Autonomous Driving

GUANGZHOU – November 01, 2026 -- XPENG delivered a record 50,237 vehicles in October 2026, up 22% from September and 20% from a year earlier, the NYSE- and HKEX-listed carmaker reported.

Overseas deliveries jump 166% to an all-time monthly high of 13,326 units

Overseas shipments reached 13,326 units, up 166% year-over-year. That is roughly 27% of October's total deliveries, based on the reported figures.

XPENG wins Level 4 Robotaxi demonstration license in Guangzhou on October 26

The permit lets XPENG Robotaxi move from technology validation to real-world operational and business-model validation. The company calls it a key milestone toward commercializing its Physical AI technologies.

XPENG L05 launches in mainland China with deliveries starting November 1

The L05 was officially launched in the Chinese mainland in October. Deliveries begin on November 1, 2026, so the model contributes nothing to the October total.

SAN JOSE – October 29, 2026 -- Tensor Auto Inc. and Münchner Taxi Zentrum (MTZ), Munich's largest taxi operator, have signed a letter of intent to deploy up to 500 Tensor Robocars as autonomous taxis in German cities, with a further 10,000 vehicles targeted across Europe.

The initial fleet depends on definitive agreements and Level 4 regulatory approval in Germany. MTZ will operate the vehicles under its own brand.

Operators keep the customer and data while Tensor sells the vehicle and a subscription

Tensor sells the Robocar and charges a recurring fee for Autonomous Driving as a Service (ADaaS). The subscription covers autonomous driving software, fleet-management tools, ongoing service and training. MTZ, not Tensor, operates the vehicles, and the Robocar integrates with MTZ's existing dispatch systems, so riders book as they do today.

Munich – October 15, 2026 -- TIER IV and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have established the TUM Autoware Research Center by TIER IV, a multi-year research collaboration that combines three TUM research groups to build safe, scalable autonomous driving systems on the open-source Autoware stack.

TIER IV is funding the center strategically. The groups involved are the Chair of Automotive Technology (FTM) and the Professorships of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) and Autonomous Vehicle Systems (AVS). The center is meant to serve as a long-term base for autonomous driving research, open-source software development and doctoral training. It will also link academic, industrial and public-transport projects and offer a platform for demonstrations and benchmark challenges.

San Francisco – October 14, 2026 -- Mapbox's 3D Live Navigation feature now powers BMW Maps with driver assistance in BMW Group's Neue Klasse vehicles, in what the company calls a market first: lane-level navigation and live ADAS detections combined in a single map view.

The system shows turn-by-turn directions in context with the road, surrounding vehicles and 3D buildings. Mapbox says traditional in-car systems cannot integrate route guidance with information about the vehicle and its surroundings, forcing drivers to piece together data from separate displays.

BMW builds a custom Neue Klasse interface on the Mapbox Navigation SDK

The Mapbox Navigation SDK gave BMW Group full control to build a navigation experience for the Panoramic iDrive in Neue Klasse models. The vehicle's Central Display, Panoramic Vision Display and 3D Head-Up display present the information in the driver's field of view.

Wuhan – October 09, 2026 -- China Automotive Systems (NASDAQ: CAAS) said its Henglong subsidiary received the ISO 26262 ASIL-D functional safety product certificate for its fully redundant AP04 electric power steering (EPS) platform, with mass production for European markets scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2026.

UL, a third-party agency designated by an international client, conducted the evaluation. The certification covers ISO 26262:2018 Parts 2–9 as applicable to the certified AP04 scope and carries the dual ANAB/IAF accreditation mark.

AP04 dual-link design keeps steering control after a single-channel failure

Henglong developed AP04 as a next-generation electronic steering control platform for high-safety steering and L3/L4-level autonomous driving. Its independent dual-link redundant architecture engages a backup link rapidly if one channel fails, maintaining effective steering control.

Tokyo – October 01, 2026 -- TIER IV, the developer behind the open-source autonomous driving software Autoware, has joined Arm Total Design for Physical AI, a move aimed at expanding Autoware's availability across Arm-based system-on-chips and in-vehicle computing platforms.

TIER IV extends its Arm partnership beyond Open AD Kit

The announcement builds on TIER IV's existing collaboration with Arm through Open AD Kit, an open framework within the Autoware Foundation ecosystem designed to simplify deployment of Autoware across computing platforms. The partnership was demonstrated publicly at CES 2026, where Open AD Kit ran on Arm-based computing platforms.

Hannover – – September 18, 2026 -- GAC Commercial Vehicle posted a 205% year-on-year sales increase in the first half of 2026 as it made its international debut at IAA TRANSPORTATION 2026, unveiling autonomous heavy trucks, a battery-swap tractor and a new light commercial vehicle brand called MONTX.

GAC pairs its T9 truck with Pony.ai's autonomous driving system and Aulton's battery-swap technology

The T9 Robotruck integrates Pony.ai's fourth-generation autonomous driving technology with GAC's fully redundant drive-by-wire chassis, using nine LiDARs, three radars and 13 cameras. Hardware costs are 70% lower than the previous generation, and autonomous-driving transportation cost per ton-kilometer drops approximately 30%, targeting long-haul, dedicated-route and port operations.

Seoul – September 17, 2026 -- Hyundai Motor Group has put its "Data Flywheel" system into full operation, converting real-world driving data from an annual fleet of 7 million vehicles sold across the Group into continuous AI training and validation cycles for autonomous driving technology.

Group unveils dual-track roadmap combining NVIDIA hardware with proprietary Atria AI

At the "HMG Autonomous Driving Media Day" held at 42dot headquarters in Gyeonggi Province, Hyundai Motor Group detailed a dual-track strategy pairing NVIDIA-based solutions with its own Atria AI stack. NVIDIA solutions-based Level 2+ production is targeted for the first half of 2028, with Level 2++ capability following in the second half of 2028. Atria AI-powered Level 2++ vehicles are scheduled for the second half of 2029.