The new year has begun, the weather is good, and so it is not surprising that the autonomous test vehicles are roaming the streets of Silicon Valley en masse. Alone in the morning of January 2nd I encountered several vehicles. One of them, a Mercedes-Benz / Bosch Urban Automated Driving Vehicle, came in front of my lens, and I immediately noticed the new sensor setup. Half a year ago it looked a bit rudimentary, as you can see here, but now both the roof setup and the one on the front are more streamlined in new housings.

The Mercedes-Benz vehicle was not the only autonomous test vehicle I came across. Others from DiDi, Toyota Research Institute and JingChi / WeRide also crossed my path in Mountain View, Sunnyvale and San Jose.

This article was also published in German.