Aeva to supply self-driving sensors to NTT-backed May Mobility

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - Aeva Technologies on Wednesday said it has inked a deal to supply May Mobility with a key sensor for its self-driving shuttles.

Silicon Valley-based Aeva has developed what is known as a lidar sensor that helps self-driving vehicles gain a detailed, long-range view of the road.

Michigan-based May Mobility is developing self-driving shuttles, but rather than targeting consumers with a robo-taxi service, it is selling the shuttles to cities and other local governments that use them to complement or replace human-driven bus services.

May Mobility is moving forward with expansion plans even as firms such as General Motors-controlled Cruise have suspended their driverless operations.

May Mobility earlier this week raised $105 million in venture capital with backing from Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and Toyota Motor's venture arm.

Under the deal, Aeva will supply multiple sensors for "thousands" of May Mobility vehicles through 2028, Aeva Chief Executive Officer Soroush Salehian told Reuters in an interview.

Edwin Olson, chief executive at May Mobility, said the company is currently operating its shuttles in four cities, giving about 350,000 rides so far and generating positive cash flow at some of the sites.

He said May Mobility will need to rewrite some of its software to use the Aeva sensors but that they will eventually improve the long-range sensing of its shuttles, which are based on Toyota Sienna minivans.

Olson said the contracts it signs with governments give the startup the stability it needs to invest in such technology improvements over time.

"The cities are our customers," Olson said. "So we sell these long-term, multi-vehicle, multi-year, multimillion-dollar contracts to the cities themselves, and are trying to solve some of their hardest transit problems."

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Mark Potter)