Automated Driving Systems News Summary for July 2024

I am a few days later than usual with my posting this month—last weekend I was making my way back from across the country where I attended the TRB Automated Road Transportation Symposium (ARTS24) in San Diego, CA and saying goodbye to my in-laws as they prepared for their own travel journey back to their lovely home in Costa Rica. Thank you for your patience as I get back into the swing of things!

This is the seventh edition of my monthly driving automation news roundup—the effort is intended to catalogue industry announcements with focus primarily on Automated Driving Systems (ADS), but I may also cover some Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) news as well. I could never hope to hit everything, and my scope will 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). I focus less on some of the other aspects that also get news coverage (e.g., opinion/think pieces, third-party analyses and reports, or collisions and other incidents). Even with that scope, it will never be comprehensive, but I will share what I can. This series is a personal endeavor and not tied to my employment or employer—any opinions expressed are my own as a private citizen.

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

Goods Movement:

There were a few announcements related to heavy-duty commercial trucks last month. Kodiak Robotics announced that it has partnered with Atlas Energy Solutions, and, as part of that partnership it plans to operate two ADS-equipped trucks for delivery of sand for hydraulic fracturing operations (link). The trucks operate along a 21-mile private lease road route in Permian Basin of West Texas. Torc Robotics announced that, beginning in late 2026, it plans to begin operation of unstaffed ADS-equipped trucks on a lane of I-35 between Dallas-Fort Worth, TX and Laredo, TX (link). Across the Atlantic Ocean, Plus and its partners (IVECO, dm-drogerie markt, and DSV) announced a pilot using ADS-equipped IVECO S-Way trucks operating between Wagh?usel and Gernsheim, Germany (link).

There were also a few announcements related to smaller vehicles and devices for last-mile deliveries. Faction launched delivery service using ADS-equipped light electric vehicles in Houston, TX (link), and it identified Chick-fil-A as its first customer for that service (link). Nuro plans to begin operating R3 delivery vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA and Houston, TX (link). Vayu Robotics debuted its "Vayu One" personal delivery device (PDD) model (link). The company released a video of the device operating indoors, in a bike lane, and along a sidewalk, but I did not see information on a location for an initial pilot (perhaps somewhere in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is no stranger to PDD operations). In the United Arab Emirates, Evocargo completed the first stage of trials with ADS-equipped Evocargo N1 logistics vehicles (link). During those operations, the vehicles operated along a predefined route within a closed area of the Dubai South Logistics District.

Airport Operations:

Last month had a ton of announcements for operations at airports, and I placed this category between goods movement and public transport, because it bridges those two categories. In terms of moving objects, Toyota Industries began work with All Nippon Airways to test unstaffed ADS-equipped tow cargo containers along a 1.2-mile route at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan (link). Aurrigo tested its Auto-DollyTug at Stuttgart Airport in Germany (link).

In terms of moving people, Ohmio began operating two ADS-equipped novel-design shuttles in airport parking lots at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, NY (link). In Singapore, Airport operator Changi Airport Group, Singapore Airlines Engineering Company, and Sats Airport Services announced plans to start a two-year pilot test of an ADS-equipped bus on the airside of Changi Airport in Singapore, beginning in Q3 2024 (link). Scaling it down to personal mobility, WHILL Autonomous Mobility announced plans for a one-year test using 10 automated wheelchairs at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands (link). That test will follow a previous smaller trial that had started in 2023.

Public Transportation:

Once again, there is transit bus automation news from my home state of Michigan, as ADASTEC announced plans to operate an ADS-equipped Vicinity Motor Corp. bus along a 4.1-mile route (the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan (link). Operations will commence on August 14, 2024. Also, my alma mater, University of Michigan issued a request for qualifications for the design, construction and long-term operation of an ADS-equipped transit system that would operate on an elevated track and connect the Central, Medical, and North Campuses in Ann Arbor, MI (link). Note that it says that the university is "prioritizing rubber-tire systems rather than railways" for this project. May Mobility and Southwest Transit Commission partnered to launch a three-year on-demand service, which will operate five ADS-equipped Toyota Sienna minivans in Eden Prairie, MN (link). Community leaders in Clay County, FL announced that they are considering launching a pilot using ADS-equipped shuttles from Beep (link). Shenzhen Bus Group announced that 20 ADS-equipped 20-foot buses will commence operations along four routes at the Qianhai development in Shenzhen, China by the end of July 2024 (link).

Ride-Hail Service:

After announcing its return to the roads with human-driven vehicles in multiple cities over the past couple months, Cruise announced a target of restarting unstaffed operations before the end of 2024 and reintroducing fares for unstaffed rides in early 2025 (link). There was also an announcement that it will cease work on the novel-design Cruise Origin vehicle, and, in the future, the company will transition to using the next-generation Chevrolet Bolt vehicle instead of a custom novel-design model (link). While Cruise paused its work on a purpose-built model, Tesla announced a delay in the timeline for its first ADS-equipped vehicle, as it shifted its planned unveiling event from August 2024 back to October 2024 (link). Waymo, on the other hand, is making progress towards the transition to its next-generation vehicle—it started testing its ADS-equipped Zeekr models (based on the Zeekr 009 minivan) on public roads in San Francisco, CA (link). Pony.ai received a permit to provide unstaffed service to the public in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China (link).

Investments:

I had thought that the investments over the past few months were already large and ushering in a recovery of new capital into this space after the tightening of the past couple years, but announcements in July 2024 dwarfed anything we had seen thus far this year. That is almost entirely due to news out of Alphabet, which announced a commitment to investing $5B in Waymo over the next few years (link). Applied Intuition also had a big raise, announcing $300M in a secondary round—that is in addition to the $250M Series E it had announced in March 2024 (link). Cartken raised $10M in a fundraising round (link). Outside of fundraising rounds, some firms are also looking at bringing in investment through going public—reporting indicated that Pony.ai and WeRide may be considering IPOs in the United States over the next couple months (link), with WeRide looking to raise as much as $500M (link).

Potpourri:

Not everything fits well into the previous categories, so here is a catch-all for some of the other items I came across last month:

• New Datasets: May Mobility and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering released data collected using four ADS-equipped Toyota Sienna in Ann Arbor, MI (link).
• New Capabilities: Toyota Research Institute and Stanford Engineering announced that they developed a system that allows vehicles to drift in tandem in order to closely simulate dynamic conditions where cars must respond quickly to other road users (link). They tested it in two ADS-equipped GR Supra models at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, CA.
• New Sensors: Calyo, Benedex Robotics, and Cranfield University partnered to develop a 3D ultrasound sensing platform for ADS (link).

Closing Thoughts:

That’s it for this snapshot of last month’s driving automation news, I hope it offers you a clear and concise view of the recent developments. While this review captures some of the key highlights, it is by no means exhaustive—there is always more to discover in this rapidly evolving field. If there is a significant July 2024 update that did not make the list, I would love to hear about it. Sharing your knowledge enriches the entire community, so do not hesitate to contribute. Let's keep the conversation going—drop your thoughts and any links in the comments!