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Uber and the Chinese autonomous-driving firm Pony.ai are expanding their partnership to deploy more than 2,000 robotaxis across five European cities. It grows from the existing Zagreb service to four more cities, with Pony.ai providing the Level 4 self-driving technology and Uber handling bookings in its app. It is the continent's largest robotaxi commitment so far.

Some cars are built to make sense. This one is built to make you grin. Our AutoNext Car of the Week is a 2023 Land Rover Defender 90 5.0 V8 P525 Carpathian Edition, finished in black and available at Land Rover Waimes with 37,900 km. Its supercharged 525 hp V8 fires the short Defender 90 to 100 km/h in about 5.2 seconds, it rides on air suspension and, registered as a two-seat light commercial, it is VAT deductible at €102,500.

Chassis number 0, the first Ferrari Luce ever built, sold at RM Sotheby's during Monterey Car Week for 40 million dollars, with every cent going to The Ferrari Foundation. The price blew past the pre-sale estimate and lands the polarizing electric Ferrari among the most expensive cars ever sold at auction.

RM Sotheby's sold a 2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3 for $17,825,000 at its Monterey sale, nearly $6 million over estimate and enough to make it the most expensive non-charity Ferrari ever auctioned.

Voyah, Dongfeng's premium EV brand, recreated the famous 2010 Mercedes SLS AMG Schumacher tunnel-loop stunt with its new Passion S, driving a full 360-degree loop at about 130 km/h. It claims the first unmodified production car to do it, with the full battery kept and no visual effects. The twist: the original ad was itself long doubted as fake, and Voyah got accused of the same, so it released uncut footage to prove it. In the deepfake era, the proof is the real product.

Airion Automotive, a new Berlin brand, has unveiled a Porsche 993 restomod that refuses the two things the genre is built on: nostalgia and a power arms race. Developed with design studio BorromeodeSilva and race engineers HWA, it keeps the air-cooled flat-six, now a 400+ hp 4.3-litre, the most powerful naturally aspirated 993 yet, but its design looks forward, imagining how the air-cooled 911 might have evolved after 1998. Fifty will be built from 895,000 euros. It is a restomod pointed at the future, not the past.

Range Rover has revealed the SV Pearl Luster at Pebble Beach, a one-of-one commission finished in a bespoke White Pearl Gloss inspired by the endangered White Abalone shell, with Orchid leather and Mother of Pearl inlays. Engine and price are undisclosed; guests at Range Rover House get first refusal, and a donation benefits the Monterey Bay sanctuary. It is less a car launch than a hospitality one: at this level, the car is the trophy and access is the real product.

Max Verstappen has unveiled a Delftware-inspired blue-and-white helmet for the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix on 21-23 August, the last one at Zandvoort after the promoter declined a long-term deal. He calls it a homage to the Netherlands, but the race was really built on him: it returned in 2021 to ride Verstappen-mania. It is leaving just as his dominance fades, sixth in the standings and 110 points behind the leader. The success was rented from one man, and the lease is up.

Fiat has given the Topolino a summer refresh: a Dolcevita version with a roll-up canvas roof and side doors from €10,490, and a Vilebrequin Collectors Edition from €13,490 tied to the French swimwear brand. The base electric quadricycle stays at €9,990. That price is the real story: the affordable EV everyone claims does not exist has been on sale all along. Fiat's trick is selling radically less car as radically more lifestyle, making small feel aspirational rather than a sacrifice.