Autonomous Vehicles

The state department of transportation has done an environmental assessment and is seeking comment on proposed self-driving vehicle lanes from Ann Arbor to Detroit. One lane in each direction would be repurposed to interact with connected and automated vehicle tech.

The San Francisco-based company will partner with autonomous driving tech firm May Mobility next year to field a fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans that will be accessible through its app. Precise details and timing are not yet clear, but initial deployments will use human “safety operators,” transitioning over time to fully autonomous operations.

Many state legislatures are trying to get ahead of self-driving vehicles that eventually will be on roads by setting standards for the vehicles and rules for law enforcement if they see one breaking a traffic law.

Zoox, which has its Las Vegas headquarters in the southwest valley, has been testing its autonomous driving technology as it moves toward offering a driverless robotaxi service set to launch next year.

Greenlane Infrastructure is developing the facility, a charging plaza in Colton, Calif., at the intersection of two heavily traveled truck corridors. The aim is to advance the transition to zero-emission trucking and fleets.

The university's Depot Campus is working with Promesa Capital LLC on a facility that car or startup companies could rent out for research, testing and developing autonomous vehicle technologies.

General Motors Co. is deploying manual, mapping examples of the self-driving vehicles in two cities. The company plans to progress this fall to supervised testing in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

The state Legislature may consider requiring companies like Aurora, Cruise and Waymo to notify the Department of Motor Vehicles when human drivers step out. Proposed bills could be brought forward during the upcoming session.

Concerned with problems ahead as companies ditch drivers for autonomous vehicles, Texas lawmakers are aiming at a light touch — but new requirements — for companies behind driverless tech.

Several new projects in Michigan, California and Florida explore the use of small, electric, autonomous vehicles operating alongside, or within existing, transit services. Public-private partnerships are key to their success, an official said.

A partnership between the ride-sharing and autonomous car companies will bring self-driving cars to the state capitals in Georgia and Texas sometime in 2025. Waymo already offers rides in self-driving cars in California and Arizona.

A cross-sector partnership has helped pave the way for electric AV shuttles to start rolling off the assembly line in Florida by the middle of 2026, meeting Buy America requirements.

A report assessed two North Carolina projects piloting low-speed autonomous shuttles, stood up by partners including the state Department of Transportation. It found the vehicles still have significant limitations.

The companies are expected to launch the service next year with Chevrolet Bolt autonomous vehicles, they said Thursday. Their partnership follows several months of focus by GM on relaunching Cruise and rethinking its safety strategy.

East Lansing-based ADASTEC will bring the vehicle to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore within the week, then program and test it with a safety driver. Lakeshore tours on the bus will be available starting in mid-August.

Tulsa Innovation Labs has received a U.S. Economic Development Administration grant to develop an innovation hub that will look at ramping up advanced manufacturing for autonomous systems, from agriculture to transportation.

Effective this month, new legislation will allow for self-driving cars to hit Kentucky roads and be regulated by state government, but some say it will be a while before people see the vehicles in public.

SouthWest Transit, which serves three of the city’s suburbs, will debut the area’s first autonomous vehicles this fall in Eden Prairie. For now, the service will operate with human drivers on board.