Toronto, Ontario – In this week’s electric and autonomous vehicle report, LeddarTech reflects on a year of achievement, despite unpredictable challenges, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the federal fleet will be going electric and New Flyer unveils North America’s first automated transit bus.
Pause for Reflection
Quebec-based ADAS-developers, LeddarTech, are celebrating a productive 2020, despite the pandemic, with the announcement of a number of achievements from the past year.
Featured first on the company’s list of achievements is LeddarTech having reached more than $350 million in industry investments in 2020.
As well, the company has been hard at work developing their highly sought after LiDAR technology and moving more of their products than ever into the hands of customers, with the company reporting double-digit sales growth over the past year.
“2020 was the most challenging year in recent history, but meeting challenges is in LeddarTech’s DNA,” said Charles Boulanger, CEO of LeddarTech.
“We are very proud of the advances we have made as an organization and the faith that our customers and strategic partners have placed in us.”
Electing for Electric
U.S. President Joe Biden announced that he will be converting the entire federal fleet to EVs.
The U.S. federal fleet is made up of more than 645,000 vehicles: 245,000 civilian vehicles, 173,000 military vehicles, and 225,000 post office vehicles, according to Electrek.
A timeline has yet to be announced, but Biden said the vehicles will be electric and American-made.
Flying to New Heights
New Flyer of America Inc. has officially unveiled North America’s first automated transit bus, the Xcelsior AV, currently in testing at Robotic Research, LLC (“Robotic Research”) in Maryland.
According to the press release, the Xcelsior makes use of the “Xcelsior CHARGE™ battery-electric propulsion while integrating advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) technology to meet Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Standard J3016 Level 4 technology with the automated vehicle (AV).”
“Our Xcelsior AV represents the anticipated future of safety in public transit and the latest leap forward for New Flyer. We committed to building an automated transit bus and within five years, we’ve delivered an industry-changing vehicle. The technology is real and it’s here,” said Chris Stoddart, president of New Flyer.
