Automated Driving Systems News Summary for February 2025
Joshua Cregger
Technology Policy Analyst at Volpe, The National Transportation Systems Center
Welcome to the February edition of the 2025 series of the monthly driving automation news roundup. This 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 will not be comprehensive, 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. I typically stick to reporting news items without too much commentary, any opinions that I do express are my own as a private citizen.
In general, the photos in the top banner represent ADS-equipped vehicles I encounter on the roads, in demonstrations, or on exhibition floors. As with last month, this month’s images are brought to you from the Consumer Electronic Show (CES). The booths featured in the photos include Tier IV (left) and May Mobility (right)—those two companies feature in some of the news items from this month, so I figured I would include them in the banner this time around.
With that, let’s get into the news stories from the past month—here is the update for February 2025. I hope these summaries are interesting, informative, and maybe even useful. Here are the highlights by topic area:
Goods Movement:
There was not a ton of ADS news in February 2025 related to heavy-duty trucks. One item I will note from the past month is an announcement from Waabi and Volvo that the two companies partnered to apply Waabi's ADS to Volvo VNL trucks (link). The companies also announced plans for testing in 2025 (though details on that are limited for now).
In terms of domestic activity related to last-mile delivery, Uber Eats and Avride launched a delivery service using personal delivery devices (PDDs) in Jersey City, NJ (link)—this follows a partnership announcement from last fall and similar recent service launches in Texas. PhoenixEV (Phoenix Motorcars) announced a new ADS-equipped vehicle platform for food and beverage delivery (link)—no word yet on where we might see this platform operate, but something to watch for in future announcements.
Internationally, Panasonic received approval to have a single operator simultaneously supervise 10 PDDs on public roads in Fujisawa City, Kadoma City, and Saga City, Japan (link), and WeRide unveiled its "Robovan W5" ADS-equipped logistics vehicle for urban deliveries (link). There was also an announcement from Cenntro noting that it delivered more than 1,000 ADS-equipped "iChassis 100" delivery vehicle platforms in 2024 (link).
Airport Operations:
In the United States, Honda completed a three-month pilot using ADS-equipped prototypes to mow grass and spray pesticide at an airport in Miami, FL (link). Aurrigo introduced new software to improve performance of its "Auto-DollyTug" baggage tractor in intense wet weather and snow (link), and it also announced that it conducted testing of its ADS-equipped baggage tug at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands from August 2024 to February 2025 (link)—though that phase is complete, it also announced plans for a subsequent phase of testing. In Qatar, UISEE, Qatar Aviation Services, MATAR, and Qatar Science & Technology Park launched demonstrations of an ADS-equipped shuttle and baggage tractor at the Hamad International Airport (link), and in South Korea, whereable.ai announced a project using 10 ADS-equipped indoor transport vehicles in the Terminal 2 departure hall at Incheon International Airport (link).
On-Demand Service:
In the United States, Waymo had many announcements in February 2025. More information came out on the company’s “road trip” program, including work in Washington, DC; New Orleans, LA; and San Diego, CA (link, link and link). It also announced a two-month public transit credit program in Los Angeles, CA (link)—this program is similar to a previous transit credit pilot program that was held in San Francisco, CA last year. Working with Uber, Waymo also launched an interest list for customers in Austin, TX ahead of a public launch (link)—that launch occurred just a few days ago. Between its public operations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, Waymo reported that it is now providing 200,000 trips in the United States each week (link).
Waymo was not the only company announcing on-demand service activity in the United States—May Mobility launched unstaffed on-demand service in Peachtree Corners, GA (link). Lyft and fleet management firm Marubeni partnered to launch Mobileye ADS-equipped vehicles in on-demand ride-hail service in Dallas, TX starting in 2026 (link). Reporting indicated that Tesla applied for a transportation charter-party carrier permit from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in November 2024 (link). It will need additional permits from California to operate service without on-board safety drivers or to charge customers. Risetcar established a subsidiary in the United States and announced plans for ADS testing in San Francisco, CA (link). The company is also working to conduct testing in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Speaking of activity in across the Pacific, there was also a lot of announcement activity coming out of Asia this past month. In Japan, TIER IV completed an on-demand pilot using ADS-equipped taxis in Tokyo, including testing of 500 diverse scenarios in Odaiba and Nishi-Shinjuku late last year (link). The company also announced a partnership with Nihon Kotsu to launch a data collection project that will use Nihon Kotsu taxis equipped with a data recording system developed by TIER IV (link). The data will be used to enhance safety and ride quality for ADS-equipped vehicles. Pony.ai launched ADS operations on four routes in Guangzhou, China (link). WeRide announced that it received approval to launch its ADS-equipped “GXR” vehicle for paid unstaffed on-demand service in Beijing, China (link). The Singaporean ride-hail firm Grab is reportedly in active discussions to operate ADS-equipped vehicles (link).
Transit Buses and Shuttles:
In Florida, Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced it has begun testing Oxa ADS-equipped Ford E-Transit vans along Bay Street, and it is planning to launch public service in June 2025 (link). In Europe, ADASTEC and Karsan tested an ADS-equipped bus in Madrid, Spain (link), and WeRide and Renault announced an unstaffed shuttle pilot (with partners beti and Macif) in Alixan, France (link). In China, MINIEYE delivered an ADS-equipped "iRobo" minibus for a project in Suzhou (link).
Level 3 ADS:
There were Level 3 ADS announcements from Stellantis and Xpeng this past month. Stellantis announced its STLA AutoDrive Level 3 features, but noted it is not ready to launch them yet (link). Xpeng set a target of achieving SAE Level 3 ADS in the second half of 2025 (link).
Driver Assistance Systems:
BYD and Hesai partnered to integrate lidar units in 10 models with BYD’s "God's Eye" ADAS (link)—this may be part of a broader movement toward offering Level 2 ADAS in more models, and shifting it from a premium option to a standard feature. There was also some news this week coming out of Geely that it would similarly expand its “G-Pilot” ADAS across its brands. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues on or accelerates with other competitors and markets outside China as well.
Other Modes:
There were a few announcements of note in February 2025 that were outside of the typical application areas I include in this news roundup:
Other Partnerships:
There were a few new partnerships related to ADS and ADAS work that were announced in February 2025, including: Foretellix and MathWorks (link), Visinex and Smarter Eye (link), and Baidu and CATL (link).
Market Activity (Investment, Entry, Exits, etc.):
There were a few news items related to investment or reorganization. Nvidia invested $24.6 million in WeRide (link). Jaguar Land Rover announced an $180 million investment for a technology hub in Portland, OR (link). General Motors completed full acquisition of Cruise (link). The UK ADS developer Conigital filed for insolvency and commenced liquidation (link). The founder of Velodyne launched Hall Lidar, which is focused on providing lidar units for ADAS and ADS applications (link).
Data:
It would not be February without a release from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Without fail, California DMV did release its 2024 disengagement reports from the ADS developers that have been testing in the state (link). Along with the data release came commentary from many others—in short, overall test miles dropped, but that was largely due to the exit of Cruise and Waymo’s shift from testing to commercial operations (which are reported to CPUC instead of DMV).
Closing Thoughts:
I hope this snapshot of driving automation news from February 2025 provides a clear and concise view of the recent developments. It took me as little longer to set aside time to pull this together (usually I try to put it out within the first week of a new month), but, if we look for silver linings, I can already say that March 2025 is looking like it will be a pretty active month with a lot to share (though other than a few minor references here and there, I am saving all those March news items for the next edition). 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). If you catch any February 2025 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.