May Mobility

Toyota and BMW-backed May Mobility develops self-driving technology pitched toward autonomous shuttle services for public transportation. Its proprietary multi-policy decision-making (MPDM) autonomous driving technology comes with a suite of sensors including LiDAR, radar, and cameras to create a 360-degree view of surroundings (third-generation system released in March 2023) . The technology can be integrated into multiple platforms such as buses or cars.

As of February 2024, May Mobility had active autonomous shuttle services deployed in cities in Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, and Arizona, and California. The company claimed to have completed 350,000+ autonomous rides as of October 2023 (includes now inactive deployments in geographies including Hiroshima [Japan] and Indiana). May Mobility was yet to commence commercial operations as of January 2024, and these rides were offered free of charge to customers, with costs being borne by partnering companies. The company has driverless operations in Sun City, Arizona in (December 2023) and Ann Arbor, Michigan (November 2024).

However, in February 2024, May Mobility announced layoffs of roughly 13% of its workforce (about 40 employees), to focus on its main business objectives.

Key customers and partnerships

May Mobility has product development partnerships with companies as Toyota to retrofit its tech into Toyota’s vehicles (January 2022; announced plans to launch robotaxi services in Odaiba, Japan by mid 2024); Bridgestone Americas for tire technology (March 2022); and Aeva for LiDAR sensors (November 2023). The company also has partnerships with wheelchair-accessible van manufacturer BraunAbility to modify its fleet of Toyota Sienna vehicles to include wheelchair access (April 2022); SoftBank to obtain 5G network services for deployments in Japan (June 2022); Stantec, a design and engineering company, to develop autonomous micro-transit solutions (March 2023); mobility service provider, Moovit to integrate its urban mobility app and on-demand reservation and routing software (April 2023) ; and shared mobility solutions provider Liftango to create demand-responsive autonomous microtransit solutions (October 2023).

The company has partnered with cities and authorities (e.g., Southwest Transit Commission, City of Detroit Office of Mobility Innovation and the Michigan Mobility Collaborative, City of Arlington, City of Grand Rapids, The Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Contra Costa Transportation Authority), universities (e.g., University of Texas, Arlington), transit tech and ride-hail companies (e.g., Via, Lyft), and nonprofits (e.g., Toyota Mobility Foundation, Energy Systems Network) for its active and past deployments. As announced in November 2023, NTT will have exclusive rights to sell May Mobility's self-driving system in Japan. The companies will also work with Toyota for autonomous vehicle testing in Japan.