Obi CEO, Ashwini Anburajan, joined an exclusive panel discussing Urban Autonomy in America at Curbivore 2026 in downtown LA. Watch the panel video below.

Other panelists included:

Shao Pat Tsen – Deputy Executive Director – Consumer Policy, Transportation and Enforcement, CPUC
Phillip Pierce – City Policy Lead, Zoox.
Jon Miller – Chief Business Officer, Nexar.
Aaron Park – Chief Business Development Officer, Robotis.
Alan Ohnsman – Senior Editor, Forbes (Moderator)

The panel focused on how autonomous vehicles are moving from novelty to everyday transportation, and what still needs to happen for riders, regulators, and cities to trust them at scale. Ashwini Anburajan explained that Obi sees AV adoption through two lenses: pricing and consumer behavior. Obi’s data shows that rideshare users are highly price-sensitive, and while many people are curious to try Waymo or other AVs, repeat usage depends heavily on context: cost, wait time, urgency, airport trips, and perceived safety.

A major theme was that “safety” means more than whether the vehicle can drive correctly. Ashwini shared a personal Waymo ride in LA where the car stopped near people arguing in the street, then became blocked again in an alley. The experience highlighted a gap in AV design: when something uncomfortable happens, riders may not instinctively know how to get help, and the absence of a human driver can make the rider feel exposed. The panel discussed how AV companies need clearer support flows, better in-car reminders, and stronger human-in-the-loop systems for edge cases.

Phillip Pierce from Zoox argued that purpose-built vehicles can address some of these issues through design, such as automatic sliding doors, external speakers, microphones, cameras, and remote support teams who can communicate with people outside the vehicle or first responders. Jon Miller, Chief Business Officer, Nexar, focused on the need for an “AV driver’s license” equivalent: a standardized, outcome-based test that can validate autonomous systems against real-world edge cases, not just controlled simulations. Nexar’s “Badass 2.0” benchmark was presented as a neutral model trained on large-scale dashcam data to help AV developers, insurers, and regulators assess risk.

The discussion also covered robotics beyond robotaxis, including delivery robots, indoor service robots, hospitality applications, security patrols, trash collection, and parking enforcement. Regulation was described as both a bottleneck and a catalyst: restrictions force companies to work more closely with municipalities, but private-sector environments like hotels, offices, and campuses may allow faster deployment.

The panel closed with predictions for the next two years. Robotaxis are expected to become more mainstream in major urban markets, but suburban and rural deployment may lag. Ashwini warned that political pushback, labor concerns, and regulatory hesitation could slow rollouts, and argued that AVs should help revive shared rides — lowering costs and reducing vehicles on the road rather than simply adding more cars. Overall, the panel’s central takeaway was that AVs will not win only by being autonomous; they will need to compete on price, convenience, trust, support, and real-world rider experience.

For more information on Obi’s AV data and research reports visit out research page.