Martin Booth

Tier IV, Yamato Transport and Mitsubishi test L2+ trucks on Tokyo to Osaka route. PlusAI SuperDrive 6.0 adds night driving and construction zone capability for 2027. Ikea China deploys Neolix L4 delivery vans at Hefei, reducing transport costs by 50%. Oxa raises $100M Series D funding to scale industrial autonomous driving software. Toyota Tsusho tests…

By Dr Jürgen Dickmann, DVN Senior Advisor For me, Tech.AD Europe 2026 in Berlin was a special conference in more ways than one. I attended not only as a participant and journalist for DVN but was visible in three roles at once: as Chair of Stream B on Testing & Validation, with my own presentation…

Tesla's FSD system got approval for operation from the Dutch regulator, opening the way for EU wide approval. I first drove an L2+ system in 2018 – Tesla's Model 3 Enhanced Autopilot. There were some early issues with left turn lanes on highways and phantom braking, but those have mostly been resolved in the last 7 years of software updates. This month, I got to try Ford's BlueCruise system in an extensive test drive (see the detailed report below). The system works better than Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot in some areas, but worse in others and it was interesting to compare the differences. Bottomline is that with today's sensor set and software, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Interview by Dr. Juergen Dickmann, Senior Advisor DVN Note: At DVN, we aim to keep the ADAS/AV community informed about sensing, architecture and applications.

While we were in Detroit for the DVN AEB workshop we had an opportunity to interview Jim Foresi, R&D Director for IMEC in Michigan. DVN: What sort of technologies is IMEC working on here in Michigan? IMEC: Our primary focus is automotive chiplet research: how to disaggregate complex SoCs into modular, reusable components that address…

Pony.ai Launches Service in Singapore Pony and ComfortDelGro started service in Singapore's Punggol (New Town and Planning) district covering a 12km route with various stops that address last-mile transport between various transit hubs. Pony joins WeRide and Grab that are also operating in the same district of Singapore. Pony also introduced an upgraded AI model…

Applied Intuition and Traton introduce a SDV OS for trucks and busses that are designed to allow autonomous driving systems to be added to the platform over time. WeRide introduced a new generation of robo road sweeping trucks. Monarch Tractor shut down and layed off all its employees. Karsan gets approval in Paris for its…

I recently got to test Ford's BlueCruise 1.2 handsfree system on a 2025 Ford Explorer for an extended 500 mile drive. BlueCruise is a standard option on the Explorer Platinum and available for $495 for a 1 year plan on lower trim models, followed by a $50 monthly subscription, or one time purchase of $2500.…

Soaring chip costs, driven by AI data center demand, are forcing more auto OEMs to raise prices. Changan was the latest Chinese vendor to have to increase prices by 2,000 to 10,000 yuan (up to $150), with Chery, Xiaomi, BYD and others also raising prices recently on lidar equipped models. It's not necessarily the lidar unit itself that is directly affected, rather the additional memory in the compute systems required to process lidar point clouds. Memory was always a significant component in the overall electronics BOM cost of vehicles in the past 10 years and has been growing as advanced digital cockpit and ADAS features have been added. DRAM prices have surged almost 100% in Q1 '26 and NAND Flash prices were up by more than 50%, with more price increases forecast and little relief in sight.

Leapmotor brings LiDAR to Sub 100K-Yuan ($15K) models Leapmotor is one of the fastest growing EV makers in China, selling over 600K cars in 2025. Stellantis has a 20% ownership stake. The company recently introduced the A10 small SUV which brings high-end ADAS technology including lidar to the sub 100K yuan ($15K) segment. The 128-line…