May Mobility is slowly advancing its driverless capabilities. The startup this week launched a small-scale deployment of autonomous shuttles, which will drive themselves along a fixed route without a human safety driver present. May will initially deploy one to two autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans to ferry employees and “invited guests” across a 2-square-mile area of the city.
This is the second city where May is performing so-called “driver-out” operations. In December 2023, the startup began driverless testing in a planned community in Sun City, Arizona, where it is currently carrying passengers for free.
May Mobility co-founder and CEO Edwin Olson said starting “driver-out” operations in a second city in under a year shows the scalability of its technology. He added it also expands the driverless system’s capabilities to challenging weather, higher speeds and busy traffic.
May Mobility says it hopes to expand driverless testing in 2025 to Peachtree Corners, Georgia, where the startup currently tests with a safety driver.
The startup also plans to bring its AVs to the Lyft app in Atlanta next year as part of a multi-year partnership with the ride-hail firm.
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Pony AI, the Chinese autonomous vehicle startup that’s looking to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange, now wants to raise around $260 million, according to a new regulatory filing.
That’s up from its previous target of around $224 million. To meet the goal, Pony will sell as many as 20 million American depository shares. That’s still down from the much higher target of $425 million, which Pony was aiming for earlier this year before its board approved a reduction of its minimum valuation from around $8 billion to $4 billion.
Pony has had its struggles with early testing in the United States, including losing its permit to test AVs in 2022. Meanwhile, it maintains a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou, plus 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai.
This has led some, including former Waymo CEO john Krafcik to question why Pony is gunning for a U.S. IPO? There is still demand for Chinese AV companies on U.S. exchanges. But the shifting financial target suggests Pony is still crafting the exact answer to that question.
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