Driving Automation Systems News Summary for February 2024

Here goes the second monthly edition of my monthly driving automation news roundup. As I noted last time, I will 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 effort is intended to catalogue industry announcements, but to the extent that there is any opinion expressed, it is my own. With that, here is the news update for February 2024—as always, I hope these summaries are useful for folks, or, failing that, at least interesting and informative.

It would not be February without a release from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Without fail, California DMV did release its 2023 disengagement reports (link). Along with that release, there were several pieces analyzing mileage and disengagements, as usual. One item with noting is that some companies ceased testing in California, notably, Didi, Deeproute.AI, QCraft, and Pegasus Technology (link).

The month has also seen announcements related to new operations as well as updates to previously announced operations. In particular, there were a few new international ride-hailing projects announced or expanded (e.g., in Japan and China), and domestically, transit applications of ADS had a lot of news this month, with a few launches (e.g., in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania) and in some cases news of progress towards launches in the near future (e.g., in Ohio and Texas).

Here are the highlights by topic area:

Goods Movement:

• There was some news from companies that are focused on heavy-duty commercial motor vehicles for freight movement on highways. Aurora released its February 2024 Investor Presentation confirming its plans for unstaffed operations in 2024 between Houston and Dallas, TX (link). Kodiak and Martin Brower announced that they had made more than 600 restaurant food deliveries between Dallas, TX and Oklahoma City, OK since July 2022 and announced plans to expand their partnership (link). Plus unveiled its Open Platform for Autonomy (OPA) modular software platform that supports ADAS (Level 2 PlusDrive) and ADS (Level 4 Plus SuperDrive) (link).
• There were also a couple news items in the area of logistics yard applications. ISEE announced a commercial fleet deployment of ADS-equipped yard trucks at a Fortune 100 customer site in Texas (link). Cyngn announced the release of its "auto-unhitch" capability to enable ADS-equipped vehicles to drop off cargo (link).
• In terms of Local Delivery Applications there were a few announcements as well. Waymo and Stellantis deepened their partnership and will focus on commercial delivery service in Ram vans (link). Nuro partnered with Arm (a semiconductor design and software platform company) for a multi-year collaboration to drive a scalable approach to commercialization (link). Cartken, Uber Eats, and Mitsubishi Electric announced plans to launch a delivery service using personal delivery devices (PDDs) in Tokyo, Japan by the end of March 2024 (link).
• Also, it is not a new pilot operation, but it is worth noting that Robotic Research Autonomous Industries (RRAI) rebranded as Forterra (link). The company has a history of providing ADS for a range of different formats, from military applications to trucks, buses, and shuttles, but the latest press release hints at a focus towards ADS for military applications as well as for operations logistics centers, drayage, and private roads (and mentions some of the recent and ongoing work being done in those areas).

On-demand Ride-Hailing:

• Cruise has yet to make a formal announcement regarding where or when it will relaunch its operations, though reporting has indicated that it may be considering Houston, TX and Dallas, TX as potential locations (with as few as 10 cars in each city and no passengers) (link).
• A few new services were announced in Japan. Monet Technologies (a Toyota and SoftBank joint venture) will launch a transportation service using several May Mobility ADS-equipped Toyota Sienna minivans in Odaiba, Tokyo beginning in July 2024 (link). Nissan also announced plans to launch operations in Japan—it will operate an on-demand passenger service with 20 ADS-equipped Nissan Serena minivans in Yokohama, Japan, starting in April 2027 (link).
• There were a few announcements for activities in China too. Pony.ai received permission for unstaffed passenger operations using an ADS-equipped Toyota Sienna in the Yizhuang area of Beijing, China (link). In addition, both Pony.ai and Baidu each received permits to provide rides between Daxing airport and other locations in Beijing, China (link).
• At this point, it is not often that I get to add a new country to the map, but it may be the first time I have seen news of ADS activity in Croatia—Mobileye and Project 3 Mobility (P3M) partnered to develop a new urban ADS mobility service in Zagreb, Croatia with plans to begin testing in 2024 and launch in 2026 (link). Earlier in the month, P3M announced some fundraising activity (see “Investment” section), and Mobileye publicly announced some targets for a few of its other efforts as well (see “Light-duty Vehicles” section).

Transit and Microtransit:

• Houston METRO noted plans to begin on-street testing of its ADS-equipped bus in March 2024 and plans to begin passenger service in April or May 2024 (link). The agency held an event to show off the new bus late last year—it is built by Phoenix Motorcars and uses a Perrone Robotics ADS.
• Speaking of Perrone Robotics, their ADS has also been used in a Ford e-Transit van that just launched passenger service operations as part of a one-year pilot will serve four stops in Philadelphia Navy Yard and operate from 10:00-2:00 pm in Philadelphia, PA (link).
• Beep and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) announced that they had launched the "VTA Innovation and Veterans Affairs" (VIVA) campus shuttle pilot (the pilot will use a Navya shuttle and operate for five months from 7:00-10:00 am and 12:00-3:00 pm on weekdays) on January 22, 2024 (link).
• Beep and Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) launched a shuttle service on the Florida State College of Jacksonville campus using two low-speed shuttles equipped with Oxa ADS, and the partners announced plans to operate them for five months (link). JTA also announced that it plans to launch its "Bay Street Innovation Corridor" service on a 3.2-mile stretch between Pearl Street to EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville, FL, beginning in 2025 (link).
• Guident Corp. (a remote monitoring and teleoperation software firm) announced it will conduct a demonstration using an Auve Tech MiCa shuttle at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus in Boca Raton, FL (link).
• The Youngstown Board of Control held a meeting to approve moving forward with launching an automated shuttle (link). The service would be operated by Transdev and follow a route along Federal Street in downtown Youngstown, OH.
• Honda announced plans to test an ADS-equipped four-seat electric vehicle that will provide service between a roadside rest station in the city of Joso, Japan and a nearby strawberry-picking farm (link). Honda will also be operating robots at the farm to follow visitors and help them carry loads.
• The Ministry of Transport (MoT), Mowasalat (Karwa), and Qatar Foundation (QF) demonstrated an ADS-equipped shuttle along a nine-stop route in Education City, Qatar (link). I did not see a lot of information on the shuttle, but it appears to be manufactured by Yutong (which is China’s biggest bus manufacturer and also the manufacturer of novel-design shuttles from WeRide).
• MAN provided some additional details on its “BeIntelli” project, which will use an ADS-equipped MAN Lion’s City 12 E operate with a safety driver on board along a route in Berlin, Germany (link).

Light-duty Vehicles:

• ZF received a license to test ADS-equipped vehicles in Shanghai, China (link).
• Mobileye announced a target of 2026 to start deploying thousands ADS-equipped Volkswagen ID. Buzz vans (link). Mobileye also announced plans to release its Level 3 Chauffeur system in nine car models to be launched in 2026.

Other Partnerships:

• Bosch and Microsoft partnered on AI applications, including automated driving functions (link).
• Hyundai, Kia, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) partnered to develop smaller, less-expensive on-chip lidar units (link).
• The University of Warwick and other founding partners launched the Partners for Automated Vehicle Education United Kingdom (PAVE UK) (link).

Investment:

• Project 3 Mobility (a Croatian start-up) raised more than $100 million in a Series A investment round (link).
• Starship (an Estonian PDD company) raised $90 million (link).
• TASARU Mobility Investments (a Saudi Arabian investment company) announced plans to purchase a stake of up to 38% of HOLON for a “nine-digit sum” (link).
• Haomo.ai (a Chinese startup) raised around $14 million in a Series B1 fundraising round (link).

Layoffs and Exits:

• Apple cancelled its "Project Titan," which once had been working to develop an ADS-equipped car—many employees will shift to work on AI products, but some layoffs are also expected (link).
• May Mobility laid off approximately 13 percent of its workforce (link).
• Motional laid off approximately 5 percent of its workforce (link).

Closing Thoughts:

This review is not comprehensive, but hopefully it paints a helpful and condensed picture of recent driving automation announcements and activity. To the extent that there may be any big February 2024 announcements not reflected here that should be, please speak up and share links—I am interested in hearing from readers and filling in the gaps. What have you heard recently that you found to be especially interesting or exciting?