Automated Driving Systems News Summary for November 2024

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

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.

I will share my repeated disclaimer: this series is a personal endeavor and not tied to my employment or employer—any opinions expressed are my own as a private citizen.

As noted last time, I plan to continue using photos from ADS-equipped vehicles I encounter on the roads, in demonstrations, or on exhibition floors. This past month I did not have the chance to encounter a new ADS-equipped vehicle (but I should have some good fresh image content to share with you for the December and January editions). As a result, for this month, I dug back into the photo archive. The photos in the title image are from a 2017 visit to Mcity at University of Michigan (my alma mater) when they were working with a Navya shuttle there.

One source for new photos will be the Consumer Electronic Show. I plan to attend CES again this coming January. If you will also be attending CES or know of any interesting demonstrations I should make sure not to miss, reach out to me, and we can plan to connect in person next month.

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

Commercial Trucks:

In the United States, there were a couple announcements from truck ADS firms related to their testing progress. Bot Auto has progressed from track testing to hub-to-hub demonstrations (both day and night) from its logistics hub in Houston, TX (link). Volvo announced that it has built 25 Volvo VNL trucks with factory integrated ADS from Aurora and it plans to begin commercial operations between Houston, TX and the Dallas-Fort Worth, TX in coming weeks (link). Internationally, Volvo has been testing eight ADS-equipped trucks for more than 18 months at a limestone quarry in Norway (link). In Japan, several brands, including, Isuzu Motors, Hino Motors, Mitsubishi Fuso, and UD Trucks, announced the launch of ADS-equipped commercial truck operations on the Shin-Tomei Expressway as part of a project sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Tourism (link).

Last-Mile Delivery:

Just two months after announcing its pivot to a licensing model, Nuro launched unstaffed operations with its R3 vehicles in California (Palo Alto and Mountain View) and Texas (Houston) (link). In Spain, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and its partners began testing and evaluating a personal delivery device (PDD) at a plaza in Barcelona as part of the BotNet project (link).

Airport Operations:

In Europe, Brussels Airport launched a three-month pilot using an ADS-equipped Ohmio shuttle operating on the tarmac to provide rides to airport staff as part of the Stargate program in Brussels, Belgium (link). In Asia, Baidu applied to launch ADS trials at the Hong Kong International Airport (link) and received a license to test 10 ADS-equipped vehicles (link).

On-Demand Service:

There were several advances in app-enabled passenger operations, including announcements and launches of service as well as new partnerships. Waymo opened Waymo One service to the general public in Los Angeles, CA (link). Zoox announced that its novel-design ADS-equipped vehicles have begun testing on streets in San Francisco, CA (link), and the company also?announced a partnership with the Formula 1 team Williams Racing (link). Lyft announced partnerships with May Mobility (link), Mobileye (link), and Nexar (link). May Mobility and Mobileye will provide their ADS to vehicles that will operate on the Lyft network, and in the case of May Mobility, it will launch service in ADS-equipped Toyota Sienna vehicles, with service beginning in Atlanta, GA in 2025. In other May Mobility news, it began testing ADS-equipped vehicles with SouthWest Transit in Eden Prairie, MN, noting that service will be provided through the "Spare" app (link). May Mobility also launched unstaffed operations in Ann Arbor, MI (link).

Transit Buses and Shuttles:

In the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $3.4M grant to the Indian Nations Council of Governments to operate service in Tulsa, OK using four Ford E-Transit passenger vans equipped with ADS from Perrone Robotics (link). Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the Florida Public Transportation Association (FPTA) approved a statewide procurement shortlist of preapproved vendors (including ADASTEC, Beep, and May Mobility) that FPTA members can select for projects (link). HOLON requested an Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) exemption its “HOLON Mover” vehicles (link).

In Europe, Karsan announced work with partners to operate an ADS-equipped bus in Gothenburg, Sweden, with a schedule to begin initial testing in spring 2025, passenger operations in August 2025, and unstaffed operations in spring 2026 (link). Ohmio demonstrated an ADS-equipped "Lift Shuttle" at the Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate, United Kingdom (link). Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr (IAV) and Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein (VHH) announced plans to launch five ADS-equipped eVersum shuttles in Hamburg, Germany in the second half of 2025 as part of the “Automation of the Hamburg On-Demand Service with Integration into Public Transport” (AHOI) project (link). In Israel, the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety granted approval for the second part of an ADS-equipped bus pilot in Nahariya (link). In Singapore, Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced it will partner with a public bus operator to test small ADS-equipped buses (link). TIER IV unveiled its "Minibus 2.0" ADS-equipped bus and noted that it is scheduled for delivery to initial customers in Japan by late 2024 (link).

Infrastructure, Connectivity, and Remote Support:

In the United States, the Michigan Department of Transportation completed an environmental assessment for an ADS corridor along I-94 between Ann Arbor, MI and Detroit, MI, and is soliciting public feedback (link). Tesla put out a posting indicating that it has began building out a teleoperations team in Palo Alto, CA (link). In Japan, SoftBank and MONET Technologies launched testing of remote support for ADS operations using multimodal AI in Fujisawa, Japan (link).

Potpourri (Other Modes):

Here are a few other items from this month that I thought were worth highlighting:

• ADAS Platooning Demonstration: General Motors demonstrated 20 vehicles that used Super Cruise to operate in a caravan crossing the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland, CA (link).
• Auto Assembly Applications: BMW began using ADS to move recently-manufactured cars around its factories in Dingolfing and Leipzig, Germany (link).
• Loading/Unloading Operations: ManuRob unveiled its ADS-equipped Loadix handler at the EuroTier agricultural exhibition in Hanover, Germany (link).
• Logistics and Military Applications: VentureOne launched SteerAI, an ADS firm focused on logistics and military applications in the United Arab Emirates (link).
• Declining Component and Vehicle Costs: Baidu announced that the production cost of its ADS-equipped Apollo RT6 vehicle is now less than $35,000 per unit (link), and Hesai announced plans to sell its next-generation lidar for less than $200 per unit, which is half the price of its current model (link).

Partnerships and Investment:

There were several announcements in November 2024. Mitsubishi and Nissan announced plans to work together on ADS and electric battery technology through a new joint venture they will launch in March 2025 (link). Zelos (link) and DeepRoute (link) each raised $100M. Teleo raised $16.2M (link), Shine Auto raised nearly $14M (link), and Xavveo raised around $8.6M (link). Pony.ai launched its IPO and sold 20 million shares at $13 each, raising $260M (link). It raised an additional $153.4 million in a concurrent private placement. Following its IPO, the company’s valuation rose to $5.25B.

Closing Thoughts:

I hope this snapshot of driving automation news from November 2024 offers you a clear and concise view of the recent developments. While I try to capture key highlights in these reviews, they 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 there are any November 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.