Ann Arbor-based May Mobility Inc., an autonomous vehicle company that is replacing transportation systems with fleets of self-driving micro-shuttles, announced that BMW i Ventures and Toyota AI Ventures have joined its investor base. With the new funders, as well as others like Mave Ventures, SV Angel, Tandem Ventures, Trucks Ventures, and YCombinator, May Mobility has raised $11.5 million.
“We have demonstrated that our technology is highly capable, that riders love our vehicles, and that customers recognize the value of what we can proved,” says Edwin Olson, CEO and co-founder of May Mobility.
“Developers and cities know self-driving transit is the future, and our fast-growing team of top computer scientists and roboticists have developed solutions to some of the most difficult transportation problems.”
May Mobility is set to launch commercial operations this year, just a year after the company’s founding. Last fall, the company successfully conducted a test pilot with two self-driving shuttles for Bedrock Detroit, moving employees from the First National Building to the Bricktown Parking Garage at Beaubien and Fort streets.
The two electric vehicles offered six doors and six seats, and were produced by Polaris Industries Inc. in Medina, Minn. One of the May Mobility vehicles also was on display last month at the North American International Auto Show at Detroit’s Cobo Center.
“Vehicles and programs of all sorts are being announced or tested and trialed, but May Mobility is actually solving today’s transportation issues with self-driving vehicles on real city streets today,” says Uwe Higgen, managing partner at BMW i Ventures. “We invested in the team because they’re reducing the complexity of the problem to actually deliver autonomous mobility now, instead of years from now, and the feedback loop will be invaluable to the future of the industry.”
May Moblity will have several additional pilots in the coming months and it’s vehicles will be on display at SXSW’s Michigan house in March (South by Southwest in Austin), Washington Traffic Safety Commission’s Traffic Safety Conference in April, and the Urban Land Institute Spring Conference at Cobo Center in May.
