What You Need to Know Today

GM will plow $850M into its robotaxi division, Cruise, less than one year after it said it would slash AV investment by “hundreds of millions” of dollars in 2024. The funds will help Cruise, which is gradually resuming testing in Dallas, Houston, and Phoenix, as it struggles to commercialize its autonomous service and appease safety regulators. (Related: why GM has been so slow to restart its driverless car business; and how Waymo made the robotaxi business real.)

Image Credit: Cruise

An interactive tool to quickly compare different lidar models.

Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving division, will begin rolling out robotaxis in Austin and Miami this summer. The pair joins Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Seattle as Zoox’s fourth and fifth test cities.

For now Zoox is operating a fleet of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders equipped with safety drivers at the wheel, but the company’s purpose-built robotaxi—which has no steering wheel or pedals, just four inward-facing seats—is quietly making progress. Journalist Edward Ludlow recently went for a test ride on a public road in Las Vegas and had this to say: “I’ve taken a lot of Waymo autonomous ride-hail trips, and I’ve also tested the driver-assistance system that Tesla markets as Full Self-Driving in my Model Y. My experience of this one, 5-mile ride was that Zoox’s vehicle drives more smoothly. It makes quicker decisions and behaves much more like a typical human driver.”

Image Credit: Zoox

A California court has decided to advance a case against Tesla that accuses the company of misleading consumers about the capabilities of its self-driving technology.

Meanwhile Tesla is one step closer to launching its ADAS tech in China after inking a deal with Baidu to use its mapping software.

… Tesla’s progress in China has spurred domestic EV and tech players like Xpeng, Xiaomi, and Huawei to fast-track their own driver-assist projects.

Image Credit: Xpeng

China-based Minieye Technology, an autonomous driving firm, has filed for an IPO in Hong Kong, seeking to raise $150M.

Drone startup DJI has found a new niche selling cheap L2 ADAS systems to Chinese car makers, with prices starting as low as $689 per vehicle. “At least 20 models launching this year will be equipped with the technology, according to DJI Automotive, which spun off from DJI in 2023.”

Joby Aviation, an eVOTL startup, is acquiring Xwing’s autonomous division with the goal of developing pilotless air taxis.

Image Credit: Joby

Indian AV startup Swaayatt Robotics has raised $4M to expand operations.

Chinese businesses that were blacklisted in the U.S. for national security reasons, including the lidar marker Hesai Group, are rebranding to try to survive.

Germany-based Vay is partnering with Peugeot to test remote driving in short-distance settings, like last-mile goods delivery, vehicle flow management at logistics hubs, and car sharing or rental services.

Image Credit: Vay

‍