Robotic pit stops for driverless fleets · London first

Charge, clean and inspect robotaxis in the city, in one stop

Autonode is building Europe’s first network of robotic pit-stop pods: compact hubs, about the size of two parking bays, that keep autonomous fleets on the road close to their riders instead of driving empty to out-of-town depots.

Talk to the founder How it works
Concept image of an Autonode pod on a London forecourt: a robot arm plugs in a white autonomous car under a glass-sided canopy, with the Shard behind.
Concept visualisation of a pod on a London forecourt.
€0.2–0.6bnyearly pit-stop market in Europe and the UK by 2030
<20 mintarget time for a routine pit stop
2027planned three-pod pilot in London
600pods targeted across Europe by 2031

The problem

Empty miles to distant depots eat the margin

Robotaxis drive themselves, but charging, cleaning and checking them is still done by people in depots on the edge of town.

2–4×

charges per vehicle per day in a busy robotaxi fleet

Electrek, April 2026
18–25

empty miles per vehicle per day driving to out-of-town depots

RobotaxiON, industry estimate
~$900k

charging labour and overhead per depot per year today

RoboDock (Y Combinator)

Cleaning is still manual. Every dirty cabin takes a car off the road until a person fixes it.

Europe makes it harder. Historic centres, scarce land and high rents push depots to the edge of town, so every charge or clean means a long empty drive.

How it works

One pit stop, six steps, under 20 minutes

The fleet books a slot, the car drives in on its own, and the pod charges, scans and cleans it at the same time. Each step has its own AI model.

  1. 1

    Arrive

    The fleet books the pod; the car drives in on its own.

    Dispatch AI
  2. 2

    Scan

    Cameras check the body, tyres and cabin.

    Inspection AI
  3. 3

    Charge

    A robot arm plugs in; the top-up is sized to demand.

    Vision-guided arm
  4. 4

    Clean

    The cabin is reset while the car charges.

    Clean-or-escalate AI
  5. 5

    Sensor wash

    Lidar and cameras are cleaned.

    Sensor-health AI
  6. 6

    Release

    The car rejoins service in its operating zone.

    Dispatch AI

It knows its limits. Anything the robots should not attempt, such as a bad spill or damage, is flagged, and the car goes to the operator’s depot for a person to handle. A certified safety controller, separate from the AI, can always stop the robots.

Inside the pod

A drive-through bay plus an equipment section, about 9 × 4 m. Proven, bought-in hardware, joined by one comms backbone and run by our pod software.

  • Overhead gantry and robot arm (CCS2 connector)
  • Ceiling, corner and under-body cameras
  • Wash brushes, sensor-wash nozzles and a cabin-clean module
  • DC fast charger and battery buffer to ease grid limits
  • Edge computer for on-site AI, linked to the cloud over 5G and fibre

The charger is chosen by open tender among 300 kW-class suppliers.

Plan-view concept diagram of an Autonode pod: drive-through bay with barrier, under-body scanner, cameras, gantry robot arm, cabin-clean module and wash brushes; equipment section with grid connection, battery, DC charger, safety controller, robot controller, edge computer and router, joined by a comms backbone; links to the Autonode cloud, the fleet operator platform and remote operations.
Concept diagram, not to scale. Protocols are indicative.

Where pods go

Many small pods, close to riders

We start on private sites with grid capacity. Kerbside pods come later, with city agreement.

Fuel and charging forecourts
Partners already have grid capacity and footfall.
Fleet staging sites
Pod clusters next to an operator’s staging lanes.
Car parks and retail parks
Surface or open top decks, with landlord agreement.
Rail-station car parks
Where autonomous cars meet trains.
Concept image of a three-pod Autonode cluster at a fleet staging site, seen from above, surrounded by parked autonomous cars.
Concept visualisation of a three-pod cluster at a staging site.
Map of central London showing an example operating zone across 11 central boroughs, about 85 square miles, with illustrative pod sites near King’s Cross, Paddington, Waterloo, Shoreditch, Canary Wharf, Camden, Hammersmith, Brixton and Clapham Junction.
Example London operating zone. Pod sites are illustrative. Contains ONS and OS data © Crown copyright and database right; river from Natural Earth.

Market

A €0.2–0.6bn yearly market by 2030

Yearly pit-stop spend in European and UK cities in 2030, by how many autonomous vehicles are on the road. Pit-stop fees plus energy margin, at two visits per vehicle per day.

5,000 AVs
€57m
20,000 AVs
€226m
50,000 AVs
€565m

Base case highlighted: 20,000 autonomous vehicles in European and UK cities.

Roll-out cities

  • United KingdomLondon, 2027 pilot
  • GermanyMunich, 2028
  • SpainMadrid, 2029
  • CroatiaZagreb, 2029
  • NextFrance, Netherlands, Nordics

Pod economics

Stress-tested, not just optimistic

We model a cautious base case alongside our upside case. Fleets pay a fee per pit stop plus a monthly fee for reserved capacity, which makes revenue less dependent on volume.

Each extra visit keeps about 73% of its revenue after site rent and cleaning supplies. The first pilot pods cost more than pods at scale; they exist to prove the concept.

Working assumptions for discussion, not forecasts. Energy is passed through at cost, so only its margin counts as revenue.

One mature pod, per year
MeasureBase caseUpside case
Pit stops per day3036
Fee per pit stop€14 + €2,500/month€14
Revenue€191k€204k
Running costs€132k€112k
Pod EBITDA (margin)€59k (31%)€92k (45%)
Capex per pod at scale€355k€300k
Simple paybackabout 6 yearsabout 3.3 years
Break-even15 pit stops a day15 pit stops a day
Running costs, base case (€k per pod per year)
Site shareMaintenanceField serviceSuppliesGrid chargesRemote opsInsurance, data
28.721.020.018.718.013.812.0

Roadmap

From a three-pod pilot to 600 pods

Autonomy inside the pod grows with each step: staffed on site in the pilot, supervised remotely at scale, hands-free for routine visits by 2031.

  1. 20273 pods

    London pilot with a fleet partner. Staffed on site, with AI assisting.

  2. 202830 pods

    London scale-up and Munich. Remote supervision.

  3. 2029120 pods

    Four countries, including Spain and Croatia. Most visits hands-free.

  4. 2030–31300 → 600

    Further European cities with site partners. Hands-free for routine visits.

Competition

Others automate one step. We run the whole pit stop.

The hardware is bought in on purpose. What is hard to copy is what we build around it: signed sites with grid power, software links into each fleet, and data from every visit.

CompanyIn-city podsChargingCleaningInspectionEurope and UK focus
Aseon Labs (US)YesYesYesYesNo, US first
Rocsys (NL)No, depot robotRoboticPlannedNoYes
Volterio (AT)No, charging dockRobotic dockNoNoYes
Zhida Technology (CN)Charging-only sitesRoboticNoNoExpanding
Wanxun Technology (CN)Charging-only sitesRoboticNoNoNot yet
RoboDock (US)No, depotRoboticNoYesNo
AutonodeYesRoboticYesYesYes

Fleet operations companies that run depots today are customers, not rivals: Autonode automates their routine work.

Risks

What could go wrong, and what we do about it

Driverless roll-out is slower than announcedServe human-driven electric ride-hail, car-club and delivery fleets from day one.
A US player enters EuropeMove first in the UK and lock in site partners and a first fleet operator.
Fleets build their own depotsSell or lease pods to them, so their sites run on our software.
Permits differ by country and cityModular, movable units; start on private sites such as forecourts and car parks.
Cabin cameras and privacyImages anonymised on the pod; a data-protection impact assessment for every site.
The AI makes a wrong callA certified safety controller outside the AI; people review low-confidence decisions.

Team

Built by people who know charging sites

The hardest part of this business is getting pods into the ground: sites, grid connections and chargers. That is where we start.

Sikai

Founder

Founder of Sea Horse Advisory, an independent consultancy in EV charging strategy, energy transition and competitive intelligence across UK and European markets.

We’re hiring

  • Machine learning and robot learning lead
  • Robotics and automation lead
  • Fleet operations lead
  • Grid and energy engineer
  • Real-estate and site partnerships lead

Contact

Talk to the founder

Investors, fleet operators, site owners and future team members: we would like to hear from you.

hello@autonode-av.com