Automated Driving Systems News Summary for September 2024

Welcome to the ninth 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 intend to emphasize the state of the technology (e.g., development, testing, and demonstration/pilot operations) and the market (e.g., private sector partnerships and investment), and I will 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 never be comprehensive, but I will share what I catch (and will ask readers to help me fill in any remaining gaps).

As always, this series is a personal endeavor and not tied to my employment or employer—any opinions expressed are my own as a private citizen.

Before jumping into the meat of this edition, I wanted to note that this heading image for this month uses photos (rather than bad AI art). This past month, I had the chance to ride in an ADS-equipped bus at Sleeping Bear Dunes. The project announcement was covered in the July 2024 edition of these updates. While that pilot has now ended, the technology provider, ADASTEC, has additional pilots scheduled to launch in East Lansing, MI and Buffalo, NY in the near future—I will be sure to cover those in future editions!

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

Goods Movement:

While we have heard promises of major milestones in trucking activity between now and the end of 2024, September brought relatively little in terms of heavy-duty commercial motor vehicle news. In the United States, Aurora announced plans to extend its Fort Worth, TX to El Paso, TX lane by opening staffed commercial operations from El Paso, TX to Phoenix, AZ in early 2025 (link). It also noted that it plans to begin unstaffed operations on that stretch later in 2025. Controversy arose around the future of TuSimple, as the company is seeking to pivot away from ADS trucking and move assets to China to fund a new business focused on AI-generation for animation and video games (link). In China, Inceptio delivered 400 trucks equipped with driving automation systems in Shanghai (link).

In terms of smaller, last-mile delivery applications, Nuro announced a pivot from operating its own delivery service to licensing its ADS to other companies, including for applications outside of the delivery realm (link). Internationally, Planzer Parcel and LOXO launched a project to test ADS-equipped vans for last-mile parcel distribution in Bern, Switzerland (link) and Cainiao Group announced the commercialization ADS-equipped delivery vehicles in China (link).

Airport Operations:

Again, activity was not as high as it was earlier in the summer, but there were a couple airport automation news stories last month. In the United States, Aurrigo launched a new facility for its Auto-DollyTug team located at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (link). In Asia, LILEE Systems was selected as the technology provider for an automated people move system that will operate at Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan (link).

Transit and Microtransit:

Last month, Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) launched a shuttle service as part of its USDOT ADS Demonstration Grant, and, this month, as part of the same grant, CCTA launched service with May Mobility (link). That service provides rides to both Contra Costa Regional Medical Center patients and the general public in Martinez, CA. Beep held a ribbon-cutting event to launch service with two shuttles on the campus of Mississippi State University (link). In addition to its launch with CCTA, May Mobility also launched operations with T-Mobile in Peachtree Corners, GA (link). The service will provide rides between eight predetermined stops and public rides start this coming week. This year, I have been providing several updates on work in Jacksonville, FL. The big news from this past month was that HOLON announced the construction of a production plant for ADS-equipped shuttles (link).

There were also several transit-related pilot news items, including an update on operations in Seoul, South Korea (link), and launches in Malaysia (link) and the Philippines (link). Outside of revenue service applications, PSI Transcom and Unikie showcased automated bus yard operations at InnoTrans 2024, which was held in Berlin, Germany (link).

On-Demand Ride-Hail:

In the United States, Uber and Waymo announced plans to begin operations in Austin, TX and Atlanta, GA beginning in early 2025 (link). Waymo also announced a new safety hub site (link) and began talks with Hyundai to partner on equipping Hyundai Ioniq 5 models with Waymo's ADS (link). Continuing its progress toward relaunching operations in various locations, Cruise began mapping in Sunnyvale, CA and Mountain View, CA (link). It plans to transition to supervised testing later this fall. Zoox launched a series of open house events to showcase its novel design shuttle vehicle (link). It held its first two events in San Francisco, CA and has additional events planned in Las Vegas, NV. Tesla sent out invites for its robotaxi unveiling event (link), and it is scheduled to occur later this coming week.

Outside of the United States, there were a few on-demand operations to highlight as well. Kakao Mobility and SWM launched an on-demand service in Seoul, South Korea (link). WeRide and Uber partnered for on-demand operations in Abu Dhabi, UAE (link). The launch for that service will occur later this year.

Connectivity and Infrastructure:

In terms of novel infrastructure for connectivity, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Western Michigan University demonstrated an ADS-equipped vehicle using communications technology in raised pavement markers in Chattanooga, TN (link). The signal provided by the markers augments localization for the ADS, allowing it to better understand exactly where the vehicles is located on its route.

In terms of connectivity for remote monitoring and support, Vay Technology partnered with Verizon to bring 5G connectivity to its fleet of teleoperated vehicles (link). Vay also announced plans to supply its teleoperations platform to other businesses (link).

Other Modes:

This category is a bit of a potpourri, but there are a few items of interest to highlight. Mercedes announced that its Level 3 Drive Pilot system will support higher speeds (shifting from 60 km/h to 95 km/h) on roadways in Germany (link). Kodiak Robotics and Textron Systems unveiled an ADS-equipped RIPSAW M3 vehicle for US military applications (link). Scania and Fortescue announced plans to operate an ADS-equipped truck with three trailers at an iron ore site in Queensland, Australia (link). In China, CowaRobot announced the launch of ADS-equipped products, including street sweepers and shuttle buses (link). In the United Kingdom, the Zenzic CAM Scale-Up UK program selected six startups to receive a share of a ￡600,000 grant (link).

Investments, Partnerships, and Strategy:

September investment announcements were more modest that some months earlier this summer, but there were a couple fundraising items to mention. Forterra raised $75M in a Series B fundraising round (link), and Bot Auto raised $20M in Pre-Series A funding (link). While I have been following Bot Auto since it was founded a year ago, there has been relatively little information about its activity—now that the company has exited “stealth mode,” I will be on watch for more substantial news. I have not seen any numbers on the transaction, but Oxa acquired StreetDrone (link), which could mean an expansion into industrial logistics applications.

In the above sections, I have mentioned a few partnerships (notably the Waymo and Hyundai partnership and the WeRide and Uber partnership, both in the ride-hail section), but there are a couple more worth mentioning in this month’s summary. PIX Moving and SODA announced a partnership to accelerate development of custom ADS-equipped vehicles (link). Volvo and NVIDIA announced an expansion of their existing partnership to use NVIDIA DRIVE Thor in Volvo's vehicles (link).

I also previously mentioned some shifts in strategy, including TuSimple working to move from trucking towards animation, Nuro from operating a delivery service to licensing its ADS, and Vay towards licensing its teleoperations platform. I also wanted to noted that, in September, Mobileye announced plans to end internal development of next-generation frequency modulated continuous wave lidar units (link). The company noted that this shift will not affect its product development.

Closing Thoughts:

I hope this snapshot of driving automation news from September 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, especially those that might be at the edge of my scope). If there are any September 2024 updates 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.