Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT đđ
Lyft plans to let go of 1,200 employees, 30% of the workforce. Previous layoffs happened in November, when the company let go of 700 employees, then 13% of the workforce. See CEOâs internal email announcing layoffs. Reason: cost cutting and allowing a flatter, quicker structure.
17% of Uber India revenues come from Airports. Uber signed with AAI (Airports Authority of India) to build its âUber Zonesâ across its airports. These zones provide dedicated pickup and drop points, deploy technology to help users navigate and provide dedicated parking for drivers.
Bolt creates a new vehicle category - âassistâ - for people with reduced mobility needs. The service, using wheelchair accessible electric taxis, is available in Malta.
Grabâs new features to improve touristsâ travel experience in Asia include (1) âTravellers Homepageâ, informing tourists of landmarks, accommodations and food options; (2) additional languages support; (3) menu translations; and (4) airport pickup step-by-step directions. Also Grab increases platform fee, from $0.3 to $0.7, inline with competition pricing.
Das vedanya! Uber has finally legally left Russia, completing the 29% sale of its holdings to Yandex for $702.5M.
Sharing/renting đđ´
FreeNow and ShareNow partner. FreeNow users in Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy and France will be able to access ShareNowâs per-minute and per-hour rental offers.
Micromobility đ˛đ´
Graph shows the effect of winter on micromobility ridership in San Francisco. From almost 200K shared scooter rides a month in August to circa 80K in winter months (Slide 7). Also the powerpoint itself (link) is definitely worth a look.
Lime blog on how it achieved profitability: (1) vehicle design to increase life span and ease of repairs; (2) introduction of swappable batteries and of (3) larger, longer-lasting batteries; (4) improving importing logistics and more.
San Diego city regulations together with a rise in scooter thefts makes it hard for Spin and Bird to operate in the city. San Diego requires operators to implement a unique âsidewalk speed throttlingâ feature, which slows scooters down to 3 mph (5 kmh) when on sidewalks. This feature works best with newer scooter models. Increasing thefts (Spin says that 15% of its fleet, 150 of 900 vehicles, are stolen each month) make replacing those newer scooters much more expensive. Costs are getting too high for operators. Link and Lime already left San Diego.
Tier and Gett partner to offer late night drivers an option to take a taxi. Tier users could press a button and choose Gett rides instead, increasing safety. Tier lost its operating license in Vienna, coming 5th in the new city tender. Voi came in #1, followed by Superpedestrian, Lime and Bird, which will all deploy in the city. Lime users can round up ride costs to benefit Orlando Bike Coalition. This is a part of the âLime Heroâ program, which is active in nearly 100 markets globally.
Delivery đ˝đ§ş
Deliveroo and Just Eat Takeaway both published Q1/23 results. Deliveroo numbers: less orders (72M today vs. 79M YoY, 9% drop) and fewer average monthly consumers (7.1M vs. 7.6M), but 4% increase in revenue (ÂŁ512 vs. ÂŁ479M). Just Eat Takeaway numbers: 14% drop in orders (228M today vs. 263M YoY) and 7.7% drop in sales. JET expects GTV to be -4% to 2% +YoY in 2023 and to be free-cash-flow positive in mid 2024. The company also announced plans for a âŹ150M share buy-back program. Both companies face tougher times as the inflation and cost of living increases, and post-pandemic delivery-hype is fading. The answer is focusing on profitable markets, expanding partnerships and leveraging on operational economies of scale.
Getir sees valuation cut almost in half? The company is said to recently raise $500M in a $6.5bn valuation. Getir denies. Also Getir shutting down stores in the UK, possibly as it continues the switch to franchise model or as operational efficiency measures post Gorillas acquisition.
Delivery Heroâs first halal-certified delivery fleet launches in Malaysia. This service, called âBekal by foodpandaâ, will only allow orders from halal certified restaurants and operate a fleet of halal certified couriers. The company is looking to export its Bekal halal-specific delivery service to the Middle East, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Foodpanda and Tada, ride-hailing, partner in Cambodia and Singapore. Both companies will offer benefits; for example, In Singapore Tada users can receive a âPandaproâ subscription; and Foodpanda âPandaproâ subscribers receive discounted Tada rides.
Foodpanda Pakistan introduces Pandago for consumers (C2C). The Pandago service allows you to request a rider for any on-demand delivery need, and was up to now a B2B service only. Foodpanda Philippines expands Pandago nationwide. Foodpanda Hong Kong launched its first 24/7 pandamart offline-to-online (O2O) concept store in APAC. You can now shop via the app and collect your groceries in 10 minutes. Foodpanda Bangladesh partners with MetLife to provide insurance for its employees.
UberEats and Cartken start offering autonomous food deliveries in Fairfax, Virginia, US. This is the 2nd city both companies work together in, Miami being the first. The pilot, starting with 40 restaurants, is run in a 0.5 square mile area. The autonomous delivery bots is not an exclusive partnership market: Cartken works with Grubhub, while Uber works with Serve Robotics and Motional.
JackBe, a pickup-only drive-thru grocer startup, raises $11.5M. The company opened its first store in January. Frayt raises $7M to expand Midwest last-mile services. Frayt is a delivery platform / marketplace connecting independent couriers and local businesses. Evermile, local business delivery, raises $6M. Proving a collusion for local retailers, Evermile first entered the UK, and now has >300 customers, to whom the company says it saves 30-50% in delivery costs. Is DoorDash-backed Flink in talks to raise around $100M at a haircut to its earlier $2.85 billion valuation? TBC.
Autonomous đ¤
Navya will be taken over by French company Gaussin, associated with the Japanese group Macnica, a French court decides. Navya went into insolvency back in January. The company will keep 143 of the 203 employees and Gaussin plans "financing of the activity to the tune of 25 million euros over the next three years ".
Wayve and Asda launch self-driving grocery delivery trial. The trail, done from the Park Royal superstore, covers 72,000 households, making it what is believed to be the largest of its kind in the UK. During the one year pilot, a safety driver and Asda employee (for loading and unloading) will be onboard the vehicle.
CamSoda, an adult entertainment webcam company (!!!), says it is planning to launch driverless shuttles in several American cities. And plans to call those âSeXlaâ. The name makes sense. The article isnât shy about what people would use these vehicles for.
Clevon, Estonian based autonomous robot carrier supplier, partners with T-Mobile for its preferred IoT connectivity provider in the U.S. Video here. Kodiak Robotics partners with truckload carrier C.R. England to autonomously ship Tyson Foods products between Dallas and San Antonio, Texas. Human safety driver included. The city of Trikala, Greece, is launching robotaxis. Waymo robotaxi gets confused when pulled over by a police officer. The cop signals the vehicle to pull over, but to no avail. Video here.
Flying cars đ
Volatus Infrastructure is focused on building and operating affordable ground infrastructure for eVTOLs. The company has partnered with the likes of Eve Air Mobility, SkyDrive, and Air. In this blog post in their year in review.
Foster + Partners concept vertiport for Dubai, working with Skyports. Introducing the Klein Vision AirCar. Still in prototype mode, video here.
OEMs đşâĄď¸
Tesla wins Autopilot crash case in California. The case refers to a 2019 accident in which a Tesla car, driving through the city while in Autopilot, hit a median and released the airbags, causing injury to the driver. The jury found that Tesla had sufficient warning against using the system while driving in the city (this is 2019) and the airbags function properly.
Gig economy đ°
In Slovenia, a courier trade union has formed. It consists of many Glovo and Wolt couriers.
In other news đ°
UK founded Cazoo was worth once $8bn, and today circa $83M only. Big VC money, non-efficient hypergrowth, enter troubling macroeconomic conditions, and Cazoo is struggling. In 2022, the company reported $1.3bn revenue, $20M gross profit - and a $704M net loss - suggesting a flawed business model. The company is now in mass layoffs, selling previously acquired companies and withdrawing from Europe. A Sifted long read.
Einride launches in the UK in partnership with PepsiCo, starting with two human-driven vehicles in a three year pilot. Watch a 3:35 interview with the CEO. Virgin Orbit went bankrupt because its rocket was too small and cost too much. There might be an investor to the rescue. Autotech Ventures raise new $230M fund to invest in Seed through Series C mobility-related startups.
âThe Future of Urban Mobilityâ report by IKEA. My favourite stat is that 13% of household expenses are spent on transportation, 2nd only to housing. Much more inside.
For fun đ
Space elevator - travel to 100,000 km.
Map distortions. Of Earth.
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