May Mobility names Balajee Kannan to lead autonomy core engineering

May Mobility has hired autonomy veteran Balajee Kannan as senior vice president of autonomy core engineering, effective June 29, 2026, as the company pushes to scale its global deployments and ride-hail strategy. The move adds another senior engineering leader as May Mobility expands partnerships, markets and driverless operations.

Why it matters: - May Mobility is adding senior technical leadership as autonomous vehicle companies move from development to commercial scale. - Kannan will help shape the systems behind May Mobility's autonomy performance, deployment scale and future ride-hail growth. - The hire comes as May Mobility expands partnerships and advances driverless deployment plans in the U.S. and abroad.

What happened: - May Mobility appointed Balajee Kannan as senior vice president of autonomy core engineering, effective June 29, 2026. - Kannan will help advance core autonomy capabilities, scale autonomous vehicle deployments and execute the company's commercial ride-hail strategy. - Kannan joins after more than 25 years in robotics and autonomous systems. - Kannan most recently served as vice president of autonomy at Motional. - Kannan has also held senior engineering and leadership roles at Argo AI, Amazon and GE. - Kannan co-founded a company focused on autonomous maritime systems earlier in his career.

The details: - Kannan will oversee autonomy performance, integration, machine learning modeling, perception, behavior, mapping and localization. - Kannan's background includes leading autonomy, mapping, sensors and systems teams at Motional on a global Level 4 autonomous driving program. - Kannan holds multiple robotics patents. - Kannan will work closely with Jacob Crossman, senior vice president of autonomy engineering. - Crossman leads vehicle platform engineering, software release management and autonomy safety testing and validation. - Kannan, Crossman and CEO and founder Dr. Edwin Olson make up May Mobility's technical leadership team. - May Mobility said that team is responsible for defining strategy and driving execution as the company scales autonomous services globally.

Between the lines: - The appointment suggests May Mobility is putting more emphasis on turning autonomy research into reliable deployments. - The company is pairing core engineering leadership with safety, validation and platform engineering to support broader commercialization. - May Mobility is also building out its executive bench; the Kannan hire follows recent appointments of Thomas Fennimore as chief financial officer and Matthew Wood as vice president of autonomy verification and validation.

What's next: - Kannan and Crossman will lead a larger autonomy team as May Mobility expands through strategic partnerships and priority markets globally. - May Mobility said the leadership changes are intended to support the company's next phase of commercial growth. - The company is continuing rollout of next-generation autonomy systems designed to support future driverless deployments. - May Mobility plans broader commercial adoption of autonomous transportation as it scales its services.

The bottom line: - May Mobility is tightening its technical leadership as it tries to move from pilot programs and early deployments to global autonomous transportation scale. - To date, the company says it has completed more than 550,000 commercial rides and driven over 1.1 million autonomous miles in the U.S. and Japan, including driverless deployments across multiple U.S. markets. - More information