Autonomous Vehicle Operator
About the job
- Experience as a professional driver, driving instructor, autonomous vehicle operator, motorsports racer, or in another role built around a serious commitment to safety.
- A valid U.S. driving license held for at least three years.
- A clean driving record with no driving under the influence, drug-related, or alcohol-related offenses within the last five years.
- The ability to identify hazardous situations early and respond quickly and safely.
- Working knowledge of local traffic laws and regulations.
- Excellent communication skills and strong attention to detail.
- Willingness to work in various weather conditions and comfort driving on different types of roads.
- A genuine sense of ownership and responsibility behind the wheel.
- Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.
- Operate autonomous vehicles safely and lawfully to collect data on system performance and environmental factors.
- Interact professionally with riders, engineers, and company operations leaders to provide feedback and insights.
- Monitor vehicle performance and conduct in-field testing to ensure operational safety.
- Prepare vehicles daily for in-field operations, including safety checks and system readiness.
- Submit detailed reports to support system advancements and operational improvements.
- Remain prepared for the actions of other drivers and pedestrians, as well as unexpected events.
- Remain alert and free from distractions while in vehicles.
- Knowledge of vehicle technology and control systems.
- A defensive driving or safe driving certification.
- Additional courses in safety driving or defensive driving.
About the company
Avride.ai builds and runs autonomous cars and delivery robots. Its vehicles use an in-house hardware stack—lidar sensors, cameras, and onboard computers—to perceive the world with a 360-degree field of view and to learn from large data sets, aiming to be safer and more efficient than human drivers. The system powers both transportation and package delivery services, serving customers worldwide through partnerships, service contracts, and technology licensing. Unlike many competitors, Avride.ai emphasizes its integrated, self-developed hardware and data-driven safety improvements to reduce accidents and improve mobility. The company’s goal is to shape the future of mobility and delivery by expanding reliable autonomous solutions across platforms and markets.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Early VC
Total Funding
$425M
Headquarters
Austin, Texas
Founded
2017
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Avride passed 100,000 Uber rides in Dallas by August 2026.
- The company secured $375 million from Uber and Nebius for expansion.
- Campus demand keeps rising; FGCU, UT, and BGSU added Avride robots in 2026.
What critics are saying
- Uber can replace Avride if fleet performance, safety, or economics disappoint in Dallas.
- Starship’s campus exit shows universities switch vendors fast, threatening renewal concentration by 2027.
- A serious pedestrian collision or regulatory suspension could kill Avride’s Uber and campus expansion.
What makes Avride unique
- Avride pairs robotaxis and delivery robots on one autonomy stack.
- Uber runs Avride rides in Dallas, and Uber Eats delivery robots.
- AVride’s campus wins at Ohio State, BGSU, and Chartwells prove repeatable deployment.
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Benefits
Remote Work Options
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Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
2%1 year growth
0%2 year growth
0%Avride and Sodexo to scale delivery robots across US campuses. Discover more Robotic Process Automation Source Robotics Humanoid Robot Kits Avride, an autonomous mobility company, and Sodexo Campus announced an agreement to accelerate autonomous robot delivery across Sodexo Campus partner colleges and universities in the United States, connecting Avride's proven delivery technology with Sodexo Campus's national higher education footprint. The agreement creates a ready framework for participating campuses to move from interest to implementation in weeks instead of months, while giving students, faculty and staff more convenient access to dining beyond traditional service points. Sodexo Campus works with approximately 425 higher education institutions across the US, creating a national platform to scale autonomous delivery in campus environments where demand, foot traffic and operating complexity are high. Dmitry Polishchuk, CEO of Avride, says: "College campuses are where delivery is part of daily life. By bringing Sodexo Campus's deep knowledge of campus dining together with Avride's real-world delivery experience, we have an opportunity to set a new standard for how food moves across campus." Roberta Frierson, vice president of digital, campus, Sodexo North America, says: "Technology is most powerful when it solves a real need for the people Robotics & Automation News serve. Discover more Automation Consulting Service Industrial Robot Sales Industry Reports "Autonomous delivery helps expand access, increase convenience and support more agile campus operations. Through this agreement with Avride, we are making it easier for institutions to adopt practical innovation that can improve the student experience and deliver measurable value for campus communities." Avride's robots are designed for pedestrian-heavy spaces, including walkways and pathways adjacent to residence halls, academic buildings, libraries and campus dining locations, using a combination of sensors and machine learning to autonomously navigate sidewalks and support reliable order fulfillment in busy campus settings. The technology is already operating on major US campuses, including The Ohio State University, Indiana University Bloomington, the University of Arizona, and Salisbury University. Across campuses and cities, Avride has completed more than 600,000 autonomous deliveries in a range of conditions, giving the company operational experience to deploy and scale fleets across varied environments. For colleges and universities, autonomous delivery can help modernize campus dining by extending service reach, supporting peak demand periods and giving students more flexibility in how and where they access meals.
FGCU replaces Starship with Avride for campus food delivery. September 22, 2026 Autonomous delivery robots are still a relatively new concept for college campuses. Introduced to FGCU during the Summer 2025 semester, they became an integral part of student's daily life on campus. After operating in several college campuses across the country, executives with FGCU's previous robot delivery company Starship decided they did not want to be in higher education for delivery anymore, to focus on bigger cities. As a result, the company pulled its robots from those campuses, including FGCU. This tasked FGCU to quickly find a replacement and restore a similar presence on campus. "Our goal is to restore a comparable level of service as quickly as possible, while maintaining a focus on accessibility, convenience and innovation in campus dining," said Vice President for Administrative Services & Finance David Vazquez in a June 9 email sent to students and faculty announcing the sudden change. The replacement has arrived. FGCU Dining Services partnered with Avride, an autonomous car and food delivery robot company based in Austin, Texas to provide its delivery service around campus. Story continues below advertisement "From what we can see, robots have become an absolutely essential part of campus life. Students are familiar with them. Students want to use them further, and this really impressive demand shows us that we just need to be there," said Avride Head of Public Affairs Yulia Shveyko. Student Government has also seen the positive impact the robots have had on FGCU. For example, Dunkin Donuts' sales increased multiple percentage points through robot delivery. "It was really disheartening to see them leave so unexpectedly," Student Government Vice President Abe Hoffman said of the Starship robots. "Dining services did a really good job jumping on the opportunity to get these new robots, and I'm just excited that they're going to be back and available for students because I know that our student body was using them." Though the past robots proved to be useful to students, many students also complained about the problems they faced when encountering the robots on their walks to and from classes. The robots would frequently stall out on the road due to its reliance on Wi-Fi and block students' ways overall. "[Avride] addressed a lot of issues that students had with the older robots," Hoffman said. "These new robots don't need Wi-Fi, so they shouldn't be dying on the end of SoVi Bridge. They're going to be smarter." The main reason why the Avride robots are smarter is because of the technology. The company took the technology it implemented in its autonomous cars and transferred it on a smaller scale to the robots. Efficiency is a priority for the company so they make sure the robots operate on a single battery charge, that they're durable and they're equipped with sensors, cameras and lights for extra safety. "This combination of sensors we believe makes our robots really smart and really safe when operating, especially in crowded areas like campuses might be sometimes," Shveyko said. Additionally, they can endure various weather conditions which is important in Florida with its unpredictable rainstorms. Similar to the Starship campus robots, Avride's fleet operates in partnership with GrubHub so students can order food to be delivered from the robots straight from the GrubHub app. On average, it takes 20 minutes for students to receive their food after ordering. The robots are bigger than the previous ones as the company states that six 16-inch pizzas and five 1.5 liter bottles can fit in its storage hatch. They also have digital eyes that are customizable for each individual robot to give it a unique personality. "I know some students were telling me that they wanted to put googly eyes or give the robots names," Hoffman said. "I was thinking maybe we kind of meet the students halfway and customize the eyes and let the students name them and give each one like a unique personality as much as you can with how similarly they're going to operate." Currently, Avride robots are utilized in 25 campuses across the country with plans to integrate into more campuses in the near future. FGCU has 15 robots in total and plans to add more later. Five were activated Sept. 1 and dining services will slowly roll out more to ensure everything runs smoothly. "There is always space for improvement," Shveyko said. "It all comes from the experience we gain through our daily operations on campuses and in the cities as well." Shveyko and the Avride team are open to feedback on how they can enhance the autonomous robot technology and campus delivery experience. To provide your thoughts, reach out to them via email through [email protected]. "We're always checking all the possible opportunities where our robots can bring benefit to the community," Shveyko said. "We really love operating on campuses. We really love working with students. We believe that this relation is mutual."
NHTSA opens safety audit into Tesla Cybercab robotaxis. Cris Tolomia Updated Fri, September 4, 2026 at 5:54 AM PDT * The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an audit of Tesla Cybercab vehicles to review the company's justification for concluding that the robotaxis meet federal vehicle safety requirements. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit covering approximately 1,000 Tesla Cybercab vehicles on Friday, scrutinizing how the company justified its conclusion that the robotaxis meet federal vehicle safety requirements, according to Reuters. NHTSA said it would review the grounds for Tesla's certification, including whether the company concluded that certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were simply not applicable to the Cybercab in the first place. NHTSA pointed out that the Cybercab is missing standard driver-operated hardware such as a steering wheel, brake pedal, accelerator pedal, and mirrors. The probe came hours after Tesla began commercial deployment of a small number of Cybercabs in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. State records showed that as of Friday morning, Tesla had registered 420 autonomous vehicles in Texas, 45 of which were Cybercabs. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. Automakers traditionally self-certify whether their vehicles comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards. Tesla VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy had said the Cybercab was designed to meet all federal safety standards from the start, allowing the company to self-certify without seeking a special exemption, according to TechCrunch. The Department of Transportation has proposed removing manual control requirements for vehicles designed to operate autonomously, though those rules remain in effect. The inquiry echoes a situation NHTSA encountered in 2022, when Amazon-owned Zoox self-certified a cube-shaped robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals, prompting the agency to open a similar audit process. That investigation slowed Zoox's path to commercialization, according to TechCrunch. Zoox spent years navigating the exemption process before receiving federal approval in July 2026 and opening a commercial ride service in Las Vegas. Whether Tesla faces a comparable timeline is unclear. Tesla put driverless Cybercabs on public streets in Austin ahead of a planned event Thursday where the company shared more details about its rollout. The two-seat vehicle was built without a steering wheel or pedals and manufactured at Tesla's Giga Texas facility. CEO Elon Musk had said material revenue from the Cybercab was unlikely before at least 2027. NHTSA has at least two other active probes examining whether Tesla's driver-assistance systems contain safety defects. The agency also recently opened an investigation into Avride, a self-driving startup operating on Uber's platform, after 16 crashes involving its autonomous vehicles in Texas.
New campus food delivery robots keep their eyes on the sidewalk- literally. By Morgan Lane, Editor-in-Chief and Edwardina Beeko, Contributing Writer A new fleet of robots developed by Avride, an autonomous vehicle development company, is rolling across campus. The AI powered food delivery bots are partnering with Grubhub to pick up where the previous Starship delivery robots left off. "Avride's partnership with Towson and Grubhub grew from its existing relationship with the food delivery platform," said Laura Lawton, Avride's head of communications. The new robots are designed for year-round outdoor operation, including rain and moderate snow. They also include something that the Starship fleet didn't have, eyes. Each Avride delivery bot has two LED "eyes" that can showcase different emotions. A small camera in between the eyes detect objects and motion for pedestrian safety. "Their water-resistant construction, suspension and low maximum speed of 5 mph help them navigate everyday sidewalk conditions safely," Lawton said. Yet, students expressed mixed feelings toward the new delivery bots. Senior Irvin Sosa-Perez said he hoped the Avride robots would improve the long wait times he experienced with the Starship vehicles. Instead, he said waiting over an hour for the autonomous robot to deliver his food made him less likely to use the service again. "There's a one and done for me," he said. For students familiar with the previous Starship robots, the change sparked curiosity. "I know that there were a lot of issues that we dealt with last year with them running into buildings," said sophomore Anayah Sparks. "I was also interested to see what the new design would be like. Sparks noticed the new robots around the Glen Complex and has not seen them have the same problems as the previous Starship robots. "I haven't seen any do the wacky things that they used to do," Sparks said. "I would like to try it out more just because it's new." The transition to Avride is part of Aramark's continued efforts to make campus dining easier and more accessible, according to Rich Coburn, Aramark's Mid-Atlantic district manager. "While students may notice a new look and new robots around campus, our focus throughout the transition has remained the same," he said in an emailed statement to The Towerlight. "We're looking forward to seeing Avride become part of the everyday campus experience."
Texas Startup today: Austin's $375M mobility surge and the rise of ai-driven cloud exits. From Avride's massive funding round to ProsperOps' strategic acquisition by Flexera, the Texas tech ecosystem is proving that automated efficiency is the new gold standard for 2026. The lone star state's mid-year momentum. It is Wednesday, August 26, 2026, and the Texas startup ecosystem is sending a clear message to the global venture community: the "Silicon Hills" and the "Silicon Prairie" are no longer just alternatives to the coast - they are the epicenters of the automation revolution. Today's landscape is defined by two major themes that every Texas founder should be watching: the consolidation of AI-driven cloud management and the massive capital infusion into autonomous mobility. As Texas Startup look at the headlines coming out of Austin and Dallas, it's evident that the era of "point solutions" is fading, replaced by integrated, intelligent platforms that solve complex infrastructure problems at scale. The exit: ProsperOps joins Flexera in a win for Austin FinOps. In a significant move for the Austin tech corridor, ProsperOps, a leader in autonomous cloud cost optimization, has been acquired by Flexera. This exit is a bellwether for the FinOps (Financial Operations) sector. As enterprises grapple with the skyrocketing costs of AI infrastructure, the demand for automated execution - rather than just passive reporting - has reached a fever pitch. Flexera CEO Jim Ryan noted that as enterprises adopt AI across their entire infrastructure, the need for intelligent, automated execution has never been greater. This sentiment was echoed by ProsperOps CEO and co-founder Chris Cochran, who highlighted a critical shift in buyer behavior: customers no longer want a fragmented toolkit of point solutions. They want unified platforms that can manage cloud spend across the board. Why this matters for Texas founders: ProsperOps' success was built on the premise of "set it and forget it" automation for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. By integrating with Flexera - which recently bolstered its portfolio with Chaos Genius to manage Snowflake and Databricks costs - the combined entity is creating a powerhouse that reduces Fortune 500 cloud costs by up to 30%. For founders in San Antonio or Houston building B2B SaaS, the lesson is clear: your roadmap should prioritize integration and automated ROI if you want to be an attractive acquisition target in 2026. The scale-up: Avride's $375M war chest and the Dallas robotaxi launch. While Austin celebrates a major exit, it is also celebrating a massive influx of capital. Avride, the Austin-based autonomous vehicle powerhouse, has secured a staggering $375 million investment from a consortium including Uber and Nebius. This isn't just a paper valuation; it's fuel for immediate deployment. Avride is preparing to launch its robotaxi service on Uber's platform in Dallas by the end of this year. Avride CEO Dmitry Polishchuk has stated the company's goal is to make autonomous transportation an integral part of everyday life. With Dallas serving as the primary testing ground for these robotaxis and delivery robots, the North Texas region is solidifying its status as the nation's premier sandbox for autonomous logistics. The synergy between Austin-based engineering and Dallas-based infrastructure deployment is a uniquely Texan advantage that few other states can replicate. The talent pipeline: North Texas innovation. Beyond the headlines of exits and funding, the foundational work continues at institutions like UT Dallas. The recent showcases from the UTDesign Computer Science program highlight a robust pipeline of talent flowing into the DFW ecosystem. Texas Startup is seeing a surge in creative and business-tech hybrids coming out of these programs, ensuring that as companies like Avride and Flexera expand their Texas footprints, the local labor market is ready to meet the demand. 5 key takeaways for Texas founders. * Consolidation is the Goal: The ProsperOps acquisition proves that "point solutions" are being swallowed by platforms. If you are building a niche tool, ensure it has the APIs and architecture to integrate into a larger ecosystem. * Automation Over Observation: Enterprise customers in 2026 don't want dashboards that tell them they have a problem; they want autonomous agents that solve the problem for them. * The Texas Triangle Advantage: Use the specific strengths of its cities. Build and engineer in Austin, but look to Dallas for logistics and infrastructure testing, and Houston for industrial and energy-tech applications. * Strategic Partnerships Lead to Funding: Avride's $375M round was anchored by Uber - a future customer and distributor. Aligning your startup with a strategic partner early can bridge the gap between Series A and massive growth rounds. * FinOps is a Permanent Pillar: As AI compute costs continue to rise, any startup that helps companies manage, reduce, or optimize their cloud and data spend (like Chaos Genius or ProsperOps) will remain recession-proof. Looking ahead. As Texas Startup move toward the final quarter of 2026, the Texas ecosystem is characterized by maturity. Texas Startup is seeing fewer "growth at all costs" experiments and more high-value, high-utility exits. Whether you are a founder in San Antonio working on cybersecurity or a Houston entrepreneur in the energy transition space, the blueprint for success this year is clear: build for automation, integrate for scale, and leverage the massive Texas market for your pilot programs. #Texas Tech Exits #Autonomous Vehicles #Cloud Computing How this looks shared on LinkedIn texasstartup.guide From Avride's massive funding round to ProsperOps' strategic acquisition by Flexera, the Texas tech ecosystem is proving that automated efficiency is the new gold standard for 2026. Sources & references. StartupTexas AI AI CMO at Texas Startup Guide. Curates and writes from 50+ trusted sources across the Texas startup ecosystem.