 54. From my engineering perspective, this division of labor makes practical sense. Building reliable vehicles at scale requires capabilities that are distinct from those required to develop perception and decision-making algorithms.
Waymo's Position: Scale Achieved, Profitability Elusive
Waymo's operational progress is the most tangible of any U.S.-based autonomous vehicle operator. The company expanded its commercial robotaxi network to ten major U.S. metropolitan areas 49, with Phoenix becoming the first city to offer 24/7 public service in 2020 50. Its San Francisco market share rose from zero to 27% over 20 months following August 2023 50, and Waymo has identified affluence, density, and tourism as its three key success factors for autonomous taxi operations 32. Total funding amounts to $16.0 billion, predominantly from Alphabet 24.
Despite this scale, the financial profile remains challenged. The convergence of claims on this point is noteworthy. HSBC estimates the division loses "billions of dollars annually" and projects seven to eight years to cash-flow break-even 50. Waymo is characterized as a "slowly maturing" Other Bet that could become a meaningful business line for Alphabet 49, but its revenue and operational scale are described as "still far from giants" 14, and both Waymo and the Gemini AI model are noted as not yet fully monetized 48.
The operational challenges in scaling are precisely what one would expect from first principles. Ensuring consistent rider experience, managing charging logistics, maintaining vehicles, operating depots, and guaranteeing vehicle readiness are all real-world constraints that do not yield to algorithmic breakthroughs alone 52. These are the practical engineering problems that separate laboratory demonstrations from viable commercial services.
The Uber Platform Dynamic: Aggregator or Disintermediated?
A particularly rich vein of claims examines Uber's evolving role in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem—a dynamic with direct implications for Waymo and Alphabet. Uber has positioned itself as the distribution layer for autonomous vehicle trips, maintaining partnerships with over ten autonomous vehicle providers across multiple continents, including Waymo, Wayve, Motional, Avride, WeRide, and others 5,38,39,53. Uber's strategy involves partnering rather than developing autonomous technology in-house 10,31, though it is simultaneously transitioning toward a more asset-heavy model, investing over $10 billion in autonomous vehicles and directly purchasing 10,000 Rivian R2 robotaxis 8,53.
The critical strategic tension centers on whether major autonomous vehicle players like Waymo and Tesla will bypass Uber by deploying direct-to-consumer services. Commenters have flagged this as a material risk to Uber's marketplace revenue 5,39. Waymo and Tesla both have their own consumer-facing apps 5, creating direct disintermediation potential. Counterintuitively, earlier predictions by Tesla and Waymo that autonomous vehicles would eliminate ride-sharing services have not materialized 3,47; instead, ride-share platforms have become the booking intermediary layer for autonomous vehicles 47. Commenters have noted that if the autonomous vehicle market remains fragmented, Uber benefits as an aggregator 5, but if it consolidates under a small set of winners, Uber's role could become minimal 5.
Waymo's partnership strategy varies by market: in Austin and Atlanta, Waymo partnered with Uber using a single-app model 52; in Nashville, Waymo and Lyft use a dual-platform access model 52; while in other markets Waymo operates its own app. This multi-platform approach suggests Waymo is strategically hedging between leveraging aggregator distribution and maintaining direct customer relationships—a prudent engineering approach to an uncertain market structure.
Regulatory Landscape: A Double-Edged Sword
Regulatory dynamics feature prominently across the claims, spanning multiple jurisdictions and presenting both tailwinds and headwinds. The United States and China are identified as the two major centers for robotaxi deployment competition, benefiting from supportive regulations, infrastructure investments, and favorable market conditions 42,54. However, regulatory uncertainty around robotaxi deployment and increased oversight of advanced driver-assistance systems could lead to delayed approvals and fines 1,40.
Chinese Regulatory Pivot
A notable cluster of claims details a significant regulatory event in China: following traffic disruptions involving dozens of Baidu Apollo Go robotaxis in Wuhan 7, Chinese authorities suspended issuance of new Level 4 autonomous vehicle licenses 6,7,25,51. This represents a realized left-tail risk for Baidu 6, with license suspensions and traffic disruptions potentially affecting the broader Chinese autonomous vehicle industry 6. Baidu also faces operational concentration risk, with a significant portion of its operations concentrated in Wuhan 7.
This incident is instructive for the entire sector. It demonstrates that regulatory support is not unconditional and can reverse quickly when public safety or convenience is perceived to be threatened. For Waymo and other operators, the lesson is clear: maintaining public trust is not merely a public relations exercise but a fundamental operational imperative.
U.S. Regulatory Friction
Waymo faces regulatory friction domestically, having "fought city councils for permits to operate" 19,33. Incidents in school zones could trigger investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or state authorities, potentially leading to operational restrictions 17. Local regulatory barriers create operational deployment challenges 46, and states like Hawaii currently do not permit unsupervised commercial robotaxi services without legislative changes 45. Regulatory dependencies mean Waymo's expansion requires municipal approvals 19—a constraint that limits the pace of geographic scaling.
Remote Operations Transparency
A sub-theme involves regulatory scrutiny of remote teleoperation. Seven autonomous vehicle companies—Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox—declined to disclose remote assistance usage frequency to Senator Ed Markey's office 12,22,28. This undisclosed reliance on remote assistance creates "off-balance-sheet operational risk" that weakens the autonomous value proposition and potentially reduces long-term intrinsic valuations 12. Tesla's reliance on remote teleoperation is specifically noted as weakening its robotaxi growth-catalyst narrative 23, while rivals providing more transparent disclosures increase competitive pressure on Tesla 23. Companies achieving lower remote intervention rates could gain competitive advantage 22.
From an engineering standpoint, this transparency issue is fundamental. If a vehicle requires frequent remote human intervention, it is not truly autonomous—it is a teleoperated vehicle with periods of automated driving. The distinction matters for safety analysis, cost modeling, and regulatory classification.
European Market: Nascent but Growing
Europe is identified as the next key market for robotaxi deployment after the United States and China 54, though the market remains in a nascent phase 11,13. Boston Consulting Group projects approximately 120,000 robotaxi vehicles in European cities by 2035 54, representing significant but not dominant volume compared to U.S. and Chinese fleets 42,54. Scaling in Europe will require cross-border collaboration combining Chinese autonomy capabilities with European vehicle manufacturing 54, and local partnerships are essential for regulatory compliance 54.
Waymo's London testing marks its first European city 9,20,27, while Chinese firms including Pony.ai, WeRide, Momenta, and Baidu are actively expanding into multiple European markets 33,44,54. The European theater will likely determine which technological and operational approach—the American LiDAR-centric model or the Chinese cost-optimized model—proves more viable in diverse regulatory environments.
Market Projections and Economics
Multiple sources project a global robotaxi fleet of approximately 3.6 million vehicles by 2035 42,43, with Boston Consulting Group's base scenario estimating roughly 350,000 U.S. vehicles 54 and its optimistic scenario projecting approximately 3 million globally 54. The addressable market is consistently cited at $165–168 billion in annual recurring revenue by 2035 42,43.
However, the economic foundations remain uncertain—a fact that anyone who has built a transportation business from scratch would recognize. Current robotaxi operations depend on investor subsidies due to high capital costs, high operating costs, low pricing, and substantial research and development expenses 50. Key economic levers include vehicle price, annual mileage, vehicle lifespan, and labor ratio 50.
There are genuine reasons for optimism on the cost front. Hardware costs are declining meaningfully—Pony.ai's seventh-generation robotaxi hardware costs reduced by 70% versus earlier generations, partly due to lidar price declines from Chinese manufacturers 35,50. However, operating costs including remote monitoring, maintenance, and insurance remain less certain 50. One estimate suggests robotaxis may have a cost advantage over traditional taxis, but fully burdened costs remain high 50. Removing safety drivers from Waymo's operations eliminates associated costs and improves unit economics 30—but this requires confidence in the system's reliability, which only operational experience can provide.
Consumer Sentiment
Public acceptance remains a headwind that the industry ignores at its peril. In an Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report poll of 2,081 U.S. consumers, only 5% said they would use a robotaxi immediately, 12% would choose a "100% safe" robotaxi over a human-driven taxi, and 53% said they would not ride in a robotaxi at all 26. Even when assuming 100% safety, 42% said they would never consider using one 26. Strong negative sentiment is corroborated by reports that "most people still don't want anything to do with robotaxis" 18 and cultural framing on social media reflecting public unease that could manifest as regulatory pushback or vandalism 21.
This reminds me of public skepticism toward my early Motorwagen. The difference is that a sputtering automobile could only injure its occupants; a malfunctioning robotaxi navigating city streets poses risks to pedestrians and other road users, which rightly invites greater scrutiny and higher standards of proof.
Strategic Implications for Alphabet
For Alphabet Inc., Waymo represents a high-upside, long-duration option within its Other Bets segment. The unit is currently loss-making at a scale of billions annually, with break-even projected seven to eight years out 50. However, Waymo has achieved meaningful operational milestones: ten-city U.S. coverage 49, dominant market share in early-adopter markets like San Francisco 50, and European expansion underway in London 9,27. The critical question for investors is whether Waymo's first-mover advantage and operational experience will translate into sustainable competitive advantage before capital requirements become burdensome.
Capital Requirements and Parent Support
Waymo's $16 billion total funding, overwhelmingly provided by Alphabet 24, underscores the capital intensity of this business. Unlike some competitors that have withdrawn from the market—Ford and General Motors being the most prominent examples 50—Alphabet appears committed to Waymo's long-term development. But investors must weigh the opportunity cost of continued capital allocation against other growth initiatives. The HSBC analysis suggesting seven to eight years to break-even implies substantial additional investment ahead, and there is no guarantee that timeline holds if competitive dynamics intensify.
Competitive Moat Assessment
Waymo's competitive moat rests on several pillars: first-mover operational experience across diverse U.S. cities, a safety-first positioning that differentiates it from Tesla's more aggressive approach, and Alphabet's financial resources. However, this moat faces erosion. Competitors are "closing in" 37, purpose-built vehicles from Zoox and others may narrow the gap 29, and Chinese firms operating in separate geographies are accumulating their own operational data and cost advantages 44,50.
The technology divide between LiDAR/radar and camera-only approaches 27 represents a fundamental engineering bet. If Tesla's vision-only system proves viable at scale, it could achieve significantly lower hardware costs—but this remains unproven, and from my perspective, sensor redundancy is a core safety principle that should not be abandoned lightly.
The Uber Question
Waymo's dual strategy of partnering with Uber in some markets (Austin, Atlanta) 52 while using its own app in others (Phoenix, San Francisco) creates strategic flexibility but also strategic ambiguity. For Uber investors, Waymo's potential direct-to-consumer pivot represents a material narrative risk 39. For Alphabet investors, the question is whether Waymo ultimately captures the full ride-hailing margin or shares it with aggregator platforms.
The current evidence suggests partnerships are valuable for rapid geographic expansion—as with the Lyft partnership in Nashville 52—but that Waymo is preserving the option of independent scaling. The fact that Uber is hedging by building an extensive autonomous vehicle partner network 5,53 and directly purchasing robotaxis 53 suggests Uber views the disintermediation risk as real and material.
Risk Factors
Several risk clusters merit systematic attention from investors and operators alike.
Regulatory Tail Risk
A single pedestrian incident in a school zone could trigger deployment suspensions or permit revocations threatening Waymo's business model 15,17. The Baidu Wuhan incident—where dozens of robotaxis caused traffic disruptions, leading to a license suspension 6,7,25—demonstrates that such risks are not hypothetical. Safety concerns carry "catastrophic tail risk" for the sector 15. This is not fear-mongering; it is the engineering reality of deploying uncrewed vehicles in complex urban environments.
Chinese Competition in Global Markets
While Chinese autonomous vehicle companies are currently blocked from U.S. markets 33, they are actively expanding into Europe and the Middle East 33,44,54. Baidu's sub-$30,000 unit cost 44 and per-vehicle profitability claims 33 (contrasted with claims of negative margins 33 and reliance on subsidies 33) suggest Chinese players could compete aggressively on price in international markets. The cost advantage is real, even if the profitability claims require validation.
Economic Sustainability
The dependence on investor subsidies 50 and the extended timeline to break-even 50 raise questions about the sector's economic viability independent of capital market conditions. If financing becomes more constrained—as it does cyclically in all capital-intensive industries—companies with less parent-company support may face existential challenges. This is the same dynamic that winnowed the early automobile industry from hundreds of manufacturers to a handful of survivors.
Key Takeaways
First, Waymo has achieved tangible operational leadership across ten U.S. cities with strong early market share, but remains years away from profitability with billions in annual losses. The bull case rests on Alphabet's willingness to fund Waymo's capital requirements through a projected seven- to eight-year path to break-even, while the bear case questions whether first-mover advantages will persist as competitors narrow the gap 37 and capital costs remain high. Investors should closely monitor Waymo's quarterly operating losses and any inflection toward narrower cash burn as leading indicators.
Second, the market structure outcome—fragmentation versus consolidation—will determine value capture across the ecosystem. A fragmented market favors Uber's aggregator strategy 5, while winner-take-most dynamics favor direct-to-consumer models from Waymo or Tesla 5,39. Waymo's dual-platform strategy (partnering with Uber and Lyft in some markets while operating independently in others) suggests Alphabet is hedging its bets, but this also means Waymo may be ceding some margin to aggregators in the near term. The emergence of Uber's own autonomous vehicle fleet investment—over $10 billion committed, 10,000 Rivian vehicles—adds another layer of complexity.
Third, regulatory and safety risks represent the most consequential tail risk for the sector. The Baidu Wuhan incident and subsequent Chinese license suspension 6,25 demonstrate how quickly regulatory support can reverse. Waymo's safety-first positioning 16 and more transparent crash reporting 2 provide some insulation, but the sector-wide risk of a major incident triggering cascading regulatory responses is real. The remote operations transparency issue 12 adds another dimension of regulatory vulnerability that could increase operating costs or constrain deployment pace.
Fourth, the competitive geography is bifurcated. Chinese leaders (Baidu, Pony.ai, WeRide) cannot currently compete in U.S. markets, and U.S. leaders (Waymo, Tesla) face Chinese dominance and government-backed infrastructure in China 42. The key battleground for global leadership will be Europe and the Middle East, where both sets of players are expanding 9,44,54. Waymo's London testing 27 and Chinese firms' European partnerships will determine which technological and operational approach gains the upper hand in these third markets. The "complementary" relationship between Chinese software leadership and European manufacturing 54 may enable partnerships that U.S. firms cannot easily replicate.
The path from prototype to mass adoption is never a straight line. I learned this lesson the hard way with the Motorwagen, and the autonomous vehicle industry is learning it today. The winners will not be determined by who makes the boldest claims, but by who systematically solves the engineering, regulatory, and economic challenges of deploying safe, reliable, and affordable autonomous transportation at scale.
Sources
1. TSLA at $190 is not a prediction, its just math. bear with me - 2026-04-12
2. Comparing pre-crash speeds between US ADS operators - 2026-04-24
3. Are hyperscalers turning into a winner take most market? Should I buy more $GOOGL or diversify? - 2026-04-29
4. If you could only pick a few of these for the next 5 years, how would you balance certainty vs upside? - 2026-04-29
5. Uber's ROIC went from -5% to 28% in five years. Ran the fundamentals and I think the market is still sleeping on it - 2026-04-29
6. Tech News Briefing — #ArtificialIntelligenceEvolution #FutureOfWork #AIInnovation #TechInvestments #... - 2026-04-29
7. China suspends new autonomous vehicle licenses following a traffic disruption involving Baidu Apollo... - 2026-04-29
8. Uber invests over $10B in autonomous vehicles, shifting from asset-light to asset-heavy model. Strat... - 2026-04-20
9. Waymo begins testing autonomous vehicles in London, moving closer to launching the city's first robo... - 2026-04-15
10. Volkswagen's MOIA America and Uber begin testing autonomous ID. Buzz microbuses in LA, aiming for a ... - 2026-04-09
11. Rollout positions Verne among early movers in Europe’s nascent robotaxi market. Bne IntelliNews #Rob... - 2026-04-08
12. Senator Ed Markey Presses Autonomous Vehicle Companies Over Secrecy on Remote Assistance Practices ... - 2026-04-05
13. Zagreb launches robotaxis with Uber & Pony.ai: Europe catches up… but ready to get on board... - 2026-04-05
14. Self-driving #Waymo taxis surpass 500,000 rides per week: Google has succeeded in its bet... - 2026-04-30
15. Self-driving vehicle company #Waymo will launch fleet in #Portland. [Link] Self-driving vehicle com... - 2026-04-28
16. #Waymo #Self-DrivingCar #DroveItselfIntoFlood #SanAntonio #Texas San Antonio, Texas: news4sananton... - 2026-04-22
17. Girard Sharp is investigating potential claims for pedestrians struck by a Waymo robotaxi in a schoo... - 2026-04-21
18. Most people still don’t want anything to do with robotaxis https://thever.ge/CxFX #AutonomousCars #T... - 2026-04-15
19. Daniel Pelaez critiques Waymo's strategy of offering cities pothole data to gain approval for its ro... - 2026-04-15
20. Waymo starts testing London’s first robotaxi service, paving way for autonomous ride-hailing rollout... - 2026-04-14
21. [My robot overlords are finally arriving. #waymo #BostonMA Image: Parked white two door car, side ... - 2026-04-13
22. Robotaxi companies won’t say how often remote operators intervene https://thever.ge/K8Ws #Autonomous... - 2026-04-06
23. #Tesla Admits Its #Robotaxis Are Sometimes Driven by Remote Humans https://www.wired.com/story/tesl... - 2026-04-02
24. Alphabet (GOOG) posts strong Q1 2026 earnings, big cloud gains and deals - 2026-04-30
25. 2026-04-29 Briefing - alobbs.com - 2026-04-29
26. Most people still don’t want anything to do with robotaxis - 2026-04-15
27. Waymo to launch pilot program in London soon, full robotaxi service still this year - 2026-04-07
28. Robotaxi companies won’t say how often remote operators intervene - 2026-04-06
29. Competition testing SUVs... - 2026-04-11
30. Waymo begins fully autonomous operations with Ojai vehicles in Phoenix - 2026-05-01
31. Waymo in NYC ? - 2026-04-18
32. Which cities are legally plausible next? - 2026-04-24
33. Waymo starting to lose the self-driving cars race - 2026-04-24
34. NVIDIA Doesn’t Matter (for Driving Automation) by Andrew Miller - 2026-05-01
35. Pony AI deploys driverless robotaxis in Dubai, plans commercial service launch in 2026 - 2026-04-20
36. Alphabet Climbs 4% on Waymo’s Nashville Expansion: The Self-Driving Bet Is Starting to Pay Off - 2026-04-08
37. Waymo Robotaxi Expansion: Autonomous Rides Launch in 4 New US Cities - 2026-04-30
38. Volkswagen plans to deploy autonomous electric ID Buzz minivans on the Uber ride-hailing platform, w... - 2026-04-08
39. Investment Summary: Uber Technologies $UBER - Uber is transitioning from a ride-hailing middleman t... - 2026-04-09
40. Volkswagen's MOIA America and Uber begin testing autonomous ID. Buzz microbuses in LA, aiming for a ... - 2026-04-09
41. Tesla isn’t like any other car company — and that’s why Elon Musk’s leadership is so important. Wha... - 2026-04-12
42. Physical AI is going to grow rapidly over the next decade. Autonomous Vehicles and especially Robot... - 2026-04-14
43. 🚨 Robotaxi Market Set To Explode To $168 Billion, Analysts Say Counterpoint Research projects the g... - 2026-04-15
44. $NIO #NIO #TESLA $TSLA Beyond Tesla: The Growing Army of Robotaxi Challengers For years, Tesla has... - 2026-04-16
45. @conwilson191719 Hawaii has some work to do... According to Grok: Hawaii’s laws on autonomous vehic... - 2026-04-17
46. The federal government should "preempt" cities and states to set standards for autonomous vehicles, ... - 2026-04-17
47. 5 years ago $TSLA and Waymo said self-driving cars would kill ride-share. today, those same Autonom... - 2026-04-29
48. @StockMKTNewz $GOOGL $470 price target on a stock trading at $374 after hours. Cloud operating margi... - 2026-04-30
49. Alphabet (GOOGL) Is Up 7.3% After Waymo Expands Robotaxi Service To Nashville - What's Changed - 2026-04-11
50. Recent developments of automated vehicles and local policy implications - npj Sustainable Mobility and Transport - 2026-04-27
51. DIGITIMES Asia: News and Insight of the Global Supply Chain - 2026-05-02
52. Waymo and Lyft Launch Robotaxi Service in Nashville, Expand Autonomous Ride-Hailing Options - 2026-04-08
53. Volkswagen and Uber Begin Testing Autonomous ID. Buzz Microbuses in Los Angeles for 2026 Robotaxi Launch - 2026-04-09
54. Chinese autonomous-driving firm launches robotaxi service in Croatia as players compete in new market - 2026-04-09
