Tesla and Musk are synonymous. Most Americans cannot name the chairperson of Waymo or Volkswagen or Uber. For better or worse, that means that if one of those people wears a dumb t-shirt or makes a controversially questionable arm motion (unless they do so in a very public setting with the entire world watching), we're unlikely to know or care.

While some of the big players in the world of self-driving vehicles are technology companies, established ride-share firms are also making their mark in the market. Last month, Lyft announced the expansion of its autonomous vehicle options to Atlanta,

Robotaxi firm Pony AI ( NASDAQ: PONY) is partnering with Uber Technologies ( NYSE: UBER) to launch in a key market in the Middle East later this year, with a goal of scaling deployments to additional international markets in the future.