Edwin Olson’s Post

Even while May Mobility has continued to grow and accelerate, I've been a Professor at the University of Michigan, albeit on leave. That leave has tallied up to over seven years now and so I'm transitioning my UM role into an Adjunct Professor role. Having an ongoing connection to UM is important to me-- UM is a place where I grew tremendously as a researcher, advisor, and teacher. My colleagues in the AI lab have been tremendous mentors and friends. My students are amazing, and have gone off to change the world in their own right. And all of this shows that UM is a great place for people with entrepreneurial interests to thrive and have the biggest possible impact on the world. May Mobility is kicking butt. We're taking great technology (which grew out of my research at UM!) and turning it into a scalable business with strong unit economics. I'm incredibly proud of the team we have here at May... and there's so much more great news to come in the coming year. Full speed ahead!

Achievement Unlocked! With three companies now having launched driver-out deployments in the United States (Waymo, Cruise, and May Mobility), we've shown that the autonomous driving technology can work. Achievement unlocked! The next milestone is making the business work. Getting vehicles to operate with billions of dollars of engineering effort, expensive sensors + compute is one thing-- getting vehicles to operate where the revenues justify the R&D costs and vehicle costs is quite another. Even if the vehicles are amazing, recouping billions of dollars of R&D investment is a challenge. Emerging AI technologies are showing that similar-- if not better-- performance can be achieved with far lower R&D costs. We're not the only ones investing in these emerging methods, but we're the only ones that generate new training data on-the-fly and learn in-situ, structurally addressing the "edge case" problem that vexes virtually all data-driven approaches. (That includes end-to-end learning methods.) Low R&D and per-vehicle costs make it possible to not only develop the technology but also build a business case around it. We're live in six cities, generating positive margins, allowing us to grow our business in a capital efficient way. We expect to become the first profitable AV company, and in the process, be able to scale faster than anyone else.

Today we launched another city, covering a large chunk of downtown Detroit! May Mobility has always prioritized accessibility, and this fleet includes wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicles. https://lnkd.in/gNddyYby

Musk’s recent demo of FSD v12, where it tried to proceed through a red light, is a great example of how an “ordinary” situation can become dangerous when it’s outside of the training data. And even in the best case scenario, end-to-end systems won’t provide the safety auditability that you really want in a system that can be dangerous. May Mobility's system isn't limited by the training data collected ahead of time. Our cars generate training examples relevant to the vehicle’s current situation and learn from them on-the-fly. All of this happens on the car, in less than 200ms. We're the only AV company with this kind of real-time learning approach, and I think it's the key to building a scalable and safe system.

I noticed something different at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year: the discussion around autonomous vehicles (AVs) shifted from “when will the technology be ready?” to “how do we deploy the technology in the best way?”. I sat on two panel sessions discussing near-term applications of AVs, one focused on metropolitan deployments (like Pittsburgh, one of the emerging centers for AV development), and the other on rural cities (like Grand Rapids, MN, a town of 12,000 people where May Mobility already provides service). This shift towards applications reflects an underlying change: AV technology is ready. Multiple autonomous vehicle companies are providing great rides in the United States– with a few, like Waymo, Cruise, and May Mobility, having launched service without safety operators. While not perfect, AV technology now outperforms human drivers. In short, our cities would be safer places if human-driven vehicles were replaced with autonomous vehicles. But should AVs be deployed, and if so, within what limits? This is where two key CES themes came out: data transparency, and socially responsible deployments. Data transparency is critical to making the safety argument. Sure, AV companies themselves might claim to be safe, but should the public take their word for it? The resounding answer was no: AV companies should “show their work” and bring receipts. One challenge to transparency is that AV companies have often viewed cities and regulators as a barrier– after all, it’s the regulators that can say “no” to a company’s plans and ambitions. At May Mobility, our business model (selling transit services to the cities, rather than to riders directly) flips this relationship around: our customer is the city itself, so rather than the city being a barrier, it is a champion and facilitator. With our business model, sharing data with cities and regulators drives the business– it’s not only the right thing to do, but it helps close deals. The second theme at CES was around socially responsible deployments. Most AV companies are pursuing a ride-hail business model: think autonomous Ubers and Lyfts. But these rideshare companies’ deployments have often cannibalized public transit ridership while failing to provide services to those with disabilities and neglecting riders in less profitable, less financially-advantaged areas. Again, May Mobility’s business model flips this around– we go where cities need us, not where the most affluent riders live. These themes show how the conversation has shifted from “when will the technology work?” to “how do we deploy the technology in the best way?”. And for many at CES, doing it right means addressing data transparency and social needs. As I’ve argued here, the choice of business model (e.g. ride-hail vs transit) has a big impact on how an AV company approaches these issues: a transit-oriented approach naturally aligns the interests of cities and AV companies.

Today, May Mobility announced our Series D fundraise, bringing in over $100M to fund the expansion of our business. I’ve now led six different fundraises for May Mobility since our founding in 2017. Read about my top 3 takeaways from the last 6 years.

Congratulations to our May team members @Erin McCurry, Product Manager - Accessibility, and @Rob Carter, Site Operations Manager, who were both honored as 35 under 35 Rising Stars by Business Insider today! This list recognizes young professionals in the AV industry who have made a substantial impact on the business early in their careers. Erin has been an internal champion and external advocate for the importance of accessibility in the autonomous mobility space, engaging with the community, running clinics and making May an industry-leading name in accessible design for AVs. She’s helped to create a culture where the team considers the needs of all users (including those with sight, hearing, and mobility challenges) from the beginning, rather than as an afterthought. Rob has led two successful site launches and leads the team at our site in Arlington. Since March of last year, we’ve provided more than 25,000 rides in Arlington, zero incidents, and a near perfect rider effort score, which drives rider loyalty and satisfaction.  This is all due in large part to Rob’s leadership.  Rob has also promoted two members of his team, showing his commitment to coaching and employee development. We’re so proud of Erin and Rob for exemplifying our mission, vision and values. Thank you for everything you’ve done and congratulations again!

I'm thrilled to announce the addition of Ryan Green to @May_Mobility's executive leadership team as our CFO. Adding his knowledge and experience to our team will help us continue to accelerate our business and execute May Mobility’s vision. https://lnkd.in/erxYxji