Latest news with #MayMobility
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Autonomous vehicles not far off for B.C. roads, once officials allow them
Self-driving cars aren't something you will find on B.C. streets — last year, the province prohibited the use of fully automated features — but tech optimists promise that autonomous transportation really is just around the corner, after more than a decade of experiments. Autonomous vehicles are on the streets of a growing number of U.S. and United Kingdom cities, and the artificial intelligence behind the technology has 'really turned a corner,' according to Jamie Shotton, chief scientist for the company Wayve. Shotton was on one of two panels that discussed advances in autonomous transportation during the tech conference Web Summit at the Vancouver Convention Centre on Thursday. 'It's like a lightbulb has gone off in the AI's brain,' Shotton said of his company's artificial intelligence-powered system. 'It's now able to really cope with remarkable complexity, and furthermore it allows us to scale really quickly.' This spring, Wayve brought a trio of its test cars to Vancouver during a West Coast road trip to prove how well their 'AI driver' is learning to cope with complex environments. 'The more places we go, the more places we learn to drive, the more general purpose (the AI driver) gets,' Shotton said. Wayve isn't completely driverless yet, however. The Society of Automotive Engineers classifies automated driving in levels from L0, where a driver is in complete control with automated warnings of hazards, all the way to L5, where AI is completely in control. Shotton described Wayve as 'L2-plus,' which means the use of automatic braking, steering and lane centring in adaptive cruise control, with a driver at the wheel. 'Hands off, but eyes on,' he added. 'Having to pay attention to the road, but you can take your hands off the wheel and it will drive you from point A to point B.' That falls within B.C.'s rules, which prohibits automated systems higher than L2. Getting to L4, which allows for cars to be driverless under specific conditions — the technology used in so-called 'robo taxis' such as Waymo — is probably closer than people realize, even in rainy cities such as Vancouver, said Edwin Olson, CEO of the company May Mobility. Olson spoke during a second session on the conference's centre stage, and in an interview explained that, 'Our rule of thumb is, if the windshield wipers are intermittent, you're probably fine.' 'If they're going faster than that, I think most (autonomous vehicle) companies would balk at that.' Technology is rapidly improving though, and Olson expects by 2027, 'We'll be able handle almost all the weather you can throw at us.' The difference in the technology, Olson said, is that a decade ago, the 'hype was well before the technical reality' for autonomous transportation. 'Now, I think it's the other way around,' Olson added. 'Right now, what you're really seeing is an inflection point.' People can travel to cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles or Atlanta and ride either Waymo robo taxis or May Mobility's shuttles, 'and it's real,' Olson said. The next step for a wider rollout of light-duty vehicles will be devising business cases for using what will be expensive vehicles, which will likely rule out strictly personal use. When a reporter asked if he saw a case for individual ownership soon, his answer was, 'God, I hope not.' The philosophy of Olson's company, which runs fleets of L4-capable Toyota Sienna shuttle vans in 19 cities (but only two locations without safety drivers), is to use autonomous vehicles in a way that reduces the need for individual automobile ownership. To date, the business cases for autonomous vehicles has been stronger in industries such as mining or trucking, where the products involved are high value, but where getting enough drivers might be an issue, said Qasar Younis, CEO of the company Applied Intuition, who spoke on the same panel as Olson. For light-duty vehicles, 'it's going to be pure economics,' Olson added. And that will be based on whether vehicles can command enough revenue from ride-hailing services such as Lyft or Uber to pay for the cost of expensive sensors used in the vehicle, before the car wears out. depenner@ B.C. courier company secretly tests driverless vehicle in Metro Vancouver Driverless vehicles: They'll be both disruptive and, eventually, safer
Nikkei Asia
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Nikkei Asia
Japan's Itochu invests in US self-driving startup May Mobility
TOKYO -- Japanese trading house Itochu is investing in U.S. autonomous driving startup May Mobility to the tune of 1 billion yen ($6.9 million), Nikkei has learned, looking to roll out May's services onto Japan's roads. The transaction occurred in April as part of a capital and business alliance. The two sides will finalize details of the partnership later.
Forbes
21-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Is Lyft's Low Valuation An Investment Opportunity?
Photo via Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images Lyft (NASDAQ: LYFT) reported robust Q1 2025 results, showing ongoing operational and financial momentum. Gross bookings grew by 13% year-over-year (y-o-y) to $4.2 billion, while revenue increased 14% to $1.5 billion. The company achieved a net income of $2.57 million, marking a substantial improvement from the $31.54 million net loss in Q1 2024, marking its third consecutive quarter of being profitable. Operationally, Lyft completed 218 million rides (up 16% y-o-y) and expanded its active rider base by 11% y-o-y to 24.2 million. Strategically, Lyft is broadening its presence in smaller, car-dependent cities like Indianapolis, where rides surged by 37% in Q1. The company is also investing in autonomous vehicle technology through collaborations with Mobileye, May Mobility, and Nexar, intending to incorporate self-driving vehicles into its platform by 2025. The company's stock has risen 30% year-to-date, compared to a modest 1.3% increase in the S&P 500 (as of May 16). LYFT stock offers a balanced combination of strengths and weaknesses, representing its moderate operating performance and financial state. However, when combined with its notably low valuation, the overall investment thesis seems appealing. See Buy or Sell Lyft? We reach our conclusion by assessing the current valuation of LYFT stock in relation to its operational performance in recent years, along with its current and historical financial status. Our evaluation of LYFT according to key metrics of Growth, Profitability, Financial Stability, and Downturn Resilience indicates that the company has a moderate operating performance and financial standing, as elaborated below. Nevertheless, if you are looking for upside potential with reduced volatility compared to individual stocks, the Trefis High Quality portfolio provides an alternative - having outperformed the S&P 500 and delivered returns exceeding 91% since its inception. Based on the amount you pay per dollar of sales or profit, LYFT stock appears undervalued in comparison to the wider market. • Lyft has a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 0.9 compared to a value of 2.8 for the S&P 500 • Moreover, the company's price-to-free cash flow (P/FCF) ratio is 6.2 versus 17.6 for the S&P 500 Lyft's Revenues have seen significant growth over the last few years. • Lyft has experienced its top line grow at an average rate of 22.2% over the past 3 years (compared to an increase of 6.2% for the S&P 500) • Its revenues have increased by 31.4% from $4.4 Bil to $5.8 Bil in the last 12 months (against a growth of 5.3% for the S&P 500) • Additionally, its quarterly revenues grew 13% to $1.45 Bil in the most recent quarter from $1.28 Bil a year earlier (versus a 4.9% improvement for the S&P 500) Lyft's profit margins are significantly lower than most companies covered in the Trefis analysis. • Lyft's Operating Income over the last four quarters was $-119 Mil, translating to a very poor Operating Margin of -2.1% (compared to 13.1% for the S&P 500) • LYFT Operating Cash Flow (OCF) over this period was $850 Mil, indicating a poor OCF Margin of 14.7% (versus 15.7% for the S&P 500) • For the last four-quarter timeframe, LYFT Net Income was $23 Mil – reflecting a very poor Net Income Margin of 0.4% (versus 11.3% for the S&P 500) Lyft's balance sheet presents a solid picture. • Lyft's Debt stood at $1.2 Bil at the close of the most recent quarter, while its market capitalization is $6.8 Bil (as of 5/14/2025). This suggests a moderate Debt-to-Equity Ratio of 22.2% (in contrast to 21.5% for S&P 500). [Note: A low Debt-to-Equity Ratio is advantageous] • Cash (inclusive of cash equivalents) constitutes $2.0 Bil of the $5.7 Bil in Total Assets for Lyft. This provides a very strong Cash-to-Assets Ratio of 35.1% (compared to 15.0% for the S&P 500) LYFT stock has underperformed significantly compared to the benchmark S&P 500 index during several recent downturns. While investors are hopeful for a soft landing for the U.S. economy, how severe might it be if another recession strikes? Our dashboard How Low Can Stocks Go During A Market Crash captures the performance of key stocks during and after the last six market crashes. • LYFT stock declined 88.1% from a peak of $67.42 on 15 March 2021 to $7.99 on 24 May 2023, against a peak-to-trough drop of 25.4% for the S&P 500 • The stock is still yet to rebound to its pre-Crisis high • The highest the stock has attained since then is $20.28 on 21 March 2024 and it currently trades at approximately $17 • LYFT stock plummeted 70.2% from a peak of $53.94 on 11 February 2020 to $16.05 on 18 March 2020, compared to a peak-to-trough decline of 33.9% for the S&P 500 • The stock completely recovered to its pre-Crisis peak by 10 February 2021 In conclusion, Lyft's performance across the outlined parameters above is summarized as follows: • Growth: Extremely Strong • Profitability: Extremely Weak • Financial Stability: Very Strong • Downturn Resilience: Extremely Weak • Overall: Neutral With its very low valuation taken into account, this makes the stock appear attractive, supporting our assertion that LYFT is a wise stock to purchase. While LYFT stock appears promising, investing in a single stock can carry risks. You might consider exploring the Trefis Reinforced Value (RV) Portfolio, which has exceeded its all-cap stocks benchmark (a mix of the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 benchmark indices) to yield strong returns for investors. Why is that? The quarterly rebalanced mix of large-, mid-, and small-cap RV Portfolio stocks has provided a responsive approach to maximize favorable market conditions while minimizing losses in downturns, as detailed in RV Portfolio performance metrics.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Uber Adds May Mobility to Its Roster of Self-Driving Vehicle Partnerships
Uber is teaming up with May Mobility, a developer of self-driving technology, to make thousands of autonomous vehicles available via the Uber app over the next few years. The partnership will kick off with a launch in Arlington, Texas, by the end of 2025, the companies said Thursday. "The partnership highlights both companies' shared ambition to quickly scale AV (autonomous vehicle) use in ride-hail, broadening access to AVs across diverse markets and driving greater consumer choice," the companies said in a release. May Mobility previously announced a partnership with Lyft, which is slated to launch in Atlanta later this year. Uber, too, has teamed up with more than a dozen autonomous vehicle companies, including Waymo, which is also soon launching in Atlanta. As part of Uber's partnership with May Mobility, Uber will give customers the option to choose one of May Mobility's autonomous, hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna vehicles on qualifying trips. Initially, a safety operator will be on board, before the effort shifts to fully driverless rides. The companies said they plan to expand to more US cities in 2026. "We are thrilled to be partnering with May Mobility to continue to scale the availability of autonomous vehicles across the United States," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. "At Uber, we're building the future of transportation, working with the world's leading autonomous vehicle developers like May Mobility to help commercialize and deploy this technology quickly at scale around the world." For years, Uber worked on building its own self-driving technology, but it sold that operation to Aurora in 2020. It now appears to be focused on building partnerships with existing AV companies. May Mobility's self-driving system relies on something called Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology. The company says this platform "applies real-time, human-like reasoning to handle unexpected situations with AI-powered speed and precision," allowing it to navigate real-world scenarios that spring up in the moment. The AV service is already available to riders in a handful of cities via the May Mobility app or local transit apps, including in Ann Arbor, Michigan; Peachtree Corners, Georgia; and Miami. Partnering with ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft can help the company expand into more markets and make it easier for people to summon one of May Mobility's vehicles via an app that's likely already on their phones. "Launching on the Uber platform is a big signal to the market that May Mobility is ready to quickly expand to major markets as the pre-eminent autonomy-as-a-service provider," Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility, said in a statement. "Uber and May Mobility will make it possible for more people across the US to enjoy the transformative benefits of autonomous vehicles."
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Another Robotaxi Service Will Launch in Texas. But It's Not One You've Heard Of
Uber teams up with May Mobility to launch a fleet of robotaxis in Arlington, Texas, by the end of 2025. The effort is the latest partnership between a leading app and an autonomous tech developer, with the ride-hailing industry now taking steps to add driverless vehicles to its fleets. Texas is increasingly becoming the most important state in autonomous vehicle development and launches, including driverless trucks. Waymo isn't the only robotaxi developer in the US at the moment, even though it easily has most of the momentum as an operator of its own fleets. After years of backing various SAE Level 4 development efforts, Uber is now progressing to the roll-out stage with a number of partners. The ride-hailing giant is teaming up with May Mobility in a multi-year strategic partnership, with the latter set to launch thousands of robotaxis on Uber's app platform. And the first location that will see May Mobility's autonomous vehicles under the Uber umbrella will be Arlington, Texas. The robotaxis are scheduled to launch there by the end of this year. "The partnership highlights both companies' shared ambition to quickly scale AV use in ride-hail, broadening access to AVs across diverse markets and driving greater consumer choice," May Mobility noted. In practice, this means that later in 2025 Uber will offer its users in Arlington the option of using May's hybrid-electric Toyota Sienna models on certain trips, at first with safety drivers on board, before moving on to driverless operations. So human Uber drivers will still remain on the roads of the city. Last year Ann Arbor-based May Mobility has also teamed up with Lyft to bring the same Sienna robotaxis to Atlanta by 2025 in a partnership model that is becoming very common in the autonomous vehicle industry, with an existing ride-hailing app providing the user base and the fleet services that robotaxis require. Hearst Owned This year is shaping up to be a big one for May Mobility, just at a time when robotaxis are starting to see launches in major markets outside the west coast and the southwest. May's planned launch in Arlington later this year means that Texas alone could see three different robotaxi services, with Tesla planning its own Austin launch for June after Waymo kicked off operations in its hometown earlier this year. "Launching on the Uber platform is a big signal to the market that May Mobility is ready to quickly expand to major markets as the pre-eminent autonomy-as-a-service provider," said Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility. Of course, one of the reasons this is happening in Arlington, of all places, is not because there is a shortage of human-driven Ubers or privately owned vehicles. The Lone Star state has a very liberal regulatory framework for autonomous vehicles of all types, and Texas has also been the focal point of most of the country's autonomous truck testing and deployment efforts. In fact, driverless trucks are already in operation in Texas, and more are on the way soon. It remains to be seen whether any robotaxi service will be able to catch up to Waymo, but it's becoming increasingly obvious that ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are bound to play a major role in Level 4 services' expansion in the US and overseas via partnerships with autonomous tech developers. Will robotaxis outnumber human gig-economy drivers by 2035 in the US, or will they remain a minority in the ride-hailing app fleets? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
