Weekly Connected and Autonomous Vehicle News

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:

👌 NHTSA Finally Releases New Rules for Self-Driving Cars — But There’s a Twist. “Regulators say they’ll ease rules allowing for fully driverless cars, but companies need to cough up the data.”

😉 Toyota, Aurora and Continental Join Growing List of NVIDIA Partners Rolling Out Next-Generation Highly Automated and Autonomous Vehicle Fleets.

🗾 Waymo Robotaxis Are Coming to Tokyo in 2025. “Waymo will begin testing its autonomous vehicle technology in Tokyo in early 2025, the first time the Alphabet META 0.00%↑ company’s robotaxis have driven on public roads outside the United States.” And…Waymo’s Robotaxis Pass the First Responder Test. “An independent evaluation found that the company’s robotaxis can detect emergency vehicles and know how to respond to hand signals from traffic cops.”

🤔 Amazon Subsidiary Zoox Prepares to Launch Driverless Taxis in Las Vegas.

💲 Fiscal Year 2024 Vehicle Technologies Office Research & Development Funding Program. “Developing and deploying vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies that can lead to meaningful savings at the vehicle and transportation system level (2 projects for $7 million).”

👍 CES: May Mobility Unveils Electric Autonomous Vehicle with Tecnobus.

😉 Mercedes-Benz Approved for 95 KPH Level 3 Autonomous Driving in Germany. “Mercedes-Benz’s updated conditionally automated driving system DRIVE PILOT has received the approval for SAE Level 3 by the German Federal Motor Transport Authority with plans for sales release in early 2025 in Germany.”

🤞 Robotaxi Start-up Pony.ai Expects Cheaper Driverless Cars on More Roads in China in 2025. “China’s robotaxi companies should see costs coming down and major cities opening up to their fleets [this year].” And…As Robotaxi Companies Stumble in the US, China’s Fleet Is Growing. “Pony.ai is planning to expand its robotaxi fleet from about 250 to at least 1,000 vehicles in 2025.”

☹ Cruise Employees ‘Blindsided’ by GM’s Plan to End Robotaxi Program. “That meeting was short and unsatisfactory, according to one source, who noted that the senior leadership team was also surprised by this turn of events.”

🚘 The Biggest Flops and Fizzles in 2024 Transportation, From Apple Car to Fisker.

😒 Trump Is Probably Going To Kill the Crash Reporting Rule That Made Tesla Look Bad. Editor’s Note: The problem with today’s ‘journalism’ is that opinion pieces like this are written as if they are fact…maybe get a on-the-record source to say, ‘Trump is going to eradicate NHTSA safety rules (just for Tesla) to help his ally Musk.’ Journalism 101 stuff. There were three major trade press articles with the same theme.