In Autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are Waymo, Aurora Innovation, Hirschbach Motor Lines, Hertz, Oro Mobility, Uber, Bot Auto, California DMV, DeepRoute.ai, Venti Technologies, FedEx, Innoviz Technologies, MIPI Alliance, AEye, SynTech, IBM & Dallara> In this Article Waymo Robotaxi Departs San Jose Mineta Airport With Passenger Luggage A Waymo autonomous vehicle reportedly drove away from a drop-off at San Jose Mineta Airport on April 27, 2026, with a passenger’s luggage still secured in the trunk. The rider, Di Jin, stated the vehicle failed to execute the automatic trunk release upon arrival and did not respond to manual trunk-open commands before immediately departing for a depot. The incident resulted in the passenger traveling to a business destination without personal items or professional documentation. Waymo initially categorized the incident as a lost-and-found matter, offering the passenger complimentary rides to their San Francisco depot or requiring the user to fund shipping costs. Following media inquiries, Waymo modified its stance, agreeing to cover the logistics of returning the items. This event follows a similar 2025 report involving driverless hardware failures at airport terminals and highlights ongoing challenges in automated passenger-vehicle coordination during the final stages of a ride. Aurora Innovation and Hirschbach Motor Lines Scale Autonomous Freight Fleet Aurora Innovation and Hirschbach Motor Lines have announced a strategic expansion via a memorandum of understanding (MOU) encompassing the deployment of 500 Aurora Driver-powered trucks. The agreement transitions Hirschbach to a Driver as a Service (DaaS) subscription model beginning in 2027, targeting 500 million autonomous miles. This scaling effort is projected to generate multi-year revenue for Aurora in the hundreds of millions of dollars while optimizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for the carrier’s refrigerated freight operations. The partnership focuses on a hybrid network deployment across high-volume Sun Belt corridors, including the Fort Worth-to-Phoenix link. Hirschbach