John Lin’s Post

Oxa launches the commercial self-driving bus in Florida. Autonomous vehicle company Oxa has deployed its first commercial product in a passenger shuttle service in Florida, US. Founded in 2014 as Oxbotica, the company develops software for self-driving vehicles. Having raised £115m in a Series C round last year that included Google, the company has now launched its first commercial offering. Oxa Driver software will support the launch of the driverless service in the US, operated by American shuttle provider Beep in partnership with the Jacksonville Transport Authority and the Florida State College at Jacksonville. The driverless service will still include trained safety attendants. Oxa said this was to boost confidence and trust as passengers get used to the self-driving experience. Oxa CEO Gavin Jackson said the autonomous vehicle market was seeing the “number of innovators” shrinking in a “battle of business and technology models”. A rollout of driverless cars made by Google-backed firm Waymo in California was recently paused due to a series of accidents. Jackson said self-driving technology would not be “commercially viable in cars or taxis for a decade” and so his focus is on “the mass movement of people and goods”. “These sectors suffer from severe driver shortages yet they also offer huge public and business benefits if they can be enhanced – and autonomy can do that in a cost-effective way now,” Jackson added. Oxa said its Florida rollout made it the first British company to export self-driving software into the global market. “Deploying Oxa Driver in passenger shuttles playing a key role in a community’s regeneration is momentous,” said Oxa founder and CTO, Prof Paul Newman. “When I started Oxa in 2014, my vision was that autonomous vehicles should be a noticeable force for good, not only improving driving safety but also in elevating possibilities for people.” The company said the initial rollout will be followed by seven more planned in cities across the US and UK in 2024. #news #technews #dailynews #dailynewsupdate #latestnews #latestupdates #dailyupdates

Volvo and Aurora introduce their first self-driving truck Volvo and Aurora have unveiled their first production autonomous truck, three years after the companies initially announced that they were teaming up. They've just showed off the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck, which was designed by autonomous trucking and robotaxi company Aurora but will be manufactured by Volvo, at ACT Expo in Las Vegas. It's powered by Aurora Driver, a level 4 autonomous driving system that uses high-resolution cameras, imaging radars, a LiDAR sensor that can detect objects up to 400 meters away and even more sensors. Aurora's technology has driven billions of virtual miles for training, as well as 1.5 million commercial miles on actual public roads. For safety purposes, the truck has "redundant steering, braking, communication, computation, power management, energy storage and vehicle motion management systems." According to TechCrunch, the vehicle will still have a human driver behind the wheel to take over whenever needed when it starts ferrying cargo across North America over the next few months. An Aurora spokesperson told the publication that it will be announcing pilot programs with its clients that are planning to use Volvo's truck sometime later this year. It didn't name any companies, but the startup previously ran pilot programs with FedEx and Uber Freight. The autonomous vehicle company also intends to deploy 20 fully driverless trucks between Dallas and Houston soon, but it's unclear if this inaugural fleet of driverless vehicles will be comprised of Volvo's trucks or of its other manufacturing partners'. The companies did say at the Las Vegas event, though, that Volvo has already started manufacturing a test fleet of the VNL Autonomous truck at its New River Valley assembly facility in Virginia. Nils Jaeger, President of Volvo Autonomous Solutions, called this truck the "first of [the company's] standardized global autonomous technology platform." Jaeger added that it will enable Volvo "to introduce additional models in the future." https://lnkd.in/eSPRKZZA

Autonomous trucking has seen consolidation - but the remaining players keep pushing ahead; such as Aurora and their European partners: "The autonomous version of the truck [built by Volvo] features an array of sensors and cameras to power Aurora’s Level 4 autonomous driving system, which enables the truck to operate without a human behind the wheel. The companies say the truck is 'purpose-designed and purpose-built' for Aurora’s self-driving hardware and software stack. [...] Aurora has said it plans to deploy 20 fully autonomous trucks this year, with an eye on expanding to about 100 trucks in 2025 and eventually selling to other companies. The company also is working with German auto supplier Continental to deploy driverless trucks at scale in 2027." Purpose-built vehicles and hardware are believed to enable deeper integration of an AV stack, all the way "from pixel to torque". Fingers crossed this allows for the performance and safety required!

Let’s compare autonomous vehicles food delivery to human driven food delivery: When a customer orders food, the courier will walk into the restaurant to pick up the order. For drop off, most customers use the “leave at door” option where the customer can collect their order at their own convenience. In autonomous delivery, there will be no courier in the vehicle which causes two key differences: - Merchants have the added job of bringing the order to the vehicle - Customers need to meet the vehicle at the curb to get their order It is more difficult!

Uber and WeRide launch robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi : Ride-hail giant Uber and Chinese autonomous vehicle technology company WeRide have launched a commercial robotaxi service in Abu Dhabi. The launch marks Uber’s first international autonomous vehicle offering. Uber has been snatching up partnerships with autonomous vehicle companies across sectors, including ride-hail, delivery, and trucking. Other partners include Wayve, Serve Robotics, Aurora Innovation, Waabi, and others. Still, investors are wary that incumbents like Uber won’t be able to compete with the companies building the technology, like Waymo and potentially Tesla. On Thursday, Uber’s stock dropped nearly 10% after Waymo announced plans to launch a robotaxi service in Miami – this despite the fact that a true autonomous vehicle-flavored disruption to the ride-hail industry will take years, and that Uber may be one of the apps where riders end up connecting to those robotaxis. https://lnkd.in/d5sJ7zYi

🚗Highways Designated as Pilot Zones for Autonomous Vehicles, Autonomous Freight Transport Begins in Earnest   The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport will designate pilot zones for autonomous freight transport on long-distance routes and highways under the revised "Autonomous Vehicle Act." They will also establish and announce the first licensing standards for autonomous freight transport businesses to reduce industry uncertainty.   Pilot zones are special areas where various regulatory exemptions, such as for paid transport and vehicle safety standards, are granted to demonstrate services using autonomous driving. In January, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport revised the "Autonomous Vehicle Act" to allow the ministry to designate wide-area routes, like highways, as pilot zones through consultations with cities and provinces, even without their formal applications.   The "Autonomous Vehicle Act" allows paid transport services in pilot zones but lacked specific standards for freight transport. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport has now set detailed criteria and procedures for licensing autonomous freight transport businesses, based on expert feedback.   With the conditions now set for autonomous freight transport, Korea Expressway Corporation plans to actively prepare for showcasing autonomous freight transport on highways by signing MOUs with autonomous freight transport companies to ensure mutual cooperation. 👉 If you have any inquiries or need information regarding Korean KC certification, please visit the website www.gca-global.com #GCA #GCAKOREA #SouthKoreaTypeapproval #ProductTesting #KCkorea #KCsafety #KoreaCertification #KC #KCMark #KCcertification #KoreaRRA #RF #Radio #Wireless #AutonomousVehicle

🚀 The Future of Autonomous Deliveries! 🚀 The prospect of self-driving cars and trucks often steals the spotlight, but autonomous technology is reshaping the delivery landscape in myriad ways. From drones to robots, the innovations are nothing short of revolutionary. While we may be fascinated by the idea of autonomous cars zipping us around, let's not overlook the incredible strides being made in autonomous cargo and package delivery. Take Aurora Innovation, for example. They are at the forefront of autonomous trucking, addressing the massive shortage of truck drivers. With predictable routes and relatively simple highway driving, autonomous trucks can efficiently move goods between logistics hubs. Long-haul trucking is an excellent fit for autonomous technology, and companies like Aurora are proving that this vision is becoming a reality. On a smaller scale, companies like Serve Robotics are making waves in urban deliveries. Their waist-high robots are already making a significant impact in Los Angeles, completing deliveries with remarkable efficiency. Serve's partnership with Uber Eats and Shake Shack highlights the practical benefits of autonomous technology in everyday life. It's amazing to think that these little robots have a delivery success rate ten times better than human drivers! As we look towards the future, it's clear that autonomous delivery vehicles will play a crucial role in solving logistical challenges and improving convenience for consumers. From long-haul trucks to last-mile robots, this technology is poised to revolutionize the way we think about deliveries. It's not just about the tech; it's about creating a more efficient, reliable, and accessible world for everyone. 🚚🤖📦 #AutonomousTechnology #FutureOfDeliveries #AutonomousVehicles

Robotaxis continue to flock to San Francisco as Zoox (Amazon's autonomous vehicle company) announced it will start rolling out its purpose-built AVs in San Francisco and Las Vegas. A similar announcement was recently made by Uber-backed Wayve, a London-based robotaxi provider. Both companies plan to start testing in 2025, gradually expanding their service user-base and geographical availability. It seems that, following Waymo's success, San Francisco is quickly becoming the city of the future for autonomous mobility. https://lnkd.in/dhkk8C6C https://lnkd.in/dfr-SJdz #av #autonomousdriving #autonomousvehicle #robotaxi #SanFrancisco #fleetoperations #FleetOptimization #FleetManagement #rideshare #ridehailing

We believe that the largest long-term potential of autonomous vehicles lies in shared passenger transport. There are certainly “behind the fence” applications for specialized vehicles (warehouses, airports, mines) that are much easier to automate than any public road applications. And even when it comes to deploying on public road, long haul goods transportation applications are probably less demanding than operating an on-demand mobility service. But although both behind the fence specialty vehicles and long-haul logistics have huge market potential, the main goal there is cost reduction and possibly solving the driver shortage and not the disruptive change of our transportation and mobility system that most people consider to be the promise of autonomous vehicles. If you zoom in on the top row of the overview below, we believe automating large busses is somewhat comparable to automation of freight transport: Cost reduction, improved timetables and reducing driver shortage yes, but the general user experience of public transport remains unchanged. And the problem with small vehicles (including retrofitted passenger cars because people simply don’t want to share rides in those) is, that they don’t improve congestion or might even make it worse. In order to really improve people’s everyday lives, autonomous vehicles need to combine the convenience of a privately owned car with the resource efficiency of public transport, and we see the greatest potential to achieve that in medium sized (~4-16 seats), shared vehicles.