Telemetry Transportation Daily

For Honda to make its new 2026 Passport more off-road capable, it adopted some software-defined vehicle ideas with existing hardware

Caterpillar was one of the first companies to commercialize automated driving systems when it brought the technology to its massive mining trucks in 2013. Now Cat is replacing its old rotating lidars with new units from Luminar

Electric pickups never took off the way automakers hoped because they couldn't tow far enough and they were too expensive. Towing range is still a problem until we get EREVs, but at least brands like GMC are trying to bring the price down with new variants.

President Donald Trump has for the 3rd time announced tariffs on imported vehicles, this time on all vehicles from outside the US, not just Mexico and Canada

Aurora Innovation has nearly completed its safety case assessment and hopes to start driverless long-haul truck operations between Dallas and Houston Texas in April 2025.

Volkswagen Group will be the first automaker to adopt Mobileye's new Surround ADAS with Valeo handling system integration. The lower cost Surround ADAS provides enhanced capabilities like automatic emergency braking while also enabling hands-off, eyes-on highway drive assist.

REE Automotive has an MOU with an automated driving systems developer to utilize its software defined chassis technology for upcoming automated vehicles

Battery swapping isn't a new concept for EVs but now may be the time to revisit the concept beyond China where it has already gained a foothold with Nio. https://www.catl.com/en/news/6381.html

BYD has launched its new Super E-Platform in China which will enable 1MW DC fast charging.

At Nvidia GTC 2025, CEO Jensen Huang made several new transportation related announcements including GM's decision to transition to using the Drive Thor chip for next generation automated vehicles along with Omniverse to simulate its factories.

A CDC study shows that the US was the only one of 28 high income countries that saw an increase in pedestrian fatalities between 2013 and 2022, with death rates climbing 50% while the average of the other 27 countries went down by 25%. This is most likely due to the high proportion of large trucks and SUVs used by American drivers compared to every other country. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/7...

Youtuber Mark Rober conducted a series of tests comparing his camera only Tesla against a test vehicle from Luminar equipped with lidar to determine if the Tesla could reliably detect a child size mannequin in different conditions and stop before running it over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQJL3htsDyQ

The modern era of developing automated driving systems is over 20 years old now, but most people have never even seen much less ridden in an automated vehicle, so it's not surprise that AAA found few Americans trust the technology and most are afraid of it.

The Trump administration is moving aggressively to eviscerate every environmental regulation it can find including emissions and fuel economy for vehicles. If the industry follows along and goes back to thirstier, more polluting vehicles it will end up even further behind the rest of the world and less competitive

Amazon-owned Zoox claimed to have self-certified its purpose-built robotaxi and it didn't need a waiver from NHTSA, but NHTSA apparently doesn't agree, or at least it didn't before the Trump administration, now, who knows?

After initially launching Supercharger support in February 2024 with a Tesla-built adapter, Ford partnered with Lectron to ramp up production when Tesla couldn't provide enough to satisfy customer demand.

A new study from the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute indicates that current policies would have Europe using a disproportianate share of available critical minerals for the electric transition. However, there are potential solutions.  https://www.greencarcongress.com/2025/03/20250310-ivl.html

Long seen as a solution for zero emissions transportation, hydrogen is struggling as 3 fuel cell trucking startups have gone bankrupt in the past 6 months. https://www.autonews.com/technology/an-hydrogen-hopes-falter-0306/

It's a new day and the Trump tariffs are off again for cars ... maybe parts? while VW unveiled a concept of its new EUR 20,000 EV, the ID Every1

Despite efforts to kill the EV market in America, the EV is far from dead in the rest of the world.

Welcome to the first episode of Telemetry Transportation Daily for March 4, 2025. Today I discuss the tariffs imposed on Mexico and Canada by the Trump administration and the impact on the auto industry and the launch of Waymo robotaxis with Uber in Austin Texas.