Aeva Strikes Anonymous LiDAR Deal & Autolane Raises $7.4 Million To Control Robotaxis

The autonomous vehicle (AV) sector is booming—and a large part of this growth is down to driverless taxis or robotaxis.

Across the world, self-driving vehicle manufacturers such as Waymo, WeRide, Zoox, Tesla, Pony.AI, May Mobility, and Avride are testing their robotaxis on public roads. Meanwhile, ride-hailing service companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Bolt are partnering with such AV makers to deploy robotaxis for their customers.

Yes, self-driving vehicles and robotaxis are in demand.
 

Aeva’s Anonymous LiDAR Deal

Aeva, a leader in advanced sensing and perception systems, announced that an anonymous automaker has selected it as its exclusive LiDAR supplier.

What is known about the purchaser is that it’s a “top European passenger OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)” that will use Aeva’s LiDAR technology for its “global series-production vehicle platform to enable Level 3 automated driving.”

The deal follows the successful completion of a joint development program from earlier in the year that was aimed at developing its next-generation global vehicle platform. At the time, Aeva received a letter of intent from the OEM for a large-scale multi-year production deal—which has now come to fruition.

It has also made the nameless OEM the first major passenger car manufacturer to transition from conventional 3D time-of-flight LiDAR to Aeva’s next-generation 4D LiDAR perception platform. It’s also a big step toward bringing Aeva’s Atlas Ultra 4D LiDAR technology into large-scale production.

“After months of close collaboration, we’re honored to be selected by an industry leading automaker with millions of vehicles in annual production worldwide, for a long-term agreement to directly supply LiDAR technology for its global series production vehicles,” said Soroush Salehian, Co-Founder & CEO of Aeva.

Silicon Valley-based Aeva will share more details about the production program with the unnamed OEM in early 2026.


Yes, self-driving vehicles and robotaxis are in demand.

However, while the roads fill up with more and more self-driving cars and robotaxis, concerns remain.

Just a few days ago, a Waymo robotaxi with passengers drove into the middle of a police standoff. Check out the video.

This is just one issue the company has come across.

And it’s not just Waymo.

Over the past year, self-driving vehicles have entered wrong lanes, headed out into oncoming traffic, blocked lanes because of sudden power outages, and faced a host of other issues that have ended up in massive traffic jams.
 

Autolane’s Control Measure

This is what Autolane is aiming to address with its “air traffic control for autonomous vehicles” solution.

Essentially, it will coordinate where driverless cars should stop, pick up passengers, navigate private property, and more. It will also include creating simple, physical infrastructure such as signages.

The idea is popular too, as the company just raised $7.4 million from VC firms Draper Associates and Hyperplane to realize this dream.

“We aren’t the fundamental models. We’re not building the cars. We’re not doing anything like that,” said Ben Seidl, Autolane’s co-founder and CEO.

“We are simply saying, as this industry balloons rapidly and has exponential growth—as is already occurring this year and will occur for the next 10 years straight—someone is going to have to sit in the middle and orchestrate, coordinate, and kind of evaluate what’s going on.” 

It’s not just Autolane that recognizes the need for an organized system for robotaxis.
 

Geely's New Strategy And Facility

Geely’s Caocao Mobility spoke about a new global strategy dubbed “Ten Years, Hundred Cities, Hundred Billion,” which includes establishing five global operation centers over the next ten years by deploying robotaxi services to 100 cities worldwide, with a cumulative gross transaction value of 100 billion yuan ($14 billion).

The announcement also came with the launch of the world’s first multi-functional “Green Smart Transit Hub,” which is a purpose-built facility designed to streamline the operation of autonomous vehicles.

It includes integrated functions such as automatic battery swapping, automatic cleaning, vehicle interior tidying, intelligent dispatch, and automatic settlement. The hub will also play host to eVTOLs in the future, coming with landing pads and charging interfaces.

Do you think Autolane’s plan and Geely’s initiative will help ease the concerns and controversies surrounding self-driving cars and robotaxis?

Let us know in the comments below!