Venture capital firm Maniv Mobility announced today (July 9) that it has closed its second venture fund with US$100m in commitments, including strategic investment by 12 organizations from the automotive and transportation industry.

Investors in Maniv’s newest fund include Alliance Ventures, the strategic venture capital arm of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi; Aptiv; BMW i Ventures; Hyundai Motor Group; Lear Corp; LG Electronics; Shell Ventures and Valeo. Additional investors include Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures – the venture arm of the German rail and logistics operator Deutsche Bahn – and the Israeli car importer Carasso Motors.

Maniv will continue to invest in the leading startups accelerating the digitization of transportation.

Continue reading Maniv Mobility secures US$100m in second venture fund for self-driving startups at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

ThorDrive, a US-based AV startup that is introducing self-driving commercial vehicle services, has announced the beginning of a new trial and that it is using Velodyne lidar sensors to provide its vans with the highly accurate data required to support the pioneering pilot.

Retrofitted to its fleet of Ford vans, Velodyne lidars sensors will enable ThorDrive to provide a logistics service for a number of businesses across the United States, starting off in Palo Alto, California, where it will partner with Hassett ACE Hardware to support select residents of Channing House (senior housing) and fire departments.

“ThorDrive-powered commercial vehicle services demonstrate how Velodyne intelligent lidar sensors are helping companies place autonomous vehicles on the road today,” said Mike Jellen, president and CCO of Velodyne Lidar.

Continue reading Velodyne providing ThorDrive’s autonomous vehicle service with intelligent lidar sensors at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Following the announcement that Edinburgh will roll out its first full-size autonomous bus service, the UK government has announced that London’s public will also be the first in the UK to experience self-driving public transportation technology with members of the public being able to take a ride on the vehicles by 2021.

Three new public trials of self-driving public transportation were unveiled by business and energy secretary Greg Clark on a visit on Thursday to Oxbotica, part of one of the winning consortia.

As part of the announcement, an Oxbotica-powered consortium was awarded government funding to launch self-driving passenger services in London by 2021 with taxi company Addison Lee.

Continue reading UK government reveals London and Edinburgh public first to experience self-driving vehicles at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Ford has announced that it is to work with grocery giant Walmart to pilot a self-driving delivery service in Miami-Dade County.

“Like Ford, Walmart believes that self-driving vehicles have an important role to play in the future of delivery, and that true success comes from first learning how individuals want to use them in their daily lives. Together, we’ll be using research vehicles, designed to simulate an autonomous experience, to gather crucial data about consumer preferences and learn the best way we can conveniently connect people with the goods they need,” said Brian Wolf, director of business development at Ford Autonomous Vehicles.

Continue reading Ford and Walmart to create self-driving grocery delivery service at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

Singapore is to launch a first-of-its-kind real-world self-driving shuttle bus trial, which will operate in mixed traffic conditions as well as regular buses, cars and motorcycles.

The year-long autonomous trial, which will take place at the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Kent Ridge campus, is a joint program between transportation company ComfortDelGro, autonomous technology company EasyMile, NUS, and luxury car dealer Inchcape Singapore.

The service will use EasyMile’s EZ10 autonomous shuttle and carry a total of 15 passengers along a 1.6km route in NUS between Heng Mui Keng Terrace and Business Link.

It is the first trial of its kind in Singapore by a transport operator, and one that will rely on the vehicle’s own internal array of software and hardware technologies for its navigation on the roads, without the assistance of external infrastructure.

Continue reading Singapore to trial first self-driving bus service in real-world traffic at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.

General Motors has announced plans to begin building production versions of its Cruise AV self-driving car at a plant in Orion, Michigan. The roof modules will be assembled in Brownstown, Michigan.

The Cruise AV, which the company plans to commercialize in 2019, is a production-ready vehicle built from the ground up to operate on its own with no driver, steering wheel, pedals or manual controls.

“We’re continuing to make great progress on our plans to commercialize in 2019,” said Dan Ammann, president at GM. “Our Orion and Brownstown teams have proven experience in building high-quality self-driving test vehicles and battery packs, so they are well-prepared to produce the Cruise AV.”

GM will invest more than US$100m to upgrade both facilities.

Continue reading GM to start manufacturing self-driving vehicle in Michigan at ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International.