Robotics, AI, and autonomous vehicles showing up in manufacturing and Truck transport, ZETA offers good news on EV charging. Rivian's spinoff company Mind Robotics last week raised another $400 million, just two months after raising $500 million. Led by Kleiner Perkins, it was carried out by the venture arms of Volkswagen, which had partnered with Rivian on a software joint venture, and Salesforce. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who is also chairman of Mind Robotics, said that he created Mind Robotics because he thought other startups were not fully equipped to automate industrial work. His goal is to build "robotics with human-like skills." Advanced robotics, machine learning, regenerative AI, and autonomous drive technology are being delivered to the auto industry and transportation sector. It's nothing new to automakers like General Motors, the first vehicle manufacturer to bring robotics to its assembly plants with a test in the early 1960s and bringing it up to assembly production levels in the 1980s. It's getting much more developed now for the industry, with automakers now able to significantly streamline assembly, enhance quality control, and reduce production costs. Fleets aren't just conducting limited trial runs anymore - they're enhancing predictive maintenance by using technology such as AI-assisted diagnostics that can route technicians directly to root causes. They're also looking at acquiring autonomous trucks that are coming to market from major OEMs. Autonomous trucks were shown off at ACT Expo 2026 in Las Vegas. Peterbilt teamed up with Stack AV's multi-sensor autonomous driving system and its own autonomous ready vehicle platform, which brings together lidar, radar, and camera inputs with advanced AI-based perception software. Aurora Innovation and Volvo Autonomous Solutions revealed a new 200-mile route between Dallas and Oklahoma City for their autonomous freight network. Daimler Truck North America displayed a Freightliner Cascadia and its Torc autonomous technology. Torc has set up a bank of sensor arrays on the roof of the Cascadia. Kodiak Robotics highlighted its driverless technology at the show, which the company says has autonomous trucks hauling fracking sand. On the production side, Tesla is working hard to bring the Optimus humanoid robot to high volume production, bringing it from something to show off at global auto events to its manufacturing plants. A developed prototype of Optimus Version 3 is planned to be ready this year, after which Tesla intends to build a one million unit production line with a targeted production start that could be by the end of 2026. Tesla for years has been using AI-driven robotics at its Gigafactories to streamline assembly and speed up production. Hyundai Motor Group is using a highly automated, AI-first approach at its Metaplant in Ellabell, Ga. The automaker plans to deploy Boston Dynamics' AI-powered humanoid robots - including the advanced Atlas - to take over physical assembly processes. California robotics company Figure has brought its Figure 01 humanoid to operate in a BMW factory; in August they released Figure 02, which can have natural speech conversations thanks to an OpenAI integration and is being tested by BMW now. Top EV concerns: Deloitte's 2026 Global Automotive Consumer Study found that three of the top five concerns regarding battery-electric vehicles are all related to infrastructure: range anxiety, EV charging speed, and the number of charger locations. What consumers want is access to charging infrastructure that is expansive, reliable, and fast. Zero Emissions Transportation Association (ZETA) says that there's also good news to share. Since 2021, the public EV charging network has more than doubled, reaching nearly 245,000 connectors as of the end of March 2026, according to data from the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuels Data Center. Fast charging installation grew by about 30% in 2025 compared to the previous year, totaling around 18,000 connectors - a sign that the private sector's efforts are picking up speed, ZETA says. Clean fuel rebate program: The California Clean Fuel Reward rebate program for electric medium- and heavy-duty trucks is now open for applications. It makes rebates available statewide to help public and private fleets purchase and deploy zero-emission electric trucks. The state expects it to become the largest utility-administered rebate program for electric trucks in the country. The program includes $250 million available this year, with more than $1 billion in total rebate funding expected through 2030. Starting on June 26, authorized retailers will be able to provide the rebates. They'll go from $7,500 to $120,000, and can be applied toward the purchase of new electric medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles.

A developer of autonomous trucking solutions, Stack AV also published its inaugural Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment (VSSA), which outlines the company's initiatives to hold itself to high safety standards and commitment to be transparent with the general public, regulators, and other stakeholders in its efforts to do so.