This industry-first, three-way collaboration will actively test autonomous operations on parcel routes between Dallas and Houston, TX
Overcoming 4 major roadblocks to building a drone program for DOTs
By Sally Huynh, Senior Customer Marketing Manager at Skyward, A Verizon company As of December 2020, the United States Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration reported drones to be among the fastest-growing segment in the entire transportation sector. Today, regional DOTs are increasingly turning to drones to save time and money. According to a…
EasyMile raises $66M for autonomous vehicles in closed environments
EasyMile, a French developer of autonomous vehicles, raised $66 million (€55 million) in Series B funding. The funds will help it scale deployments of autonomous vehicles in closed-campus environments. The oversubscribed round will also allow EasyMile to invest in its long-term strategy of deploying autonomous shuttles on public transportation networks. The Series B round was…
Motional testing fully driverless vehicles in Las Vegas
Motional is now testing Level 4 fully driverless vehicles on public roads in Las Vegas. The Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture said the testing, which began earlier in February, consist of multiple driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans navigating intersections, unprotected turns, and interactions with other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists. There is a caveat: a Motional employee…
Waymo begins limited robotaxi tests in San Francisco
Waymo announced a couple of weeks ago it wouldn’t be expanding its robotaxi service in Arizona any time soon. I took that as a sign of Waymo gearing up to start testing in a new city – San Francisco, perhaps. Today, Waymo announced just that. It has begun limited testing in San Francisco, marking its…
Cruise autonomous vehicles heading to Japan
Cruise will be sending its first self-driving test vehicles to Japan in 2021. Details about where, when and how many are unknown at this point. But the move appears to deepen the autonomous vehicle partnership between GM and Honda that started in 2018. GM is the majority shareholder in Cruise, while Honda is a major…
Cruise raises $2B, partners with Microsoft on autonomous vehicles
Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, raised $2 billion in new equity funding today. The San Francisco-based company said its post-money valuation is $30 billion. Cruise has raised about $7.3 billion since it was founded in 2013. GM, Honda Motor, and other institutional investors participated in the funding round. GM remains the majority stakeholder.…
Oxbotica raises $47M to scale autonomous vehicle software
Oxbotica’s Selenium platform handles an autonomous vehicle’s navigation, mapping, perception, and machine learning. Oxbotica said Selenium doesn’t need to rely on external infrastructure such as GPS, lane markings or pre-existing HD maps.
The future is bright for autonomous delivery, says Refraction AI CEO
The CEO of an autonomous delivery company looks at trends for the coming year and predicts increasing technology adoption and company consolidation.
WeRide raises $200M, partners with Yutong in Chinese autonomous driving deal
WeRide, a leading autonomous vehicle company in China, has strengthened its partnership with bus maker Yutong Group, receiving $200 million in Series B1 funding.
Top 10 transactions in robotics in 2020
Velarray M1600 designed by Velodyne Lidar for mobile robots, delivery vehicles
Velodyne Lidar said its new Velarray M1600 is a compact, solid-state lidar sensor designed to provide advanced perception for the growing autonomous mobile robot and last-mile delivery markets.
How the U.S. election could affect the future of autonomous driving, China relations
Pär-Olof Johannesson, CEO of TerraNet AB, offers his perspective on how the U.S. presidential election will affect the development of autonomous and electric vehicles worldwide, as well as relations with China.
Wisk partners with NASA to accelerate autonomous passenger aircraft nationwide
Wisk said its partnership with NASA is the first of its kind and is intended to address key challenges and create a framework for autonomous passenger flight.
Pony.ai partners to mass produce self-driving cars as Series C brings valuation to $5.3B
Pony.ai will be working with China FAW Group on design and manufacturing of its robotaxis and autonomous trucks. The company completed Series C fundraising of $267 million.
Autonomous delivery vehicle provider Nuro raises $500M in Series C funding
Nuro, which has developed and is operating its R2 autonomous delivery vehicles in three U.S. states, has raised about $1.5 billion to date.
Analyzing the Bossa Nova-Walmart separation; autonomous yard trucks with Outrider
In Episode 23 of The Robot Report Podcast, our editors discuss robotics in retail with the CEO of Simbe Robotics, autonomous vehicles in shipping yards with Outrider’s CEO, and some of the latest applications of the Spot quadruped.
Motional robotaxi service (with safety drivers) resumes in Las Vegas
Motional today resumed its robotaxi service in Las Vegas. The service, which is open to the public, has provided 100,000-plus paid rides via Lyft’s ride-sharing network. Like many other autonomous vehicle efforts, Motional’s service was put on hold in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike the Waymo One robotaxi service near Phoenix, Motional’s service…
Merck medicines take flight in Volansi drone delivery pilot project in rural North Carolina
Volansi, which provides heavy-capacity, long-range, VTOL drone services, delivered temperature-controlled Merck medications in the first part of a three-phase pilot in rural North Carolina.
Kespry Perception Analytics uses Microsoft Azure for geospatial analysis of drone data
Kespry said its Kespry Perception Analytics cloud-based system is designed for industries including chemicals, pulp and paper, energy, food and beverage, and ports.
Waymo driverless robotaxi service expanding in Phoenix
Waymo, the self-driving vehicle technology unit of Google parent Alphabet, is relaunching and expanding access to its fully driverless robotaxi service around Phoenix. Current members of the Waymo One ride-hailing service will now have access to driverless robotaxis and in a few weeks anyone who downloads the Waymo app will too. In other noteworthy changes,…
Einride AET vehicles to offer four levels of autonomous freight hauling worldwide
Einride said that businesses worldwide can pre-order its Autonomous Electric Transport, or AET vehicles, the next generation of its semi-autonomous Pods.