May Mobility, an autonomous driving technology company, has launched its second driverless operation in the US, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The company says that testing its “driver-out” system in Ann Arbor is the next step toward expanding autonomous driver-out vehicle services commercially across the US and Japan alongside key partners, including Toyota, NTT and Lyft.
The driver-out testing in Ann Arbor involves significant complexity of traffic, weather patterns and pedestrian density, and operates in and around approximately 2 square miles of Ann Arbor surface streets.
May Mobility showcased its driver-out capabilities with 30-minute autonomous vehicle rides on public roads during its Technology Day held in Ann Arbor.
Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility, says: “Starting driver-out operations in our second city in under a year shows the scalability of our technology while expanding our capabilities to challenging weather, higher speeds and busy traffic.”
May Mobility’s vehicles are equipped with its unique, patented Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology that leverages in-situ AI to interpret data in real-time, continuously learning and adapting to new, complex and even unpredictable driving conditions to help create a safer, more comfortable ride.
In doing so, MPDM solves the industry’s biggest challenge, adapting to unexpected, dynamic conditions or “edge cases”, and allows the company to scale quickly and efficiently to new environments.
Additionally, May Mobility has continued to develop and advance the technology to handle an increasingly complex operational design domain (ODD).
As part of May Mobility’s newest driver-out operations, the company introduced its latest generation of autonomy hardware and UX upgrades. During each ride, the passengers will get a view of the vehicle’s perception and decision-making ability while it navigates.
The vehicles have also been upgraded with accessibility in mind, including automated audio announcements and a physical keypad that includes brail.
Without a safety operator behind the wheel, May Mobility has implemented a robust Tele-Assist platform for consistent monitoring of vehicle behavior and to provide vehicle assistance as needed.
As a result, riders with questions or concerns can connect with customer support at the touch of a button.
May Mobility has successfully demonstrated AD technology through multiple commercial deployments, including 10 active deployments, which will increase to 13 by the end of this year.
The company launched driver-out in Sun City, AZ less than a year ago, becoming the third company to operate driverless on public roads.
May Mobility is currently working with Peachtree Corners, GA to bring driverless operations to the smart city in 2025 and also recently announced its partnership with Lyft, including plans to transition future deployments to driver-out over time.
