Driverless cars are no longer restricted to the realm of science fiction as companies like Waymo deploy commercial robotaxi services in multiple cities. And several automakers, large and small, are trying to bring that same level of autonomy to personally owned vehicles in the coming years.
If that happens, what kinds of things could you do with a personal AV? Maybe you can send him to pick up food or run errands: the hope of a company called Autolane. Or, if you’re Tesla CEO Elon Musk, you think owners will want to deploy their cars into the world to offer rides to other people, creating an orderly, almost effortless business.
Hebron Sher, co-founder of Dallas-based Zevo, is eager to capitalize on all of the above. The company has been operate a car-sharing fleet exclusively for electric vehicles for just over a year and is now adding robotaxis, starting with a new company called Tensor.
Tensor is something of an odd duck. the start-up came up earlier this year from a previous China-based company called AutoX, and boldly claims it will be the first to sell a fully autonomous car to mainstream consumers, in 2026 no less. Zevo says it will buy up to 100 cars from Tensor and add them to its network.
There aren’t many details on timing, and Tensor still needs to prove it can build cars at any kind of scale and reliability, which are huge hurdles that have tripped up many other newcomers in recent years. If it works, Zevo customers could essentially borrow the Tensor AVs in what amounts to a kind of decentralized robotaxi service.
The announcement resembles the many heady but ultimately unfulfilled promises made a decade ago, when the hype over autonomous vehicles peaked. But now that real robotaxis are on the roads, the idea seems like a little more tangible this time.
“Tensor’s vision is to build a future where everyone owns their own Artificial General Intelligence: a personal AGI that enables more time, freedom and autonomy,” Hugo Fozzati, Tensor’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “For us, this partnership with Zevo is not just a batch sale of our vehicles, but also allows individuals and micro-entrepreneurs to participate and benefit from the AV business in this era of AI.”
Technology crisis event
san francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
It won’t be Sher’s first bet on an unproven company. In October, Zevo announced a non-binding order for 1,000 vans. Electric vehicle startup in perpetual danger, Faraday Future. Faraday, which has struggled for a decade to make and sell its flagship FF91 luxury SUV, recently turned to importing more affordable electric pickup trucks from China and assembling them in the U.S. The company is supposed to assemble the first of them later this month.
Sher’s willingness to bet on these companies is due to two reasons. One is cost: Tensor and Faraday Future have non-existent and poor track records, respectively, so they are willing to cut a sweet deal. More importantly, Sher said, these companies are more willing than a major OEM to allow Zevo to integrate closely with their vehicles’ software, a crucial factor if peer-to-peer sharing, especially of robotaxis, is to be allowed.
Not only is it harder to get traditional automakers to be equally flexible, but Sher said their “technology sucks.” With the newcomers, he said, “the synergy of a startup and a startup, kind of mixing, mingling and saying, ‘Let’s build a solution side by side…’ I think I really enjoyed that experience.”
Sher describes the deal with Tensor as beneficial for both companies: Tensor gets an early customer and a chance to prove that its robocars are real and can do what it promises; Zevo gets a good deal and that deep software integration.
But he admits it is a “calculated risk.”
“I think that’s what makes America great, the fact that we encourage startups to take risks,” he said.
