Automated Driving Systems News Summary for December 2024

Welcome to the twelfth edition of my monthly driving automation news roundup (a complete year!)—the effort is intended to catalogue industry announcements with focus primarily on automated driving and associated technologies. Almost everything I cover relates to Automated Driving Systems (ADS), but I may also occasionally include Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) news items in this series.

I focus on the state of the technology (e.g., development, testing, and demonstration/pilot operations) and the market (e.g., private sector partnerships and investment), but do not cover some of the other aspects that also get media attention (e.g., opinion/think pieces, third-party analyses and reports, or collisions and other incidents). Even with that scope, these updates are not comprehensive (nor could they ever be), but I invite readers to help fill in any perceived gaps by sharing other news items in the comments.

As a disclaimer, this series is a personal endeavor and not tied to my position or employer. While I try to stick to reporting news items without too much commentary, any opinions that I do express are my own as a private citizen.

Lately I have been adding photos to the top banner that represent ADS-equipped vehicles I encounter on the roads, in demonstrations, or on exhibition floors. This past month had the chance to visit two pilots in Michigan—May Mobility in Ann Arbor and Perrone Robotics in Detroit. May Mobility recently started conducting “driver-out” operations in Ann Arbor, and Perrone Robotics recently began human driven operations in Detroit (with ADS operations to come in the future). Thank you to my contacts at those companies for providing information and helping to coordinate visits!

This coming week, I plan to be at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), so I will bring back a great collection of photos from booths and demos that I will start showing off beginning in the January 2025 edition. If you have any suggestions for things I should make sure to see while at CES or, if you will also be present at CES and would like to meet up, please reach out and let me know!

With that, let’s get into the news stories from the past month—here is the update for December 2024. I hope these summaries are interesting, informative, and maybe even useful. Here are the highlights by topic area:

Goods Movement:

In terms of heavy-duty commercial trucks, Volvo and DHL began operating Volvo VNL trucks equipped with Aurora ADS on two routes, including one between Dallas and Houston, TX and one between Fort Worth and El Paso, TX (link). TuSimple, which had previously been involved in commercial truck ADS rebranded itself as CreateAI and has shifted its focus to animation and gaming technology (link).

In terms of smaller logistics vehicles, in Australia, Applied EV unveiled its 6th generation ADS-equipped "Blanc Robot" logistics vehicle it plans to build with Suzuki (link). In China, U Power Limited launched an unstaffed ADS-equipped logistics vehicle that uses automated battery swapping (link).

Airport Operations:

In Europe, DHL and Oxa completed two weeks of testing an ADS-equipped light-duty vehicle in live airport traffic at Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom (link). In Asia, Airport Authority Hong Kong announced that ADS service between the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and 11 Skies (located in Skycity at Terminal 2) (link). Further expansion of the service is planned for 2028, which will to connect to the Tung Chung area.

On-Demand Service:

In the United States, Waymo announced plans to relaunch testing in Miami, FL beginning in early 2025 and provide Waymo One service to the public with its fleet partner Moove beginning in 2026 (link). The company also filed to amend its permit to allow it to expand its unstaffed operation to the city of Pacifica, CA (link). Waymo also reported that its first responder protocols passed an independent review conducted by Tüv Süd (link). Cruise announced work with Numotion and BraunAbility for a wheelchair-accessible pilot in Houston, Texas using Chevrolet Traverse vehicles (link), but shortly after that news came out, General Motors announced that it would cease Cruise on-demand ADS operations, buy back shares from minority stakeholders (including Honda), and integrate Cruise technical staff with its in-house teams for ADAS and ADS, with plans to complete the restructuring in the first half of 2025 (link). Some reports have indicated that Tesla has interest in operations in Austin, TX. An ADS-equipped "Cybercab" vehicle? was reported to be operating around Tesla's Gigafactory facility (link), and reporting indicated that Tesla is in talks with the City of Austin, TX for an on-demand service (link). While Zoox has been operating in Las Vegas, NV for multiple years, reporting indicated that the company is operating unstaffed ADS-equipped vehicles along The Strip (link).

There were also several international announcements. Waymo partnered with taxi fleet operator Nihon Kotsu and taxi app GO to operate approximately 25 Waymo ADS-equipped Jaguar I-PACE vehicles in Tokyo, Japan beginning in early 2025 (link). Uber, WeRide, Tawasul, and the Abu Dhabi Integrated Transport Centre launched service in key areas of Abu Dhabi, UAE (link). Pony.ai was approved for a cross-regional pilot in Guangdong province, China (link), and the company also announced plans to expand its robotaxi fleet from about 250 to at least 1,000 vehicles in 2025 (link). Ruqi Mobility (On Time) launched an on-demand ADS service in Nansha, China (link).

Transit Buses and Shuttles:

In the United States, Mozee announced plans to launch ADS-equipped shuttle service on fixed routes in Arlington, TX and Frisco, TX (link). In Canada, Transport Canada announced a $1.4M award to the Kanata North Business Association for an ADS-equipped shuttle pilot near Ottawa, Ontario (link). In the United Kingdom, the CAVForth project announced that its ADS-equipped bus service between Fife and Edinburgh, Scotland will end in February 2025 (link). In Japan, May Mobility launched an ADS-equipped e-Palette shuttle to provide service along a fixed route with six stops at the Toyota Motor Kyushu factory (link). Kwoon Chung Motors Company received a license to test an ADS-equipped bus at West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong (link) and WeRide launched BRT service in Guangzhou, China (link).

Level 3 ADS:

Mercedes-Benz received the approval by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority to operate its DRIVE PILOT system in flowing traffic up to 95 km/h (50 mph) on the entire German Autobahn network (link). Li Auto announced that it expects to achieve L3 ADS capabilities in 2025 (link).

Designated Test Areas:

The South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) designated and expanded ADS test zones, including routes on the Gyeongbu and Jungbu expressways and areas in the cities of Suwon, Hwaseong, Yongin, Gyeongju, and Seoul (link).

Partnerships:

There were several new partnerships announced in December 2024, including:

• Foresight and Bumhan partnered to develop an ADS-equipped bus model (link).
• DENSO and Canatu partnered to develop carbon nanotube technology for transparent heaters that can support sensors needed for ADS (link).
• Kodiak and Kognic partnered to use the Kognic data labeling platform to scale Kodiak's annotation pipelines (link).
• Mobileye and Innoviz partnered to use Innoviz lidar units in the Mobileye Drive platform beginning in 2026 (link).
• Samsung and Hyundai Motor began discussions to build ADS chips for Hyundai on Samsung's production line (link).
• Ansys and Sony Semiconductor Solutions partnered to advance scenario-based perception ADS testing (link).

Investment:

Closing out a year of strong investment announcements, there were a few smaller automation-related investments announced in December 2024. Reporting indicated that Mercedes plans to invest $75M in Momenta (link). Turing raised a total of $35M in its pre-Series A fundraising round (link). Embotech raised $27M for logistics tractors (link). Aurrigo raised approximately $6.6M through a share placement (link).

Closing Thoughts:

I hope this snapshot of driving automation news from December 2024 provides a clear and concise view of the recent developments. While I try to capture key highlights, these monthly reviews will never be completely exhaustive (I may miss some items or exclude things that are outside of or at the edge of my scope). Also, I have been spending a lot of time with family and friends celebrating the holidays and ringing in the new year, so it is possible I have missed some stories that I may have caught otherwise. If you catch any December 2024 news items that did not make this update, please let me know! Feel free to leave a comment and a link—I always like to learn more, and I am sure other readers will appreciate it too.