Automated Driving Systems News Summary for March 2024

Here goes the third edition of my monthly driving automation news roundup. This 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 will on testing and pilot operations, private sector partnerships, and investment rather than some of the other aspects that also get news coverage. This series is a personal endeavor and not tied to my employment or employer—any opinions expressed are my own as a private citizen.

In March 2024 there were a few announcements of note in ADS for commercial trucks (particularly from Aurora and Plus). In terms of ADS for light-duty vehicles, both Waymo and Zoox are expanding their operations, while Volkswagen and Mobileye are expanding their partnership. There is a lot of transit-related ADS activity, but for this past month, the announcements were mostly focused on international activity (but there will be multiple transit bus automation projects launching this summer and into the fall). While it is no new story that capital markets have been tight the past couple years, investment in this sector continues, with several companies raising new funds last month.

While I do not usually cover state or local policy in this roundup, I will noted that, towards the end of March 2024, New York City announced a new permitting process for ADS testing with on-board safety operators (link). I have a few colleagues in New York, and three of my college roommates ended up in Manhattan (somehow within three blocks of one another)—my Goddaughter (who is currently obsessed with robots) lives there, so perhaps we will get to see how she feels about automated driving in the near future.

With that, here is the news update for March 2024. As always, I hope these summaries are interesting, informative, and maybe even useful. Here are the highlights by topic area:

Goods Movement:

• Perhaps the biggest news for truck automation in March 2024 came around mid-month when Aurora held its Analyst and Investor Day event and demonstrated unstaffed trucks navigating advanced road scenarios on a test track in Pittsburgh, PA (link). Aurora set 2024 as the target for unstaffed operations on public roads, so this demonstration was a good indicator of what we may see in Texas (between Dallas and Houston) later this year.
• The other piece of trucking news that got a decent amount of play last month was when Plus announced partnerships with the Traton Group brands including MAN, Scania, and Navistar (link). It also announced testing activities in Texas (between Dallas and San Antonio) and in Sweden. While Plus had grabbed headlines a few years ago with US truck testing (perhaps most notably the cross-country California to Pennsylvania Land O’Lakes butter delivery in December 2019), I had not heard much lately about domestic truck testing until this announcement.
• Other goods movement-related news for the month included a strategic alliance for ADS-equipped commercial trucks between Minus Zero and Ashok Leyland (link), a contract between TractEasy (EasyMile and TLD joint venture) and John Deere for ADS-equipped tow-tractors that came following initial tests in Illinois (link), and a deal between Aurrigo and British Airways to use ADS-equipped baggage carriers at Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom (link).

On-demand Ride-Hailing:

• For On-demand ride-hailing, it was another big month for Waymo—the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved Waymo's service area expansion plans in the San Francisco and Los Angeles metro areas (link), and the company launched Waymo One service in Los Angeles (link). It also began providing unstaffed rides to employees in Austin, TX (link) and announced plans for Waymo One there as well, with a launch planned later in 2024 (link). Also, while its plans seem a little less ambitious (for now, limited to mapping followed by staffed operation later this summer) Waymo has also brought some of its vehicles to Washington, DC (link)—I haven’t yet come across any “in the wild” here, but that may just mean I need to get out more.
• Looking towards other firms, there were a few other exciting announcements to follow in March 2024—Zoox is also growing its testing operations and announced expansions in California and Nevada to include a wider area, higher speeds, and night-time driving (link). Speaking of night-time driving, In China, Baidu announced it would begin offering its first 24/7 Apollo Go service in Wuhan (link). Also, while the partnership is certainly not new, Volkswagen and Mobileye announced an agreement for software, hardware, and digital maps to support mass production of ADS-equipped ID. Buzz vans (link). Those two companies have been road testing together, both in Germany (Munich) and the United States (Austin, TX).

Transit & Microtransit:

• The USDOT SMART Grants Program announced funding for its latest round of Phase 1 projects, and among those were two projects related to transit bus automation: “SporTran EMPOWER (Equitable Mobility, Public Outreach, Workforce Education, and Resilience)” an automated microtransit project led by Shreveport Transit Management, Inc. in Shreveport, LA (focused more on training and workforce development than on operations) and “SMART Rider” a driver support systems project led by Stark Area Regional Transit Authority in Stark County, OH (link).
• In terms of traditional buses, ADASTEC announced that, by the end of 2024, it and its partners will launch two ADS-equipped Karsan buses that will provide service to travelers and airport employees at Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTHA) in the Netherlands (link). Prior to the launch there, ADASTEC will be launching a couple other pilots in the United States (in East Lansing, MI and Buffalo, NY). While pilot locations have not yet been identified, Isuzu and TIER IV announced that they partnered to develop ADS-equipped buses to be operated on fixed-route buses (link)—TIER IV’s past work has largely been in Japan, so I will be watching out for an announcement of a pilot there at some point in the future.
• With respect to low-speed, novel-design shuttles, there were a few announcements as well—after a pause for the past four months, Beep restarted its "Shuttling with Autonomous Navigation" (SWAN) shuttle operations in Orlando, FL (link). That pilot uses a shuttle from Navya, which is now owned by GAMA (a joint venture of Gaussin and Macnica). The Darwin Autonomous Shuttle pilot added a second shuttle to its service (also a Navya/GAMA shuttle) in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom (link). Ohmio began operating two low-speed shuttles on an airside fixed-route serving employees at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands (link).
• In terms of fixed-route service in vans, I have been hearing more announcements related to US pilots (e.g., between minivans with ADS from May Mobility and full-size vans with ADS from Perrone Robotics, Oxa, or others), but I did not see new domestic announcements in March 2024—there is already an exciting one from this past week, but that will have to wait until next month’s roundup. Outside of the United States, I did see one in South Korea, where Kakao Mobility, RideFlux, and the Jeju Free International City Development Center are launching their "NEMO ride" service using ADS-equipped vans operating along a fixed seven-mile route on Jeju Island (link).

Investment:

• There were a couple firms with fundraising rounds last month, including Applied Intuition, which raised $250 million in a Series E funding round, setting its valuation at $6 billion (link) and Neolix, which raised $83 million in a Series C fundraising round (link).
• There were several others that received investment, but did not disclose the amounts—TIER IV received investment from Mitsubishi (link), May Mobility received investment from Tokyo Century Corporation (link), and Aura Intelligent Systems received investment from Telechips (link).
• Motional is still working on raising more funding, but, in the meantime, it secured a bridge loan (link).
• I also thought it interesting to note that Serve Robotics, which is focused on automation for personal delivery devices (sidewalk robots) began trading on the OTCQB Venture Market (link).

Layoffs & Exits:

• On the other side of investment, the teleoperations firm Phantom Auto failed to secure its next funding round and shut down (link). While they both have paranormal names, I feel it is worth noting that Phantom is distinct from Ghost Autonomy, which has had its own problems lately (but again, that is a story for next month’s roundup).

Closing Thoughts:

As I have said before, this review is not comprehensive (nor could it ever hope to be), but hopefully it paints a helpful and condensed picture of recent driving automation announcements and activity. Are there any big March 2024 announcements not reflected here that you feel should be represented? If so, please let me know and share links in the comments. I would love to catch anything I am missing, and maybe be better prepared to spot additional news in the future. What interesting or exciting automated driving news have you heard recently?