Self-driving technology company Drivent has exited stealth mode, announcing that it has been certified to test autonomous vehicles in the state of Washington. The company has also unveiled what it calls “essential” technologies for autonomous vehicles. “Years ago, we realized that encouraging widespread adoption of self-driving vehicles would require more than just making cars that don't crash,” explains Eric Wengreen, Drivent co-founder. “While the autonomous industry focused on collision-avoidance technology, we focused on developing technology to overcome the non-collision barriers to adoption of autonomous vehicles.”

In an effort to provide its autonomous shuttle deployments with enhanced safety, May Mobility will equip its autonomous shuttles with lidar technology from automotive and mobility lidar technology company LeddarTech. May Mobility has conducted more than 50,000 real-condition test drives to validate the technology, before launching in full mass production. Designed to create a “complete 360-degree cocoon,” LeddarTech’s solid-state Cocoon lidar technology provides a higher degree of safety related to collision prevention in autonomous shuttle applications, according to LeddarTech.

Iris Automation has launched Casia, which the company describes as the “first commercially available computer vision detect-and-avoid solution to enable beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations for autonomous vehicles.” According to Iris, Casia allows a UAS to truly understand the aviation environment around it as if a pilot were on board, as it detects other aircraft, classifies them using machine learning, and makes intelligent decisions about the threat they may pose to the vehicle, and triggers automated maneuvers to avoid collisions.

Aerospace manufacturer Empirical Systems Aerospace Inc. (ESAero) will support the defense and commercial UAS business of Planck Aerosystems (Planck Aero) through a new partnership between the two companies.  In support of increasing demand across Planck’s customer base, both domestically and internationally, ESAero will manufacture Planck Aero’s Group 1 UAS, Shearwater, in its manufacturing plant in San Luis Obispo, California, which will support Planck’s strategy to scale the company. The companies note that the Shearwater UAS is the preferred small multi-rotor platform to host the Planck Autonomous Control Engine – ACETM navigation system, which enables the UAS to operate autonomously from moving vehicles and vessels, including vision-based precision landing.