The California Senate Transportation Committee has passed two bills to regulate AVs. They focus on protecting union jobs and enhancing public safety.
AB 2286 mandates a trained human operator to be present in self-driving trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds. This measure is designed to preserve trucking jobs and ensure road safety.
AB 3061 requires AV companies to report any vehicle collisions, traffic violations, disengagements, assaults, or harassment incidents to the California Department of Motor Vehicles. This step is critical for public transparency and accountability.
Waymo has announced the full rollout of their autonomous ride-hailing service in San Francisco, making it available to all residents and visitors. This expansion emphasizes safety, sustainability, and convenience, offering a new mode of transport that supports local businesses and reduces carbon emissions.
Mobileye announced the in-traffic testing of their fully autonomous no-driver system, Mobileye Drive, in Germany. This involves Deutsche Bahn (DB) introducing the platform in six on-demand shuttles in Darmstadt and Offenbach. The KIRA project aims to expand this service, potentially including rural areas within the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) service area. The platform successfully met Germany’s strict “national type approval for motor vehicles with a fully automated driving function,” known as AFGBV.
BMW received approval for integrating both an L2 driving assistance system (BMW Highway Assistant) and an L3 system (BMW Personal Pilot L3) within the same vehicle. Highway Assistant (L2) enhances comfort on long journeys with automated lane changes and hands-free driving. Personal Pilot L3 allows drivers to engage in other activities during traffic jams with highly automated driving.
At the recent World Intelligence Expo, Zhang Xinghai, Chairman and Founder of Seres, gave a keynote address. In his speech, he revealed that Aito vehicles have collectively achieved an intelligent driving distance of 265 million kilometers, adding roughly 2.35 million kilometers each day.
Xpeng Navigation Guided Pilot system has been expanded to 14 additional cities. This includes six new cities in Shaanxi province and eight in Shanxi province. With this expansion, XNGP is now available in a total of 336 cities in China. The safety validation distance for XNGP in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces has surpassed 31,100 km. Xpeng plans to achieve a full coverage of major city road networks across the country by the end of 2024.
May Mobility has revealed the initiation of the Detroit Automated Driving Systems (ADS) pilot, realized in collaboration with the Office of Mobility Innovation (OMI) of Detroit and the Michigan Mobility Collaborative (MMC). The service named “Accessibili-D” is designed to enhance life quality for residents of Detroit who experience disabilities or are aged 62 and over. Starting June 20, 2024, through 2026, it will be accessible to a select group of Detroit locals.
Baidu Maps has debuted their V20 lane-level navigation feature worldwide, which is now accessible in every Tesla model with AMD automotive chips (Models S, 3, X, and Y) throughout China. The V20 introduces an innovative 3D technology leveraging detailed lane-level maps nationwide, offering Tesla users a seamless navigation experience. This enhancement elevates the built-in navigation to equal or surpass the performance of smartphone-based GPS systems.
Zoox is expanding testing to Austin and Miami—the fourth and fifth locations for Zoox’s public testing after San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Seattle. The initiative underscores Zoox’s commitment to refining its autonomous technology in diverse and challenging environments.
Nissan has started demonstrations of a prototype vehicle equipped with their own AD technologies. The prototype vehicle is a Nissan Leaf with 14 cameras, 10 radars, and 6 lidar sensors. The target is to introduce autonomous-drive mobility services in Japan by fiscal year 2027. In the busy streets of Yokohama, near Nissan’s global headquarters, the Leaf prototype smoothly demonstrates its ability to predict pedestrian behavior, conduct lane changes when merging, and judge when to safely enter intersections.
Pony announced the launch of their paid autonomous shuttle (robotaxi) service at Beijing Daxing International Airport, becoming one of the first companies in Beijing to obtain a commercial pilot license for expressways with a safety operator in the driver’s seat. In February, Pony opened their autonomous airport transfer service to the public. Users can book the service via the Pony.ai mobile app one day in advance, enabling travel between over 1,000 drop-off/pick-up points in the Yizhuang area and Daxing Airport.
Zeekr received the first batch of Ningbo Intelligent Connected Vehicle Road Test Permits from Ningbo authorities. Autonomous driving tests will be performed with a speed up to 80 km/h. During these tests, a safety officer will sit in the car. Zeekr will provide vehicles for Waymo One’s unmanned fleet, based on the SEA-M architecture and equipped with WaymoDrive’s L4 autonomous driving capabilities for future commercial operations in the USA. In June, Zeekr’s self-developed SEA-M intelligent driving system obtained an L3 expressways AD test permit for Shanghai.
Avatr, the high-end brand jointly backed by Changan, Huawei, and CATL, announced that it would be one of the first car brands to integrate Huawei’s Qiankun ADS 3.0 smart driving system, starting with valet parking function. The Huawei Qiankun ADS 3.0, launched on April 24, includes upgrades in HD map-free smart driving, omnidirectional collision avoidance, and all-scenario intelligent parking.
Zeekr obtained a test license for L3 AD functions on their Haohan intelligent driving system on Shanghai’s highways and expressways. The system can recognize traffic light information and perform proactive lane changes, navigation-based lane changes, automatic ramp passing, correct fork selection, intelligent detours around construction, lever-based lane changes, and environment simulation display for seven core functions. Since the launch of Zeekr highway NZP, the autonomous driving service covers 65 cities nationwide.
BAIC Group has been selected as one of the first automakers to join the pilot project of L3 intelligent connected vehicles nationwide. The company focuses on demonstrating autonomous taxis, Autonomous Valet Parking (AVP), 5G-V2X vehicle-road communication, and platooning. Last year, BAIC’s subsidiaries, Arcfox and Foton Motor, were among the first to receive Beijing’s conditional AD (L3) expressway testing licenses.
Changan will be one of the first car makers for the pilot project of L3 intelligent connected vehicles nationwide. The SL03i model submitted by Changan Automobile is equipped with an L3 traffic jam pilot system.
Xiaomi EV will introduce urban NOA (navigate on autopilot) in ten cities, and support the integration of more Mi Home devices. The feature will be available to SU7 users who meet the “smart driving safety distance” criteria accumulated 1,000 kilometers of safe smart driving distance by 31 May 2024. Eligible users in the core areas of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, Xi’an, Nanjing, and Suzhou cities will be able to use the urban NOA on major roads.
KargoBot, the autonomous truck creator for DiDi, began showing their L4 self-driving convoy on a principal route carrying goods between an Ordos coal mine and a power plant in Kangbashi District, Inner Mongolia. This 50-km route is responsible for transporting over a million tonnes of freight yearly.
Waabi has raised USD $200m in a Series B round, led by Uber and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Nvidia, Volvo, Porsche, Scania, Ingka Investments, and others. The funding will support Waabi’s deployment of autonomous trucks in 2025. Recent milestones include opening a new Texas AV trucking terminal, partnering with Uber Freight for autonomous shipments.
