Autolane has secured $7.4 million in new funding co-led by Draper Associates and Hyperplane, marking a significant step in the company’s push to scale its curbside operating system across major retail environments. Additional participation came from LAUNCH and Feld Ventures. The financing arrives as Autolane goes live with deployments at four Simon properties in Texas and California, including The Domain and Barton Creek Square in Austin and Stanford Shopping Center and Great Mall in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The California-based startup is building dedicated infrastructure that enables retailers, restaurants, and property owners to manage autonomous vehicle activity at scale. Its technology manages authenticated arrivals, guides autonomous vehicles to designated stalls, and provides real-time parking and pickup coordination through a cloud-based dashboard. The system supports both autonomous ride-hailing services, such as Waymo and Tesla Robotaxi, as well as autonomous delivery vehicles serving on-site merchants.
Since launching a full-scale test site in the Bay Area in May 2025, Autolane has shown that optimized curbside infrastructure can reduce pickup times by more than 50% by improving order communication, vehicle routing, and on-site handoff. The latest deployments in partnership with Simon mark the company’s largest commercial rollout to date. Simon, one of the largest operators of shopping, dining, and mixed-use destinations worldwide, is adopting Autolane’s system to prepare its properties for autonomous mobility as it moves from the pilot stage to broader adoption.
Autolane’s leadership said the funding strengthens the company’s vision to build the core infrastructure layer needed as autonomous vehicle adoption accelerates nationwide. Investors emphasized that while autonomous vehicles continue to advance rapidly, the infrastructure to support them at high-traffic commercial destinations has lagged, creating a growing need for scalable curbside systems.
KEY QUOTES
“As autonomous mobility evolves from pilot to scale, we recognize the importance of preparing our properties with the right infrastructure. This collaboration with Autolane allows us to integrate advanced curbside technology that enhances operational efficiency, improves the guest experience, and positions our centers to support the next generation of autonomous transportation and delivery.”
Andy Hutcherson, Senior Vice President, Innovation and Customer Experience at Simon
“Autonomous vehicles are transforming transportation, but without proper infrastructure at destinations, we risk chaos at the curb. Autolane is building the essential layer that connects autonomous vehicles to the places people want to go. Their work with Simon shows how quickly this technology can scale across some of America’s most iconic retail centers.”
Tim Draper, Founding Partner at Draper Associates
“Autonomous mobility has transitioned from experimental to inevitable, and the missing piece is infrastructure that can operate at scale. Autolane has built the connective tissue that lets autonomous vehicles function in the environments where people and goods move every day. We’re thrilled to partner with the Autolane team as they define the operating system for the autonomous era.”
Samara Gordon, General Partner at Hyperplane
“This funding and collaboration with Simon validates our vision that the future of retail and autonomous vehicles is inextricably linked. Simon operates some of the most visited shopping destinations in the country, high traffic environments where our collaboration is solving the critical ‘last fifty feet’ challenge at scale. Our technology creates orchestrated handoff zones that can serve both autonomous ride hailing passengers and delivery vehicles.”
Ben Seidl, CEO and Co-founder of Autolane
