Funding to autonomous vehicle startups has seen a massive resurgence in 2026, more than tripling so far this year compared to all of 2025 globally, Crunchbase data shows. Several multibillion-dollar megadeals drove the spike in first-quarter investment. That signals investors aren’t just paying for research anymore, but betting on companies that are ready to scale up and put their AI technology into actual cars people can buy or hail. So far in 2026, we’ve seen a shift to a small number of auton...