AV news from around the world

In Europe, Hamburg will launch next year a deployment plan for AV on-demand public transit buses, starting with up to 20 vehicles in the pilot phase of the program (dubbed ALIKE) and expanding the fleet to as many as 10,000 vehicles by 2030. Vehicles used in the trial (set to run to 2026) will operate on Level 4 automation, under supervision of on-board operators. If the pilot is successful and the State subsequently grants full approval for vehicle and operations, several buses could be monitored simultaneously from control centres. 

In Cambridge, UK, bus maker Alexander Dennis will deliver three L4-capable buses to the city in 2025, as part of the Connector project. The bus manufacturer has been testing Level 4 buses for a couple of years now (CAVForth project in Scotland). The buses will operate from two Park & Ride sites to Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest medical research center in Europe.

In Croatia, Rimac unveiled its “Verne”robotaxi prototype this summer, which will launch in Zagreb in 2026. After Zagreb, Verne says it will roll out its robotaxi service in 11 other cities in the EU — first in the UK and Germany — and the Middle East.

In addition to their collaboration with Wayve, Uber has also strengthened its partnership with Waymo in the US. The two companies collaborate since about a year in Phoenix, and will jointly expand into the Austin and Atlanta markets in 2025.

Waymo also made headlines this summer, expanding operating areas in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, and surpassing the 100,000 paid rides per week, as well as with the official launch of its “generation 6” vehicle platform, based on the Chinese electric automaker Zeekr robotaxi.

Cruise is quietly staging a comeback in San Francisco (nearly one year after pedestrian crash), Phoenix and Dallas, while Nuro is transitioning from a pod manufacturer to an AV tech provider.

There is ongoing discussion about how much current robotaxis rely on remote human assistance and whether it may be not cheaper just to pay a driver to sit in the car and drive it. Meanwhile the Tesla robotaxi launch was postponed until October 10^th.

Source: The original articles were published in Drive Sweden news