Robotaxi Buildout Hits a Servicing Wall as VW Weighs Moia Exit

Two stories landed within hours of each other on 27 September, and they point at the same gap. heise online reported that Volkswagen's board sees no central role for Moia in its 2030 target picture and will spend the rest of this year working through exit options, from a sale to new investors to a full wind-down. Electrek reported separately that Mazda has fitted its CX-6e electric SUV with a LiDAR suite for what it calls advanced L2 autonomy in China.

Neither is a robotaxi launch. That is the point.

What Mazda actually shipped

The CX-6e update, badged the EZ-60 Laser Edition by the Changan Mazda joint venture, pairs LiDAR with 11 high-definition cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors and three millimeter-wave radars, according to Electrek. Mazda says the system covers highway lane change assist, obstacle avoidance, ramp entry and exit and service area entry and exit across 0-130 km/h. It handles urban cutting-in, construction detours and narrow passages using Tencent lane-level navigation.

On automatic emergency braking, Mazda claims stops for stationary objects at up to 110 km/h and for pedestrians in the longitudinal direction at up to 90 km/h. The company says the system passed 11 government-sanctioned high-risk scenarios and received a TOP Intelligence Intelligent Safety Challenge certificate from CATARC. Electrek notes the NOA branding mirrors the "Tesla Assisted Driving" label used on Chinese-market Teslas, and that the CX-6e is not sold in the US.

That is a driver-assistance product with a human at the wheel, not a driverless fleet. It is also the most concrete hardware news in this batch.

Moia's unfinished Level 4

The VW story is the harder one. According to heise online, citing Wirtschaftswoche and an internal strategy paper, Moia's autonomous operation in Hamburg uses a VW ID.Buzz with technology from supplier Mobileye. Insiders say the hardware and software do not meet expectations for fault-free driving, so a Level 4 proof is still outstanding.

"The vehicle performs the driving task completely autonomously and is monitored by a safety driver acting as an operator," Holon said of its shuttle, according to heise online.

heise online also reports that VW, under financial pressure, is unwilling to spend the billions needed to continue, and that potential investors including Uber and Lyft have withdrawn interest. The same piece puts Waymo's cumulative investment at an estimated $27 billion over more than 15 years, and says Waymo now runs more than half a million paid rides a week in the US while preparing European expansion. Analysts quoted in the article estimate robotaxi cost per kilometre could fall to roughly 60 to 80 cents.

The numbers in that comparison are not close. The article is blunt about the consequence: after BMW and Mercedes pulled out of earlier autonomous-mobility joint ventures, Germany risks losing the technology outright.

The depot problem nobody funded

A piece published by The Robot Report on 26 September argues the bottleneck has moved past the driving stack. Waymo has logged more than 220 million autonomous miles and reports more than 94% fewer serious injury crashes than human drivers, the article says, and gives around half a million paid rides a week. Uber, by contrast, is in over 15,000 cities and did 3.9 billion trips last quarter, processing Waymo's entire weekly ride volume every 17 minutes.

The problem is what happens between rides. A robotaxi that finds a spilled latte on the back seat may drive up to 15 miles empty to a centralized depot to be cleaned, charged and inspected, at roughly two hours per reset. California data cited in the piece shows that of 86 million Waymo miles reported through 2025, only 54% carried a passenger.

The author, Dan Keene, co-founder of Aseon Labs, discloses that his company is building a robotic charging, cleaning and inspection station. He lists three constraints: industrial land is being outbid by data centre developers; California's regulator targets six months just to energize a standard charging site, with a new circuit taking 1.9 years and a new substation 8.9; and every city's layout differs enough to force a bespoke depot.

He also notes Waymo has already shed layers of its own operation: Zeekr builds its Ojai vans, while Moove, Avomo, Avis and Flexdrive run its depots.

Hesse keeps testing

heise online reported on 27 September that Deutsche Bahn and the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund are extending their autonomous vehicle work in Hesse. From next year, Holon shuttles are to carry passengers autonomously in parts of Darmstadt and the Offenbach district, following test runs to map the area. The vehicles are barrier-free, with five seats and a wheelchair space, or three passenger seats when the wheelchair space is in use; the manufacturer says up to 15 people fit in total. They received approval for test operation in Germany at the end of 2025.

The existing Kira project has been running in southern Hesse since May 2025, with around 4,200 test users registered as of the end of May and roughly 130 stops served. It ends at the end of this year and is replaced by Kira+ using the Holon shuttles. RMV chief Knut Ringat said the goal is to integrate autonomous services into regular public transport, arguing driverless operations offer a chance to provide attractive, affordable service everywhere and at any time with political support.

The precedent is mixed. heise online notes DB ran Easymile EZ10 shuttles in Bad Birnbach until the end of 2024, when continued funding failed and Easymile withdrew from autonomous passenger transport entirely, seeing a business case only in driverless freight. The service stopped in January 2025 after seven years.