Forterra and May Mobility Advance to Phase III of DIU’s ROADS Challenge, Bringing Autonomous Rides to Soldiers on Military Bases

Defense-ready autonomy meets commercial-grade fleet operations to increase installation safety and optimize Soldier productivity

CLARKSBURG, Md. and ANN ARBOR, Mich., Nov. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nov. 5, 2026 — Forterra, the leader in autonomous mission systems, and May Mobility, a developer of autonomous driving technology for commercial ride-hail and public transportation services, today announced they were selected, along with four other vendors by the Department of War Innovation Unit (DIU) to advance to Phase III of the Robotic Operations for Autonomous Delivery and Sustainment (ROADS) prize challenge. ROADS is an up to $30 million effort to test and adopt commercial self-driving vehicles, such as base shuttles and logistics trucks to boost installation safety, optimize logistical fleet employment, and reduce overall fleet costs.  

Today, the existing defense fleet of manually operated non-tactical vehicles frequently sit underutilized and require valuable personnel time to operate when they could be training. U.S. Army bases train thousands of Soldiers, many of whom don’t have a personal vehicle, and military personnel are often pulled from training to drive people and equipment to ranges, medical appointments and other destinations across post. At the same time, much of the government’s GSA vehicle fleet sits parked for most of the day, adding to more cost without adding capability. 

Forterra and May Mobility bring complementary strengths to solve both problems. May Mobility will provide its patented autonomous driving system (ADS) integrated with passenger vehicles built for autonomy that if adopted, would allow Soldiers to request via a rideshare app. As part of Phase III prototyping, Forterra will serve as fleet operator, validating and testing the service through its fleet command-and-control system, OneLink – a system that aims to provide installation leaders a live map and dashboard of every vehicle and the ability to set up installation-specific parameters and requirements.  

“We want to bring autonomy technology that’s already working in the real world - both on civilian roads in May Mobility’s operations and in Ukraine through Forterra’s deployment - to our Service Members in garrison ROADS is the best opportunity to make that a reality as soon as possible,” said Forterra Head of Growth, Sustainment and Shaping Operations Phil Cotter. 

During the DIU ROADS Prize Challenge layered safeguards, including onboard safety operators, remote assistance and conservative safe-stop behavior are designed to protect every rider. Both companies have a proven track record of ensuring passenger safety and optimizing fleet efficiencies. Forterra has fielded more than 250 autonomous systems for Department of War programs and has provided robotaxi services for Soldiers before at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg. May Mobility has delivered more than 550,000 commercial autonomous rides across 1.1 million miles, including driver-out service.  

“May Mobility’s autonomous driving system enables fleet vehicles that would otherwise sit idle to provide safe, on-demand transportation and can be rapidly deployed to new installations,” said Manik Dhar, Chief Commercial Officer, May Mobility. “We’re proud to move forward in this challenge and demonstrate our autonomy on military bases in support of the goal to increase utilization of the Army’s non-tactical vehicle fleet and free up Soldiers’ time for training and mission requirements.” 

May Mobility's autonomous driving system understands the physical world through a predictive world model and reasons through it. Simulating up to 10 seconds into the future, the reasoning model evaluates multiple driving strategies and executes the one deemed best suited to the current situation. Currently, May Mobility’s autonomy enables reliable autonomous driving for transportation services in cities across the U.S. and Japan. 

Vendor mapping begins in November, followed by phased demonstrations and development planned through the end of 2026, including a month-long pilot at Fort Benning. DIU and the installation will evaluate factors including technical performance, operational suitability, user needs, safety and data management to inform the program’s next phase and broader adoption across the Department. 

About Forterra 

Forterra is the autonomy backbone for distributed, mission-aware, resilient military operations in contested environments. Building the foundational autonomy platforms that coordinate weapons, sensors and users through distributed mobility, compute and communications, anywhere, under fire, without risking human life, Forterra empowers its customers to deploy autonomy as a force multiplier, extending reach, readiness, survivability and effectiveness across the battlespace and industrial applications. Forterra is headquartered in Clarksburg, Md., with offices in Arlington, Va., Winter Park, Fla., Ketchum, Id., and Palo Alto, Calif. To learn more, go to forterra.com. 
 

About May Mobility 

May Mobility develops autonomous vehicle technology for commercial ride-hail and public transportation services. Its patented physical AI system runs on-vehicle, integrating deep learning, a dynamic world model and a real-time reasoning engine to navigate through new and complex situations on the road. In partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, NTT, Lyft, Uber and Grab, May Mobility delivers Autonomy-as-a-Service (AaaS) at commercial scale and has completed more than half a million commercial autonomous rides across deployments in the U.S. and Japan. For more information, visit maymobility.com. 

Contact Info

Sanaz Tahernia
press@forterra.com
+1 240-631-0008