Connected Fleet & Telematics

Modaxo Inc. has launched Novvan and Routeward, two new business units formed from the Transit Fare Management and Fleet Management Solutions businesses it acquired from Conduent Incorporated. The launch, announced October 1, 2026, completes the acquisition, which Modaxo said is its largest to date, bringing over 2,000 colleagues based in 15 countries into the organization. Novvan is a global provider of fare collection solutions that help transit agencies boost revenue, reduce fare evasion and cut operational costs, while Routeward is a market leader in technology that enhances transit reliability and encourages public transit use. Modaxo Chief Executive Officer Bill Delaney said the company is thrilled to welcome the customers, employees and solutions of the two businesses, adding that they significantly expand Modaxo's scale and the solutions it can offer customers and communities worldwide. The launch represents a deepening of Modaxo's commitment to the Transit Fare Management and Fleet Management Solutions markets globally.

Uber Japan, Japan Post, and the city of Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture announced on the 29th that ride-share dispatching will be available at post office counters in the city, allowing ordinary drivers to pick up and drop off passengers. The service will cover all 15 post offices in Kaga and begins on October 7. Users ask a clerk at the counter to arrange a ride and pay the fare in cash. Because staff handle the request directly, the service can be used without a smartphone app. The city has operated a ride-share service using Uber's app since March 2024, but the hurdle was high for elderly residents unfamiliar with smartphone apps. Securing transportation in rural areas has become a challenge amid the elimination of local bus routes, and Masaki Nomura, head of Japan Post's Regional Co-Creation Business Division, said at a news conference on the 29th that the service will become a new gateway for regional transportation.

Aurora Innovation is targeting more than 30,000 driverless trucks and over $5B in annual revenue by 2030, though trucking carriers are still working through the economics of adopting autonomous vehicles. The company expects to exit 2026 with 200 driverless trucks and an $80 million annualized revenue run rate, followed by more than 1,000 trucks and about $200 million in revenue in 2027. Aurora now expects gross-margin breakeven on a run-rate basis in the first half of 2027 at about 500 trucks, and positive free cash flow on a run-rate basis by the end of 2028. For 2030, it is targeting about 60% gross margin and capital expenditure below 1% of revenue as it shifts toward its asset-light Driver as a Service model. Hirschbach intends to own and operate 500 autonomous trucks through a Driver as a Service agreement, with deliveries scheduled to begin in 2027, and Aurora is in talks with additional customers for similar agreements. Werner Enterprises is still working through the economics of its Aurora partnership, with executive Daragh Mahon saying the companies have a gap to close, according to FreightWaves.

Tesco Plc will roll out Vontier's Gilbarco Veeder-Root and Invenco payment and fuelling technologies across more than 700 petrol stations, integrating forecourt controllers, outdoor payment terminals and POS connectivity to streamline operations. The large-scale deployment highlights how Vontier's modular, data-rich platform can deepen operational insights for major retailers while enhancing customer experience and supporting future innovations in forecourt management. The Tesco rollout looks directionally helpful for Vontier's digital and recurring revenue catalyst, though it does not remove key risks around competition in software and customer spending cycles in fueling infrastructure. Among recent announcements, the ongoing share buyback under the 2021 plan stands out, with 36,800,000 shares repurchased for about US$1,170.48 million by July 2026. Vontier's narrative projects $3.3 billion revenue and $539.8 million earnings by 2029, yielding a $40.91 fair value, a 30% upside to its current price.

Waymo now operates commercial robotaxi service in 15 U.S. cities and averages 500,000 paid rides every week, but roughly 80% of its approximately 4,000 robotaxis are concentrated in just California and Texas. The Texas fleet has grown 49% in the past three weeks, reaching 1,102 registered autonomous vehicles as of September 24, driven by an influx of the new Chinese-built Zeekr RT minivan that Waymo brands the Ojai, which now makes up about a third of the state's fleet. Waymo first launched commercial service in Austin through a partnership with Uber in March 2025 and has since expanded to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The Ojai, equipped with Waymo's sixth-generation self-driving system and Google's Gemini AI, is meant to help Waymo reach mass scale and profitability, though steep U.S. import tariffs on Chinese-built vehicles are raising costs. Research firm MoffettNathanson said in its September report that Waymo is on track to bring 5,100 Ojai vehicles into the U.S. by the end of the year, with Florida and newer markets like Las Vegas likely to see additional deployments.

Uber and Lyft are underperforming the market as autonomous vehicle platforms from Waymo, Tesla, and Zoox begin deploying at scale, according to a new Bank of America note. Uber has cut 10% of its workforce and its stock is down 13%, while Lyft's market cap sits at a paltry $5.8 billion with shares off 20%. Bank of America analyst Justin Post wrote that Uber and Lyft expect their AV ramps to begin scaling in 2028, giving new AV platforms 18 to 24 months to build volumes without incumbent AV competition. Post estimated Waymo has around 4,000 vehicles operating in the US, Tesla has 420 driverless vehicles in operation based on Texas registration data, and Zoox had 50 AVs in operation in September 2025, mostly in Las Vegas. He projects the competitive AV fleet could scale from around 4,500 vehicles today and approximately $570 million in bookings in 2026 to approximately 118,000 vehicles and $15.3 billion in bookings in 2029, with a base case of $6 billion in competitive bookings by 2028, or 5% of the market. Lyft CEO David Risher is pushing out a robotaxi fleet in markets like Nashville and building an 80,000-square-foot warehouse to service it, while Post noted Uber is ramping partnerships with Nvidia, Lucid, Rivian, Volkswagen, Zoox, WeRide, and Pony.ai, which have committed 120k AVs to Uber.

BlackBerry shares jumped 7% to $9.13 in Tuesday morning trading after Vector and QNX, a division of BlackBerry, announced that Coretura selected Alloy Kore as the safety-certified foundation inside its software-defined vehicle platform for commercial vehicles. Coretura is the SDV platform company founded by Daimler Truck and Volvo Group and headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and it chose Alloy Kore through the Vector Distribution, a ready-to-use implementation of the platform; this is the first named design win BlackBerry has secured for the product. The announcement disclosed no contract value, no revenue split and no timetable for revenue recognition, leaving the revenue contribution to QNX unproven. The read-across into automotive-software peers was thin, with Aptiv at $44.19, up 1%, and Mobileye at $8.01, up 0.3%, confirming the market is pricing a BlackBerry-specific win rather than a sector re-rating. BlackBerry reports quarterly results before the market opens on September 24, with RBC Capital maintaining a Sector Perform rating and a $9 price target, and BlackBerry stock is up 141% year to date.

Coretura, the software-defined vehicle platform company founded by Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, has selected Alloy Kore, the foundational software layer jointly developed by Vector and QNX, a division of BlackBerry Limited, to accelerate its next-generation software-defined commercial vehicle platform. The selection marks the first design win for Alloy Kore and positions it as the safety-certified software platform foundation within Coretura's SDV platform architecture, targeted at high-performance compute in the commercial vehicle environment. Coretura selected Alloy Kore through the Vector Distribution, a ready-to-use implementation that combines the automotive OS foundation with Vector's middleware, communication, and integration capabilities for deployment in high-performance computing environments. Johan Lundén, CEO of Coretura, said selecting Alloy Kore is a deliberate step toward building one foundation the industry can rely on, while John Wall, President of QNX, called it a significant step for software-defined commercial vehicles and Dr. Matthias Traub, President and Managing Director of Vector, said the milestone advances the industry as a whole. Coretura is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, and brings together over 130 engineers from more than 15 countries.

Steve Eisman, the Neuberger Berman senior portfolio manager made famous by The Big Short, said on his weekly wrap podcast that Tesla's valuation only makes sense if investors believe its robotaxi business will conquer the world, adding, "just count me a skeptic." Eisman noted Tesla's 2026 consensus EPS of $1.66 puts its 2026 P/E at 220 times, versus 6.5 times for General Motors, and that the estimate sits 59% below Tesla's 2022 peak EPS of $4.07. Tesla's Q2 2026 8-K, filed July 22, 2026, showed revenue of $28.24 billion, up 25.5% year over year, but non-GAAP EPS of $0.33 that missed the $0.54 estimate by 38.5%, operating income down 56.9% to $398 million, and free cash flow of negative $1.09 billion. On the bull side, Tesla has expanded Robotaxi service to seven U.S. metros with unsupervised rides in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa, reached 1.48 million active FSD subscriptions, up 56% year over year, and plans 2026 CapEx above $25 billion. GM, meanwhile, posted Q2 2026 adjusted EPS of $3.57, beating the $3.18 estimate by 12.1% for a fifth consecutive beat, and raised full-year guidance to EBIT-adjusted of $14.0B to $16.0B and adjusted EPS of $12.00 to $14.00.

Tesco will integrate payments and commercial fueling technologies from Vontier businesses Gilbarco Veeder-Root and Invenco across its network of more than 700 petrol station sites. The deployment builds on the existing integration between Invenco's outdoor payment applications and Gilbarco Veeder-Root's fueling and forecourt management systems, giving Tesco deeper operational insights and a smoother customer experience. Gilbarco Veeder-Root's DOMS PSS 5000 Forecourt Controller and Invenco's connected outdoor payment terminals will enable fast and compliant transactions at the pump or at the kiosk, with the controller providing software that connects Tesco's Point of Sale and other systems to deliver real-time forecourt data. Andy Bennett, Group President of Convenience Retail at Vontier, said the deal combines Tesco's retail expertise with Gilbarco Veeder-Root's fueling technology and Invenco's payment technology to create a state-of-the-art solution. Vontier said the modular hardware and software architecture creates a scalable solution for Tesco, helping the retailer enhance efficiency, improve customer experience and support future innovation.

After market close on September 17, Fulongma announced plans to sign a contract related to autonomous sanitation driving technology development and to cooperate with Huawei Cloud Computing Technologies on developing autonomous sanitation driving technology. The cooperation is an exclusive strategic partnership between the two sides in the field of intelligent sanitation, with a total contract value of 200 million yuan including tax. According to the announcement, the two sides have planned agreed three-ton and six-ton vehicle platforms, sweeping and washing business scenarios, and other elements. Huawei Cloud will conduct technical research on vehicle intelligent upgrades, drive-by-wire optimization, and cloud adaptation, and will exclusively develop and deploy the Fulongma Sanitation Autonomous Driving System for Fulongma, including cloud-based, vehicle-side software, and vehicle-side intelligent hardware solutions. Huawei Cloud will lead the adaptation and verification of autonomous driving algorithm software for three vehicle platforms in sweeping and washing scenarios. This is not the first time the two sides have joined forces. On December 11, 2025, Fulongma and Huawei signed a framework cooperation agreement, and on September 12 the two sides further signed a strategic cooperation agreement on embodied intelligence in the sanitation robot field. In the first half of 2026, Fulongma achieved revenue of 2.608 billion yuan, up 7.63 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to the parent company of 101 million yuan, up 7.27 percent year on year. Sanitation equipment business revenue was 808 million yuan, up 61.15 percent year on year, and sales of new energy sanitation equipment reached 938 units, up 81.43 percent year on year, accounting for 38.70 percent of total sales.

Amazon is reportedly preparing a major expansion of its same-day delivery network, targeting more than 1,000 dedicated facilities by 2031, up from roughly 85 today. The initiative, known internally as Project Mercury, would place dedicated same-day facilities within a 10-mile straight-line radius of 80% of U.S. Prime subscribers by 2031, according to Business Insider, compared with many current same-day sites positioned roughly a 90-minute drive from customers. Amazon's three-year operating plan allocates $6.8 billion toward U.S. same-day capacity during 2026 and 2027, and internal analysis reportedly estimates Project Mercury could generate $7.1 billion in economic value over a decade and become cash-flow positive by 2030. An Amazon spokesperson said internal forecasts are preliminary, subject to significant revision, and should not be treated as finalized plans, while noting the company is focused on delivering faster for customers. The expansion could strengthen Amazon's speed advantage against Walmart, DoorDash and Instacart, but the biggest risk is overbuilding capacity before order density justifies the investment.

Singapore's electric vehicle market is forecast to grow 7.9% annually to reach US$1.17 billion in 2026 and approximately US$1.58 billion by the end of 2030, according to the Databook Q2 2026 Update added to ResearchAndMarkets.com. The market, which grew at a compound annual growth rate of 7.2% between 2021 and 2025, is projected to maintain a 7.7% CAGR from 2026 to 2030, rising from US$1.09 billion in 2025. The report tracks more than 100 key performance indicators across vehicle type, drive type, vehicle class, powertrain, propulsion type, distance range, charging type, charging infrastructure, connectivity and key players. Wider model availability from BYD, Tesla, Hyundai, BMW and Mercedes-Benz is intensifying competition, while the Land Transport Authority has awarded contracts for 660 electric buses to suppliers including ST Engineering Mobility Services with CRRC, BYD, Yutong, and Cycle & Carriage Automotive with Zhongtong. Shell Singapore, SP Mobility and Charge+ are among the companies developing the country's charging ecosystem, and partnerships such as Grab with WeRide and Momenta, and ComfortDelGro with Pony.ai, point to a convergence of electrification and autonomous mobility. Reuters reported that BYD led Singapore vehicle sales during the first four months of 2025, ahead of Toyota and Tesla, with additional Chinese brands including Chery, Deepal and Dongfeng widening consumer choice.

Ford has unveiled the 2027 F-150, its most comprehensive update to the truck in years, adding hands-free towing, a V8 option across the entire lineup, and a first-ever Carhartt edition as the automaker works to revive its flagship product after a bruising first half. F-Series US sales fell 13.3% in the first six months of 2026 to 357,801 units from 412,848 a year earlier, after aluminum shortages from the Novelis plant fires cut F-Series production by roughly 90,000 to 100,000 units and cost Ford $2 billion. The 5.0-liter V8 returns to the King Ranch and Platinum trims for the first time since 2023, making it available from XL to Platinum, while the outgoing 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 is replaced by a 3.0-liter unit delivering 10% to 11% more torque in everyday driving. The headline feature, BlueCruise with Towing, allows hands-free driving on more than 130,000 miles of divided Blue Zone highways while pulling a trailer, a system Ford validated across 800 trailer configurations. Ford is also opening a cheaper path into its off-road trucks with Tremor Low and Raptor Low equipment groups, which start about $5,300 and $4,000 below the current versions respectively, putting the entry-level Raptor near $75,000, and the first-ever F-150 Carhartt package starts at $62,660 before destination. The 2027 F-150 goes on sale in early 2027, with Carhartt orders opening alongside the reveal.

GO, the taxi-hailing app, Waymo under U.S. parent Alphabet, and Nihon Kotsu announced on the 15th that the three companies plan to begin offering Japan's first autonomous taxi service in Tokyo within 2027. Under Level 4 autonomy, in which the system handles all operations under specific conditions, they aim to gradually operate a fleet of driverless taxis on the scale of 100 vehicles. The three companies, which have been conducting road tests in the capital, agreed to collaborate toward commercial operation, with services to be offered through the GO and Waymo apps. Waymo will also provide autonomous driving technology, while Nihon Kotsu will handle fleet management and depot operations. Ichiro Kawanabe, chairman of the National Hire Taxi Federation and chairman of GO, said at a briefing the same day that the introduction of autonomous taxis can help reduce traffic accidents and ease labor shortages, expressing his enthusiasm by saying, "We want to achieve commercial operation with safety as the top priority."

In early trading on September 14, the auto manufacturing sector continued to strengthen. Ankai Bus and Haima Automobile surged to their daily limit up, while Zhongtong Bus, FAW Jiefang, Changan Automobile, and Seres also rose. On the news front, on September 11, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and eight other departments issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Intelligent Connected New Energy Vehicle Industry. The plan proposes that by 2030, China's advantages across the entire intelligent connected new energy vehicle industrial chain will be further consolidated, and the country will enter the ranks of the world's automotive powers. In the domestic market, new energy passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles will account for 70 percent and 40 percent respectively of total new vehicle sales in their respective segments, and vehicles with autonomous driving functions will achieve large-scale application. In addition, the plan calls for strengthening early warning and regulation of production capacity, strictly implementing industrial policies such as the Regulations on the Administration of Investment in the Automobile Industry, tightening conditions for new independent new energy vehicle enterprise projects, intensifying lawful mergers, acquisitions, and cross-regional integration of automobile enterprises, deepening the reform of group-based management of automobile manufacturers, promoting the orderly exit of backward and inefficient capacity through market-oriented and law-based means, improving the overall capacity utilization level of the industry, and strengthening early warning and regulatory management of power battery production capacity.

Hyundai Motor Group announced it has put its Data Flywheel into full operation, a system that creates a virtuous cycle of data collection, AI training, validation and deployment to accelerate its autonomous driving development. At its HMG Autonomous Driving Media Day at 42dot headquarters in Gyeonggi Province, Korea, the Group said NVIDIA solutions-based Level 2+ production is targeted for the first half of 2028 and Level 2++ in the second half of 2028, followed by Atria AI-powered Level 2++ vehicles in the second half of 2029. The Group is pursuing a Dual-Track strategy that accelerates Level 2+ production through its NVIDIA collaboration while internalizing key autonomous driving technologies through its proprietary Atria AI, with progressive sensor standardization across Hyundai Motor, Kia, 42dot and Motional. The Data Flywheel expands the Group's data ecosystem by leveraging its annual sales of 7 million vehicles and its Data Union framework, supported by a data-centric development framework based on hard example mining, continuous training and SER. A real-world Level 4 pilot is to launch in Gwangju by year-end in partnership with Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to secure large-scale validation data, while 42dot shared its Vision-Language-Action technology that integrates visual information and language-based reasoning to guide driving decisions, with VLA model validation currently underway and on-road testing and the full development process scheduled to run through early next year. Minwoo Park, President and Head of Advanced Vehicle Platform Division at Hyundai Motor Group and CEO of 42dot, said autonomous driving competitiveness is no longer about comparing specific features but about how much data a company secures, how quickly it learns and how effectively it reflects those results in products and services.

China aims for 70% of new vehicles sold in the country to be electric or hybrid by 2030 under its latest five-year automotive industry plan, drafted by nine government agencies and published on Friday. The 15th Five-Year National Economic and Social Development Plan also targets 40% of new commercial vehicles sold by 2030 to be electric, while expecting several Chinese automakers to rise into the world's 10 largest carmakers and to play a bigger role in setting global automotive industry standards. Currently, BYD, SAIC Motor and Geely Automobile rank among the world's 10 largest automakers by sales last year, but still lag the top three of Toyota Motor, Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor Group. The previous plan in 2021 had targeted EVs and hybrids at 20% of new car sales by 2025, but China far exceeded that goal, with data from the China Passenger Car Association showing the share rose to 54% last year, and new energy vehicles most recently accounting for 65% of car sales in August. Although the plan sets no numerical target for autonomous driving cars, its emphasis on expanding the use of driverless vehicles is a positive signal for the industry, after China suspended approval of new Robotaxi permits for several months this year following system failures in Baidu's vehicles in Wuhan. China's domestic car market is facing challenges, with car sales in the first eight months of this year down 21%, while a prolonged price war erodes manufacturers' profit margins. Beijing has therefore issued more than half a dozen new standards and regulations, covering everything from door handles and driver-assistance technology to batteries, to raise safety levels, and said in the plan that it wants to push forward reform of automakers, encourage mergers and acquisitions, and open the way for inefficient manufacturers to exit the market to ease the industry's overcapacity problem. Battery technology and recycling are another key agenda item, with the plan calling for standards for new forms of battery cell technology such as solid-state batteries, as well as improving the recovery and reuse of key metals including lithium, cobalt and nickel.

EV Realty announced that veteran infrastructure executive Henrik Holland has joined the company as President. Holland previously built Prologis Mobility, the nation's second-largest commercial EV charging network, delivering 70MW of power over more than 400 projects, and served as Chief Operating Officer at Greenlots following its acquisition by Shell. In his new role, he will help EV Realty grow its commercial truck charging business and lead the market entry of its Powered Properties platform into additional sectors and fleet verticals, including autonomous vehicle depot infrastructure. The NGP-backed company has assembled a portfolio of six Powered Properties approaching 50 MW of secured grid capacity, including its San Bernardino Powered Property, a 9 MW truck charging hub among the first in North America with megawatt charging. Later this year, EV Realty plans to break ground on a heavy-duty truck charging facility in Torrance, California, expanding its network along freight lanes around the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.