The Road to Autonomy
Market Intelligence for The Autonomy Economy™
Waymo's Big Miami Plans: Two Depots With the Ability to Scale to Thousands of Vehicles
Waymo is building infrastructure in Miami that could support thousands of autonomous vehicles across two strategic depots, one near the airport with direct access and another already operating in Wynwood with room to expand. With major sporting events, beach destinations, and airport corridors in play, Miami represents a massive scaling opportunity for robotaxis in a market where traffic congestion creates obvious demand.
02
An Inside Look into DARPA’s RACER Program
DARPA's RACER program is pushing autonomous vehicles to navigate hostile terrain at combat speed without maps or GPS, fundamentally reimagining how machines operate in unpredictable environments.
February 17, 2026
03
Go Big or Go Home, Waymo Went Big
Uber's stock tumbled nearly seven percent this week as Waymo's reported fifty-thousand vehicle order signals a future where platform companies get squeezed out by vertically integrated robotaxi operators who control both technology and fleet.
February 15, 2026
04
Has Waymo Finally Solved Robotaxi Supply?
Waymo's reported 50,000 vehicle Hyundai deal at an estimated $50,000 per unit suggests the robotaxi supply constraint may finally be cracking, demolishing the bear case that autonomous vehicles cannot scale economically.
February 14, 2026
05
Uber Fights Skeptics
Uber's CEO insists robotaxis will expand rather than cannibalize its business, positioning the ride-hailing giant as an essential marketplace that can balance autonomous vehicles with human drivers more efficiently than standalone competitors like Waymo and Tesla.
February 11, 2026
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February 15, 2026
Go Big or Go Home, Waymo Went Big
When the industry leader orders 50,000 vehicles while rideshare platforms scramble for relevance, the market is signaling that vertical integration and technical prowess will determine who survives the autonomous transition—not who controlled the smartphone app first.
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February 8, 2026
Uber's Autonomy Paradox: Their Greatest Hedge Is Also Their Greatest Vulnerability
**Key Insight:**
Uber's dominant demand network—once an unassailable moat—has become a strategic liability as Waymo and Tesla build their own customer channels, forcing Uber to prove it's still essential rather than simply intermediary.
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February 1, 2026
Waymo’s Valuation Skyrockets 144% in 16 Months
**Waymo's 144% valuation surge to $110 billion signals the autonomy market has fundamentally shifted from moonshot potential to proven, revenue-generating scale—rewarding execution over promises.**
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January 25, 2026
Waymo in Miami: Limited Cars, Limited Infrastructure, Limited Service Area
Waymo's Miami launch reveals a familiar pattern: the company is still solving the unglamorous infrastructure puzzle of depots and charging stations before it can deliver the seamless service experience its brand promises.
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January 18, 2026
If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make It Anywhere, Or At Least, that is How the Song Goes
**Key Insight:** New York City's exclusion from the state's autonomous vehicle pilot program reveals how local political protection of incumbent industries can override economic logic, even when a city represents 60% of state GDP—a cautionary tale as geopolitical chess moves increasingly determine which markets win the robotaxi future.
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January 11, 2026
From Critics to Clones: Tesla Autonomously Drove the Future
**Key Insight:** Tesla's crowd-sourced data strategy—once dismissed as reckless—has become the industry's new blueprint, forcing traditional autonomy players to abandon their cautious, small-fleet approaches in favor of mass-market scale.
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The Road to Autonomy
View All Episodes → February 18, 2026
Waymo's Big Miami Plans: Two Depots With the Ability to Scale to Thousands of Vehicles
Waymo's dual depot strategy in Miami, with one positioned for direct airport access and another already operational near Wynwood with expansion-ready adjacent parcels, signals the company is building physical infrastructure capable of supporting thousands of vehicles before demand fully materializes, a reversal of the typical tech scaling playbook that suggests they've learned operational density matters more than geographic sprawl.
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February 17, 2026
An Inside Look into DARPA’s RACER Program
DARPA's RACER program is forcing autonomous systems to think rather than follow, proving that off-road vehicles can navigate hostile terrain at tactical speeds without maps or GPS while spawning dual-use technologies that could reshape everything from military operations to mining and search and rescue.
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February 10, 2026
Scaling Robotaxis, Hybrid Networks and Fleet Management Globally with Lyft
Lyft is transforming from a ride-hailing platform into a global infrastructure play, leveraging its FlexDrive fleet management system to become the operational backbone for autonomous vehicle deployment—positioning itself as the essential middleware between robotaxi manufacturers and markets worldwide.
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Autonomy Markets
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February 14, 2026
Has Waymo Finally Solved Robotaxi Supply?
Waymo's reported 50,000 vehicle deal with Hyundai at an estimated $50,000 per unit including sensors signals that autonomous vehicle economics have reached a tipping point where profitable scaling becomes viable, fundamentally challenging the thesis that robotaxis cannot achieve cost-effective deployment at meaningful scale.
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February 7, 2026
Uber's Autonomy Myths and Realities, Waymo's Capital Raise and Miami Depots
Uber's defensive "myths" playbook reveals the company's existential anxiety as Waymo's $126 billion valuation and operational expansion signal that the robotaxi war isn't about growing pies—it's about who owns the plate.
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February 4, 2026
12,961 Tesla FSD Supervised Miles, Zero Interventions & Unsupervised Robotaxis in Austin
Tesla's 12,961-mile zero-intervention cross-country drive isn't just a technical milestone—it's a data-driven argument that vision-based autonomy can scale faster and cheaper than LiDAR-dependent competitors still wrestling with compute constraints and fleet economics.
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AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD
View Full Leaderboard →THE DRIVERLESS VANGUARD
| Rank | Company | Qtrs | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waymo |
8 | BULLISH |
| 2 | Tesla |
3 | BULLISH |
| 3 | Zoox |
8 | NEUTRAL |
| 4 | Wayve |
8 | BULLISH |
| T-5 | May Mobility |
6 | POSITIVE |
| T-5 | Avride |
3 | POSITIVE |
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