For ADAS, XPeng Steers Away from Lidar to AI

Welcome to the Ride AI Newsletter, your weekly digest of important events and new developments at the intersection of technology and transportation.

What You Need to Know Today

Google Maps is finally rolling out a speedometer and speed limiter for iOS and CarPlay users, more than five years after these features debuted on Android.

What it’s like to teach a teenager to drive in the age of driver-assist. “The algorithm drives at night, and in the rain. It is exceedingly rule driven. In fact, its strict adherence has caused frustration to other drivers — and my teen passengers — by rigorously following the speed limit. One teen passenger said to me: ‘It’s sus,’ meaning suspect, ‘because it only goes 20 miles an hour.’ We were in a school zone.”

Chinese carmaker XPeng’s new M03 EV sedan promises an AI-powered driver-assist system for a starting price of less than $27,500. For ADAS technology, the company is reportedly drifting away from using lidar in favor of pure vision cameras, similar to Tesla, in the long-term. The new system, the company claims, will be “industry’s first mass-produced 2K pure visual neural network large model in vehicles.”

Meanwhile, Chinese self-driving cars have quietly traveled 1.8M miles on US roads, collecting detailed data with cameras and lasers.

New York’s JFK is the latest US airport to try out self-driving shuttles for moving travelers around its parking lots.

Related: China-based WeRide is launching L4 autonomous bus service in Singapore along a short fixed route.

A Waymo robotaxi in Phoenix was spotted driving in the wrong lane. Video captures what happens when a police officer tried to pull it over.

Liebherr and Fortescue are collaborating to develop the world’s first zero-emissions autonomous hauling solutions for mines, tested at Fortescue's Christmas Creek site in Western Australia.

Cartken, a startup known for its tiny sidewalk delivery robots, has raised $10M, led by 468 Capital, to develop robotics for industrial settings, airports, and more.

Tesla insiders allege that CEO Elon Musk optimized FSD routes for himself and influencers to distort the public’s understanding of how well the system works.

In other Tesla news: For the first time, Chinese government workers will be allowed to buy the company’s EVs for official use.

Amsterdam-based Roboat has raised nearly $600k to develop autonomous boat technology for urban waterway transport.

Luminar, a company that is best known in the car industry for producing lidar sensors, is releasing a full-stack software development kit called Sentinel, designed to help automakers accelerate the development of ADAS systems.

Even with US biking fatalities at an all-time high, the cycling community remains sharply divided about the safety of sharing the roads with robotaxis…

Speaking of bikes, don’t forget to tune in for our micromobility-themed webinar tomorrow, July 11th, at 8am PT / 11am ET / 5pm CET. Leveraging brand-new data from McKinsey, we will give you a pulse check on e-bike sales, usage, and ownership in 2024. Register now!