American autonomous vehicle company
Motional is an American autonomous vehicle company founded in March 2020[ 1] as a joint venture between automaker Hyundai Motor Group and auto supplier Aptiv . Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Motional also maintains operations in Pittsburgh , Singapore , Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Motional began testing its newest generation of vehicles in Las Vegas, Nevada , in February 2021,[ 2] [ 3] and also operates vehicles in Pittsburgh and Santa Monica, California .[ 4]
'Motional' is a portmanteau of motion and emotional, with motion referring to the movement of self-driving cars and emotional expressing the willingness to realize the value of human respect.
Karl Iagnemma at the Collision conference in 2018
2013 - nuTonomy and Ottomatika, Inc. are established as spin-offs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.
2015 - Delphi acquired Ottomatika[ 5]
2015 - Delphi demonstrates what they claim to be America's first fully autonomous transcontinental crossing.[ 5]
2016 - nuTonomy trial operated the world's first autonomous taxi in Singapore.
2017 - nuTonomy begins autonomous driving in Boston
2017 - Delphi acquired nuTonomy[ 6]
2017 - Delphi renamed as Aptiv[ 7]
2018 - Aptiv acquired NuTonomy and Ottomatika and formed an Autonomous Driving Team
2018 - First public robotaxi service tests in Las Vegas in collaboration with Lyft , with 50,000 rides in the first year[ 8]
2019 - Aptiv & Hyundai Motor Group officially announce an autonomous driving joint venture[ 9]
2020 - The establishment of Motional, an autonomous driving technology development joint venture[ 10]
2021 - Autonomous (SAE level 4) vehicle test drive successful on normal roads[ 2]
2022 - Motional and Lyft's public service is launched in Las Vegas using autonomous, all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles with a safety driver[ 11]
2022 - Motional and Lyft announced the planned launch of a fully driverless ride-hail service in Los Angeles[ 12] [ 13]
Karl Iagnemma, founder of NuTonomy , was CEO of Motional as of 2023.[ 14]
In March 2024, Motional took on a bridge loan to sustain further operations while the company seeks alternative funding sources.[ 15]
^ Hawkins, Andrew (11 August 2020). "Hyundai's autonomous vehicle project with Aptiv will now be called Motional" . The Verge . Vox Media. Retrieved 27 January 2021 .
^ a b Bishop, Richard. "Motional Initiates Testing Of Driverless Vehicles In Las Vegas" . Forbes . PARS International Corp. Retrieved 23 February 2021 .
^ AP. "Company testing fully driverless cars on Las Vegas streets" . Houston Chronicle . Hearst Newspapers. Retrieved 23 February 2021 . [permanent dead link ]
^ Brown, Dalvin (22 February 2021). "To the list of places testing driverless cars, add Las Vegas" . Washington Post . Retrieved 25 February 2021 .
^ a b Stokes, Sherry; Walters, Ken. "Carnegie Mellon Spinoff Ottomatika Acquired by Delphi" . Carnegie Mellon University . Retrieved 23 February 2021 .
^ Abuelsamid, Sam. "Delphi Acquires nuTonomy For $450M, Advancing Push For Automated Driving" . Forbes . PARS International Corp. Retrieved 23 February 2021 .
^ "Delphi Technologies Set to Join S&P MidCap 400 and Frontier Communications to Join S&P SmallCap 600" (PDF) . US: S&P Dow Jones Indices. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2017 .
^ Iagnemma, Karl (May 31, 2019). "One Year In: Aptiv Marks 50,000 Public Robotaxi Rides" (Press release). Aptiv. Retrieved 2022-11-27 .
^ Frangoul, Amour (September 24, 2019). "Hyundai and Aptiv to set up $4 billion autonomous driving joint venture" . CNBC .
^ "Introducing Motional: The Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv Autonomous Driving Joint Venture Unveils New Identity" . 《PR Newswire》 . Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
^ Hawkins, Andrew J. (2022-08-16). "Lyft and Motional's all-electric robotaxi service is now live in Las Vegas" . The Verge . Retrieved 2022-08-16 .
^ "Motional and Lyft to Launch Driverless Ride-hail Service in Los Angeles" (Press release). Motional. November 17, 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-27 .
^ Sriram, Akash (November 17, 2022). "Lyft, Motional to launch robotaxi service in Los Angeles" . Reuters . Retrieved 2022-11-27 .
^ "Leadership | Motional" . motional.com . Retrieved 20 June 2023 .
^ Korosec, Kirsten (15 March 2024). "EXCLUSIVE: Hyundai-backed Motional buys time with a bridge loan" . TechCrunch . Retrieved 16 March 2024 .