Hey,
Big week in AV fleet operations. Here's what matters.
Nashville is live - and Lyft is running the fleet
Waymo opened its 11th city this week, launching robotaxi service across a 60-square-mile area of Nashville covering Broadway, 12 South, Midtown, and East Nashville. Thousands of residents had already signed up before launch.
The notable part: Nashville's fleet partner is Lyft, through its subsidiary Flexdrive. They're handling vehicle maintenance, charging, and depot operations. But unlike Austin and Atlanta (where rides are Uber-only), Nashville riders will eventually be able to hail a Waymo through both the Waymo app and the Lyft app.
This matters because it means both major ride-hail platforms are now in the AV fleet operations business. Uber has Avomo running its Waymo fleets. Lyft has Flexdrive. The fleet partner model isn't a workaround - it's the industry standard.
Every Nashville hire - from technicians to depot managers - went through Lyft/Flexdrive, not Waymo.
Kodiak pushes autonomous trucking into the Midwest
Kodiak AI completed its first driverless trucking tests outside the Sun Belt this week, partnering with DriveOhio to run autonomous trucks on Interstate 70 - one of the busiest freight corridors in the country.
Why this matters for technicians: autonomous trucking is a parallel track to robotaxis, and it's scaling fast. Aurora now has 10 fully driverless trucks running commercial freight routes. Kodiak has the largest fleet of driverless Class 8 trucks in industrial use. These trucks need maintenance teams along every corridor they operate on - a different geographic model than city-based robotaxi depots, but the same fundamental demand for skilled technicians.
Waymo by the numbers
Waymo now operates 3,000 vehicles across 11 US cities. They're completing 500,000+ paid rides per week - double what they did a year ago. They're driving over 4 million miles per week. And they're targeting 1 million rides per week by year-end, with 20+ cities planned.
Meanwhile, Chicago just started testing - Waymo vehicles are mapping the city's streets with human safety drivers. New York's testing permits expired, and the company is working with state legislators to get them renewed. The expansion pipeline keeps growing.
Who's hiring right now
We built a Jobs page this week tracking current openings across all major AV fleet operators:
→ Avomo has 15+ open roles in Austin and Atlanta — technicians at all levels, fleet coordinators, safety specialists → Moove.io is hiring fleet deployment specialists, operations managers, and maintenance managers in Phoenix, Miami, and Las Vegas → Waymo is posting direct roles in San Francisco, LA, and Phoenix
Full listings with apply links: avfleettech.com/jobs
One thing to read
If you're a working auto technician thinking about making the switch, this is for you: From Auto Mechanic to AV Technician — the practical transition playbook. What you already know, what you need to add, and how long it actually takes.
Read it here: avfleettech.com/auto-mechanic-to-av-technician
Until next Tuesday,
AVFleetTech