The Toyota-backed U.S. self-driving startup May Mobility has gained a nearly $67 million investment from Japanese firm NTT Communications, according to a new report.
On Monday, Nikkei Asia reported that NTT is investing around 10 billion yen ($66.9 million) into the Michigan-based May Mobility. The company plans to make self-driving buses and taxis by 2025, and Bridgestone has also joined Toyota in investing in the company, along with several others.
May Mobility says it has technology that’s the equivalent of Level 4 automated driving, which means that the vehicles won’t be required to have a driver at certain points and in regions where it’s designated as legal, according to Society Automotive Engineers (SAE) autonomy designations. You can see the five levels of autonomy from the SAE below, courtesy of a May Mobility blog post.
Credit: May Mobility Credit: May Mobility
Toyota is expected to produce the self-driving vehicles, after the automaker created a capital and business alliance with NTT in 2020. Japanese insurer Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance is also an investor in May Mobility, and it says it has already begun developing insurance policies for self-driving vehicles.
The deal gives NTT Communications the exclusive rights to sell May Mobility’s product in Japan, with an ambitious plan to outfit government and operator vehicles with the company’s sensors and software starting in 2025. The vehicles are expected to include buses to start, before later including taxis and other automobiles.
May Mobility plans to begin demonstration tests in 2024 using self-driving vehicles based on the Sienna minivan, according to the report. The company says it has already been testing the self-driving tech in 12 cities, primarily in North America, and that it has been used over 350,000 times thus far.
The news comes after Japan lifted a ban on Level 4 autonomy in April and as continued self-driving efforts from EV maker Tesla and others are scrutinized by state and federal regulators in the U.S. It also comes after General Motors-backed (GM-backed) self-driving company Cruise was ordered to cease driverless operations following multiple incidents in California — including one in which one of its vehicles pinned a pedestrian.
Toyota has recently begun changing its tune on electric vehicles (EVs), and in September, the Japanese automaker boosted its target of battery-electric vehicle (BEV) production target to 600,000 in 2025. However, the automaker has partnered with several companies on driverless operations, and it even purchased Lyft’s self-driving unit in 2021 for $550 million.
Still, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta remains the only partially automated system available to individual buyers in North America, considered to be at a Level 3 autonomy, and it is by far the most widely tested today.
Tesla FSD Beta program reaches half a billion cumulative miles
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.
News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.
Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
Energy
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.
Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.
Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.
Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage
It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.
The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.
For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.
During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”
It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.
Lifestyle
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.
Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.
The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.
Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video
With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:
Turn your Tesla into a rave cave with the new Light Sync feature 🎶
Rolling out now in software update 2025.26+ pic.twitter.com/IIsQxZ9jDP
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 29, 2025
To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”
Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
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