Autonomous & Self-Driving Vehicle News: May Mobility, Waymo, Ansys, Mercedes-Benz, Ouster & Cognata

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In autonomous and self-driving vehicle news are May Mobility, Waymo, Ansys, Mercedes-Benz, Ouster and Cognata.

May Mobility Offers Driverless Service in Sun City, AZ

May Mobility, a leader in the development and deployment of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology, announced the launch of the company’s first driverless service for riders on public roads in Sun City, Arizona. May Mobility’s rider-only vehicles, which leverage its proprietary Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology, will operate daily during the week without an operator sitting in the driver’s seat. Sun City represents the first of many communities globally where May Mobility aims to launch its rider-only transit services to transform cities by providing accessible, safe and reliable transportation.

“Today, we take the key step of beginning rider-only operations, a cornerstone for our commercial growth and expansion moving forward,” said Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility. “We believe it is critical to work closely with our key strategic partners, regulators, insurers, and riders, as we roll out our technology step-by-step.”

May Mobility’s Multi-Policy Decision Making system is uniquely designed to solve the challenge of making safe driving decisions under uncertainty, including when the vehicle encounters an unknown scenario. MPDM runs real-time, on-board simulations to analyze thousands of possible scenarios every second, choosing the safest one to execute. This approach to autonomous technology makes May Mobility vehicles adept at handling edge cases and enables the company to scale more efficiently and quickly than would otherwise be possible.

“May Mobility has built a more scalable autonomy solution at a fraction of the cost of other systems of a similar maturity,” said Anna Brunelle, chief financial officer of May Mobility. “And as we continue to expand and improve our driverless operational design domain, we step closer to our goal of being the first profitable AV company.”

Before transitioning to its rider-only service, May Mobility vehicles began operating on public roads in Sun City with a safety operator in April 2023. The company launched its on-demand autonomous public transit service with TransitTech company Via, to serve the retirement community of Sun City and provide greater access to affordable mobility with shared, on-demand AVs. The service was designed to allow the aging population to gain increased freedom and mobility safely and reliably. The lessons from this service set the foundation for the transition to a safe rider-only service designed to meet the needs of the local community.

Through May Mobility’s first rider-only service, a select group of Early Riders in Sun City will have the ability to request a pickup in one of May Mobility’s Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS vehicles from a variety of stops. The rider-only service will initially operate on public roads Monday through Friday in the afternoon and will be available at no cost to Early Riders.

May Mobility’s rider-only service will be powered by Via, the global leader in TransitTech, and will serve resident complexes, medical centers and other key locations. The Early Riders consist of a group of Sun City residents with varying transportation needs. Their feedback will play a pivotal role in shaping how the company continues to ramp up rider-only operations, keeping safety in mind at every step, and how AVs can be successfully used in public transit.

May Mobility expects to significantly expand its rider-only services as part of its plan to improve transportation across markets.

May Mobility’s public sector go-to-market strategy is to partner directly with stakeholders like cities, transit agencies, municipalities and government agencies to identify gaps in current public transportation systems and solve real transportation challenges for communities. May Mobility’s shift to rider-only operations is a key next step toward accomplishing those goals.

Waymo Safety

Waymo issued news safety research.

Safety leads everything at Waymo. This year alone, Waymo has served over 700,000 ride-hailing trips with public riders and no human driver. We couldn’t have hit that milestone without putting safety front and center, and we are working hard to improve the measurement, transparency, and performance of our fleet.

They claim their ir comprehensive research — across more than twenty safety papers that we’ve published over the years to enhance transparency — shows that the Waymo Driver performs safely across a range of evaluations. Building on that work, we’ve published two new papers today: one that compares the Waymo Driver’s crash rates to human drivers’ over our 7+ million rider-only miles from Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; and another that develops clear human crash benchmarks to enable such comparisons.

Their new research found that Waymo Driver performance led to a significant reduction in the rates of police-reported and injury-causing crashes compared to human drivers in the cities where we operate.

There’s no single metric that can show the safety of autonomous driving. We use several different evaluation metrics and methods aiming to get a complete picture of safety. One of many metrics that can be used to monitor the rider-only service after it has launched is the number of vehicle crashes per mile of driving compared to humans.

In the performance study, Waymo compared the Waymo Driver’s crash rates to human drivers’ on several different benchmarks. This study is one of the first to compare overall crash rates using data from fully autonomous operations only, rather than a mix of fully autonomous driving and testing with a human behind the wheel. Unlike the recent research by Swiss Re that focused on crashes resulting in Waymo’s liability claims, this study includes all Waymo crashes, regardless of the Waymo vehicle’s role in the crash, and with any amount of property damage. It also uses publicly available data, which allows other researchers to replicate the results.

Waymo’s data was derived from crashes reported under NHTSA’s Standing General Order (SGO), over 7.14 million fully autonomous miles driven 24/7 through the end of October 2023 across Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. That data was then compared to relevant human crash rates resulting in police reports, injuries, and/or property damage.

When considering all locations together, compared to the human benchmarks, the Waymo Driver demonstrated:

  • An 85% reduction or 6.8 times lower crash rate involving any injury, from minor to severe and fatal cases (0.41 incidence per million miles for the Waymo Driver vs 2.78 for the human benchmark)
  • A 57% reduction or 2.3 times lower police-reported crash rate (2.1 incidence per million miles for the Waymo Driver vs. 4.85 for the human benchmark)

This means that over the 7.1 million miles Waymo drove, there were an estimated 17 fewer injuries and 20 fewer police-reported crashes compared to if human drivers with the benchmark crash rate would have driven the same distance in the areas we operate.

When compared to crash rates in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, individually, the Waymo Driver significantly outperformed local respective human benchmarks as well (though the comparison in LA does not yet have enough mileage to be statistically significant). Notably, local human benchmarks varied from one city to another — for example, San Francisco had the highest rate of crashes where an injury was reported with 5.55 incidents per million miles, which was approximately three times higher than the national average.

In general, the Waymo Driver also demonstrated lower property damage rates compared to the human benchmarks. However, the benchmark rates themselves varied considerably depending on the human data source, even within the same location, so caution should be taken when interpreting these results.

Ansys AVxcelerate Autonomy

Ansys (NASDAQ: ANSS) launches AVxcelerate Autonomy, a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end solution capable of reducing cost and time-to-compliance for L2+, L3, and above ADAS/AV systems by 100,000X. Co-developed with the BMW Group, Ansys AVxcelerate Autonomy empowers companies to further digital transformation efforts and achieve the majority of test driving required for compliance virtually.

The race to develop safe, reliable autonomous vehicles is unfolding in a virtual environment. Increasingly powerful digital engineering technology enables users to validate safety by virtually evaluating millions of known and unknown situations that mimic real-world driving scenarios.

The latest evolution in AV simulation technology, Ansys AVxcelerate Autonomy is cloud-native, modular, and designed around an MBSE framework. Its flexible, open architecture follows the Association for Standardization of Automation and Measuring Systems (ASAM) openX standards. This industry benchmark facilitates seamless data transfer from the toolchain and supports integration into any enterprise-level solution via fixed APIs. The solution is in the process of becoming ISO 26262 certified, allowing companies to develop their workflows for L3 and above certification.

AVxcelerate Autonomy utilizes expansive scenario variation management capabilities to perform sensitivity and reliability analyses that help users determine the probability of ADAS/AV system failure and validate systems at-scale to establish a case for safety justification. Designed for continuous safety validation, AVxcelerate Autonomy can accommodate over-the-air updates for the lifecycle of the product.

Leveraging the power of a robust, adaptive exploration algorithm optimized in the cloud, users will be able to accelerate sensitivity analyses by 1,000X compared to traditional algorithms. By replacing most of the physical tests with virtual driving, users can further accelerate development by 100X to realize a potential 100,000X reduction in cost and time-to-compliance.

“Navigating the complex rules around regulatory compliance by providing safety justification is one of the biggest challenges for automotive manufacturers,” said Walt Hearn, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer excellence at Ansys. “Moving from one level of autonomy to the next requires extreme technological advances that are accessible, scalable, and easily implemented. The predictive accuracy and framework of Ansys AVxcelerate Autonomy can speed autonomous technology development to support the industry in realizing a future where traffic collisions are extinct.”

Visit Ansys at CES in Las Vegas from Jan. 9-12, 2024, at booth #6500 to learn more.

Mercedes-Benz Exterior Light Approval for CA & NV

Mercedes-Benz received the world’s first approval for use of special exterior lighting for automated driving in California and Nevada.

In California, the permit is valid to test turquoise-coloured marker lights for automated driving on freeways.

In Nevada, the permit allows production vehicles to be equipped with special marker lights beginning with Model Year 2026 EQS and S-Class DRIVE PILOT vehicles and continues until legislative changes.

First application in further development of DRIVE PILOT – the first and only certified system for conditionally automated driving (SAE-Level 3) in the United States (CA, NV).

The production-ready version of DRIVE PILOT has already made its on-road debut in California and Nevada with a limited fleet of Level 3 equipped EQS Sedans.

Customer deliveries of DRIVE PILOT equipped Model Year 2024 EQS Sedan and S-Class models will be available in early 2024 through participating authorized Mercedes-Benz dealers in California and Nevada.

Mercedes-Benz has become the world’s first automobile manufacturer to receive permits for special exterior marker lights for automated driving in the states of California and Nevada. The California exemption permit for testing vehicles in California is initially limited to two years. The Nevada permit applies to Mercedes-Benz Model Year 2026 production vehicles and will remain valid until a statutory modification is achieved with the state legislature.

Both permits allow Mercedes-Benz to gain important insights into the interaction of automated vehicles and other road users. The inclusion of marker lights is poised to substantially enhance public acceptance of automated driving and contribute to road safety, as the lights make the automated driving system’s status clearly visible from the exterior. This also allows traffic law enforcement and police officers to identify the system’s status and determine whether drivers are permitted to engage in secondary activities during the conditionally automated journey. Designed in accordance with SAE J3134 Recommended Practice, the turquoise-coloured marker lights for automated driving in California are integrated into the front and rear lights as well as the two outside mirrors in Mercedes-Benz testing vehicles.

“With the development of automated driving marker lights, Mercedes-Benz is once again setting new industry standards. We are the first automaker in the world to receive such approvals in the U.S., specifically in California and Nevada. The more automated driving vehicles populate the road, the more important communication and interaction between the vehicle and the environment become.”
Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Chief Technology Officer, Development & Purchasing

First use case: DRIVE PILOT

The automated driving marker lights will initially be integrated into testing vehicles in California equipped with DRIVE PILOT, which is the world’s first SAE-Level 3 system for conditionally automated driving with internationally valid type approval. DRIVE PILOT received certification in 2021 in Germany and in 2023 in Nevada and California, U.S. where each state requires separate certification. In Germany, DRIVE PILOT has already been available for orders since 2022, and in the United States, the first production vehicles recently made their debut on the freeways of California and Nevada.

Choice of color of marker lights for automated driving

Turquoise fulfils two essential criteria that contributed to this color choice – its visibility allows reliable and fast detection for other road users, and it offers differentiation from existing vehicle lighting and traffic signals such as traffic lights or emergency lighting. As a result, the possibility of confusion with already existing lighting colors may be reduced significantly. In addition, according to the findings of numerous test studies, turquoise is the optimal color for automated driving. Both physiological and psychological factors attest to higher values in turquoise in almost all areas than was the case with other colors. Turquoise is also described in the industry-recommend practice SAE J3134 “ADS Marker Lamps” for use to display activation of an automated driving system. The development and approval of the new lighting concept involved collaborative efforts of an interdisciplinary team, comprising engineers, compliance managers, data protection experts and ethics experts.

Standardization and harmonization for more safety

Mercedes-Benz is committed to standardizing the color turquoise as a means to visualize the automated driving state, fostering global understanding and acceptance for this technology. So far, there is no general framework in the United States, China or the UN-ECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe) for using turquoise lights in production vehicles. California and Nevada have taken the first important step with the now-granted exemptions. A future globally harmonized regulation for turquoise marker lights for automated driving will form the basis for heightened safety for all road users and propelling further technical innovations.

Ouster Certification

Ouster, Inc. (NYSE: OUST) (“Ouster” or the “Company”), a leading provider of high-performance lidar sensors, announced that the Company achieved certification to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 – the international standard for the management of information security.

The certification demonstrates Ouster’s commitment to ensuring the highest standards of data security for its customers and partners. ISO 27001 requires companies to systematically examine their information security risks, design and implement a comprehensive set of security controls and measures, and adopt a management approach to continue to meet a high standard for information security. The independent assessment was performed by ANAB-accredited BARR Advisory, P.A.

Ouster’s Information Security Management System covers its lidar system and firmware, the Ouster Software Development Kit (SDK), and the Ouster Studio digital lidar visualizer. Ouster’s cybersecurity program manages 123 controls across 28 domains, including asset management, business continuity and disaster recovery, continuous monitoring, cryptographic protections, endpoint security, human resource security, incident response, risk management, third-party management, and vulnerability management. In addition to ISO 27001, Ouster is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

Microsoft & Cognata

Cognata proudly announces its collaboration with Microsoft to drive the Automated Driving Perception Hub (ADPH) global program, running on Microsoft Azure, and AMD EPYC™ processors and Radeon™ GPUs, to allow Automotive customers to virtually and efficiently evaluate ADAS/AV sensors through digital twin-based sensor simulation. Cognata’s Automated Driving Perception Hub allows sensors to be evaluated versus a common set of industry-standard scenarios, and their performance is quickly and easily analyzed.

Sensor selection is pivotal in steering the automotive industry toward reliable and safe autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems. Cognata’s ADPH platform incorporates highly accurate sensor modeling, manufacturer approved, with a wide spectrum of sensors such as RGB cameras with varying lens distortions, Point-cloud (LiDAR) systems, as well as Thermal cameras (IR), all integrated with a DNN-based photorealistic layer, ensuring sensor performance precision.

With Microsoft’s support, Cognata is accelerating the digital transformation on Azure’s global cloud, services, and computing capabilities to accelerate ADAS/AV development, verification, and validation. Cognata’s digital twin-based simulation requires powerful computing and graphics resources to run and scale. These advanced workloads and features are accelerated by AMD high-performance CPU and GPU technologies, enabling streamlined execution.