Author: Maya Rios

Chinese autonomous driving technology company WeRide and ride-hailing platform Uber have announced plans to launch a commercial robotaxi pilot service in Madrid, marking the partners’ first joint autonomous vehicle deployment in Europe. The service is expected to begin operations later this year and will allow passengers in Madrid to book autonomous rides directly through the Uber application. The launch will make Madrid the 12th city globally where WeRide operates robotaxi services and represents another milestone in the company’s international expansion strategy. Commercial Service Planned for Madrid According to the companies, the initial phase of operations will use autonomous vehicles equipped…

Uber, Autobrains and Nvidia have announced a partnership to develop a robotaxi program in Munich, combining autonomous driving software from Autobrains, Nvidia’s Drive Hyperion computing platform and Uber’s ride-hailing network. The initiative is designed as an OEM-agnostic model, allowing multiple vehicle manufacturers to participate in the program. The companies said the deployment remains subject to regulatory approval. Munich has been selected as the first launch location, with the partners citing the city’s complex urban road network and Germany’s established regulatory framework for autonomous vehicle testing and deployment. Combining Autonomous Software and Ride-Hailing Services The collaboration will integrate Autobrains’ Agentic AI…

Fort Robotics has acquired Mapless AI, a company specializing in teleoperation and autonomy supervision technologies, as part of efforts to expand its platform for managing and monitoring autonomous and remotely operated machines. The acquisition adds remote human-in-the-loop teleoperation capabilities and onboard active safety technologies to Fort Robotics’ existing machine control platform. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Expansion of Supervised Autonomy Capabilities According to Fort Robotics, the acquisition broadens the functionality of its Trust Platform by enabling remote operators to monitor and, when necessary, control vehicles and equipment from off-site locations. The integrated technology also includes onboard sensing…

Denso and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will present new research focused on 4D driving scene generation for autonomous vehicle simulation at the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2026. The research was developed through a collaboration between Denso’s Pittsburgh Innovation Lab and the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, with the goal of improving the generation of synthetic training data for autonomous driving systems. New Approach to Autonomous Vehicle Simulation The research introduces a grounded latent representation framework that models vehicles, pedestrians, and environmental elements as separate, editable components within a driving scene. By representing each scene…

AEye’s Apollo lidar sensor has received the Smart Sensing Technology Innovation Award at the EAC 2026 Zhiyao Awards in Shanghai, highlighting growing industry interest in long-range perception technologies for autonomous and assisted driving systems. The award was presented during the EAC Automotive Industry Conference and Exhibition and recognizes advancements in intelligent sensing technologies used in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous vehicles and broader physical artificial intelligence applications. AEye, a Nasdaq-listed developer of software-defined lidar systems, said the recognition was awarded following a selection process that combined expert panel evaluations with public voting. The EAC Zhiyao Awards are organized by EAC…

Helm.ai has launched two new generative artificial intelligence models designed to create high-resolution synthetic driving data for autonomous vehicle development, aiming to address growing industry demand for scalable alternatives to real-world data collection. The software company introduced GenSim-3 and VidGen-3, which generate Full HD camera data across a six-camera, 360-degree surround-view configuration. According to Helm.ai, the system produces a synchronized 12-megapixel scene for each simulation timestep, significantly increasing the level of detail available for training and validating autonomous driving systems. https://twitter.com/helm_ai/status/2059704171092377737 The company said the models deliver approximately five times the pixel density of many existing generative world models used…

The launch of an autonomous bus service in Gothenburg was interrupted after just one hour on Monday when a self-driving electric bus operated by public transport authority Västtrafik was involved in a collision with a tram, prompting an investigation into the incident and raising questions about the future of the project. The autonomous Karsan e-ATAK bus had been undergoing testing for several months before it was approved to carry passengers on Route 169 through Gothenburg’s Gårda district. The service began on Monday morning but was suspended shortly afterward following the collision at Kapellplatsen. According to Västtrafik, the autonomous bus, which…

Chinese autonomous driving company Pony.ai has raised its full-year outlook for robotaxi growth after reporting strong first-quarter results, with the company now expecting 2026 robotaxi revenue to exceed 3.5 times the level recorded in 2025. The updated forecast is higher than Pony.ai’s earlier projection of threefold annual growth. The company also increased its target for its global robotaxi fleet to more than 3,500 vehicles by the end of 2026, compared with a previous target of 3,000 vehicles. Pony.ai reported robotaxi service revenue of $8.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, representing a 395.4% increase from the same period a…

Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Danish logistics company DSV have completed their first commercial autonomous truckload operation using the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck on a Dallas-to-Houston freight route. The deployment uses the Volvo VNL Autonomous integrated with the Aurora Innovation Aurora Driver self-driving system. The commercial route operates between Aurora’s terminals in Dallas and Houston and is integrated into DSV’s existing logistics network rather than functioning as a standalone pilot programme. A safety driver remains inside the cab during the initial operational phase, in line with Volvo’s current supervised autonomous freight deployment model. DSV Road Chief Executive Helmut Schweighofer said the…

Li Auto has selected Arteris FlexNoC 5 technology for the development of its autonomous driving system-on-chip (SoC), supporting the automaker’s push toward centralized compute and AI-defined vehicle architectures. According to Arteris, the physical awareness capabilities of FlexNoC 5 enabled Li Auto to optimize its chip architecture at the 5 nanometer process node while integrating CPUs, GPUs, AI accelerators, sensor interfaces and functional safety systems into a single platform. The SoC is designed to support the high-performance computing demands associated with autonomous driving and advanced in-vehicle AI functions. https://twitter.com/arteris_noc/status/2056722819224911906 Luo Min, Head of Computing Unit at Li Auto, said the company…

Waymo has temporarily suspended some robotaxi operations in the United States following technical issues linked to severe weather and highway driving conditions. The company paused operations in four cities after reports that its autonomous vehicles struggled to navigate heavy rainfall and flooding conditions. According to media reports, a Waymo robotaxi became stranded in floodwater in Atlanta on Wednesday after driving into a flooded street. The vehicle reportedly remained stuck for about an hour before recovery crews removed it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOCqD8iRTYs Following the incident, Waymo suspended operations in Atlanta as a precautionary measure. The company also halted services in Texas cities including…

General Motors has named Valeo its Supplier of the Year in the advanced driver-assistance systems category for the fourth consecutive year, while also recognizing the company’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning operations in Brazil. The awards were announced from Valeo’s North American headquarters in Troy as part of General Motors’ annual supplier recognition program, which evaluates suppliers based on innovation, quality and operational scale across the automaker’s global supply chain. Valeo said the ADAS award recognizes its portfolio of driver-assistance technologies that combine cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors to create a 360-degree digital view of a vehicle’s surroundings. The company…

Stellantis and Wayve said they have entered a strategic technology partnership to integrate Wayve’s AI Driver automated driving system into Stellantis’ STLA AutoDrive platform. The companies said the collaboration is intended to support hands-free, supervised Level 2++ automated driving capabilities in both urban and highway environments. The agreement expands on Stellantis’ earlier strategic investment in Wayve and combines Wayve’s end-to-end artificial intelligence driving technology with Stellantis’ software platform, engineering operations and manufacturing capabilities. According to the companies, the first vehicle integration using the technology is planned for North America in 2028. The partnership’s initial focus will be on supervised hands-free,…

AEye and MoveAWheeL have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to explore integrating long-range lidar and road-surface friction sensing technologies for advanced driver assistance systems and autonomous driving applications. The companies said the collaboration would combine AEye’s Apollo lidar sensor with MoveAWheeL’s acoustic-based road-surface friction sensing technology to improve vehicle awareness and performance in adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow and black ice. AEye, which is headquartered in Pleasanton and listed on Nasdaq under the ticker LIDR, said the planned work would focus on pairing long-range 3D perception with real-time friction-coefficient prediction. Apollo is a software-defined 1550-nanometer lidar sensor…

ECARX and May Mobility have signed a strategic framework agreement aimed at deploying up to thousands of autonomous vehicles, with initial rollout plans beginning next year and broader commercialization targeted for 2028. Under the agreement, ECARX is expected to become the exclusive technology provider for the project, supplying Level 4 autonomous computing platforms along with a full sensor suite for May Mobility’s next-generation autonomous ride-hailing fleet. The companies said they are jointly targeting a reduction of at least 50% in the total cost of a May Mobility autonomous vehicle by 2028. The overall project value is estimated at about $750…

Tesla said its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised driver-assistance system is now available in several markets including China, marking the company’s first official announcement of the technology’s rollout in the world’s largest electric vehicle market. Tesla disclosed the update on Thursday through a post on social media platform X. The rollout comes about a week after U.S. President Donald Trump visited China accompanied by a delegation of American business executives that included Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk. https://twitter.com/Tesla/status/2057226337010745348 Earlier this week, Tesla China published multiple job openings related to autonomous driving development, including positions for autopilot test engineers and data labelers,…

Kodiak AI has begun autonomous freight operations for Roehl Transport on a Dallas-Houston route, marking another step in the commercialization of self-driving trucking technology in the United States. The Mountain View, California-based company said the service launched in April 2026 and currently operates four roundtrips per week using trucks equipped with the Kodiak Driver autonomous driving system. The partnership expands Kodiak AI’s commercial freight network across the southern United States, where the company already operates routes connecting Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City, Atlanta and El Paso. Kodiak said its autonomous trucking operations also include deployments in West Texas’s Permian Basin, where…

Swedish freight technology company Einride and U.S. carrier EASE Logistics are preparing a pilot project involving autonomous electric trucks operating in the U.S. state of Ohio. The project will deploy two units of Einride’s autonomous battery-electric eBot truck between EASE Logistics facilities as part of real-world freight transport operations. The eBot, previously introduced by Einride as the Gen 2 Rigid Large platform in 2022, differs from conventional trucks by eliminating the driver’s cab entirely, allowing more space for cargo capacity. The vehicle uses a box-body configuration and is designed specifically for autonomous freight transport. Einride has not publicly disclosed detailed…

Nuro has received regulatory approval to begin testing autonomous vehicles with passengers on public roads in California, marking another milestone in its planned robotaxi partnership with Uber and Lucid. The approval allows Nuro to conduct test drives with passengers while a safety driver remains behind the wheel. The company also received separate approval to test vehicles on public roads without occupants, meaning no safety driver or passengers are required during those operations. The permits expand Nuro’s testing capabilities but stop short of authorising a fully commercial robotaxi service. Under current rules, the company is not yet permitted to operate fully…

Humble Robotics has introduced the Humble Hauler, an autonomous electric freight vehicle designed without a traditional driver’s cabin and aimed initially at container transport operations. The San Francisco-based startup is taking a different approach from established autonomous truck developers such as Sweden’s Einride by focusing on a flatbed container chassis rather than a box-body truck design. The Humble Hauler replaces the conventional cab with a narrow front section equipped with cameras and sensors, allowing more space for payload capacity. Humble Robotics said the vehicle was designed specifically for autonomous freight operations rather than adapted from an existing truck platform. “Trucks…