Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT 🚙🚐
Cabify and Auro have been in courts since 2019 regarding VTC exclusivity and non-compete, dating back to a contract signed by the companies in 2017, allowing (or not) Cabify exclusivity over Auro’s 1,100 VTC vehicles (1,000 of those in Madrid). For now Cabify’s position has been adopted by the courts, but now the Constitutional Court has decided to look at Auro’s appeal. TBC.
In a different case, the European court rejects Barcelona's ride-hailing restrictions. In order to restrict VTCs, Barcelona has granted one VTC licence per every 30 traditional taxis. Now the EU court has ruled it to be violating "freedom of establishment”.
In South Korea, TADA and i.M to merge in H1, becoming the country's largest van service platform, with 1,700 large vans compared to rival Kakao Mobility’s 1,000. Once the merger is completed, the joint company is set to receive ±$75M from a private equity firm to expand its business.
Change of guard at GoTo (Gojek) - a new CEO has been brought to steer the company to profitability. Read Soelistyo’s, the founder of Gojek and soon-to-be-former CEO, farewell letter. Soelistyo will remain on the board.
Uber is launching a set of ‘green’ features: ‘Uber Green’ users can now track CO2 savings; drivers can use a smart charging feature, recommending when and where to charge based on traffic, battery status, charging prices and charging times; and Uber updated its navigation algorithms to save more on fuel.
Careem is underpricing the school commute market in Dubai, offering 44% cheaper annual prices than traditional bus competitors.
In Nigeria, ride-hailing drivers are striking over low fares. Fuel prices have increased by >2.5 after subsidies dropped in the country, and drivers want Uber, Bolt, LagRide and InDriver to raise prices (by 200%) and to cut commissions (by 50%). TBC.
Zum and Howard County public school system partner on student transportation. Zum will operate 250 buses for the five-year term contract, supplying carbon neutral services with a plan to switch buses to electric during the contract period.
In Soweto (Johannesburg, South Africa) violence between taxi and ride-hailing drivers has reached a compromise, with ride-hailing drivers banned from the mall for 3 months. A permanent solution is sought.
North Yorkshire’s DRT scheme ends as it is ‘too expensive’. A two bus pilot was launched in 2021, serving rural residents. The council says that “While YorBus proved popular with passengers, the service only operates in one part of the county and the cost per journey is significantly higher than the traditional, timetabled bus routes we support”.
Montgomery County launches microtransit service with Moovit.
Black Wolf is a new US ride-hailing app - with armed drivers. Launched in Atlanta, within a week the app saw 80,000 downloads. For those of us who hadn’t had the chance to ride with a bullet-proof vest.
Sharing/renting 🚗🛴
Uber to launch P2P carsharing in North America, starting with Toronto and Boston. In January 2022 Uber acquired Australian ‘Car Next Door’ which since has operated under the ‘Uber Carshare’ brand. Bad news for Turo and Getaround.
astara acquires GoTo Global’s car share operation in Spain. In February 2022 the two companies signed a strategic investment, with astara investing $5M in a pre-IPO round. GoTo Global is now operational in Israel and Germany.
Free2move partnered with Syngelidis Automotive to enter Greece, focusing on car rentals.
Turo partners with Yoshi, a last-mile delivery platform for mobile car care, for nationwide virtual vehicle inspections. Hosts could use Yoshi’s services to save time and hassle.
Alaska seeks taxes from Turo. The state has a 10% vehicle rental tax, imposed on sales by brick-and-mortar rental car agencies since 2003, which Turo claims is inapplicable to its fleet. In 2018 the state sued Turo. What is most interesting in this story is how much time it takes for legislators to apply a relevant law. Spoiler: not yet.
Mobileeee wins electric car sharing contract in Germany, The three-years station-based contract in the rural area of Emsland will initially see 29 cars serving an area of 336,000 residents. Yaldi, 1st local Emirati ‘pay-per-minute’ car sharing, launched. Ithaca, a NY non-profit car share, stopped operations due to an insurance ‘market failure’. After operating for over 15 years, the company is now waiting for legislators to allow out-of-state insurance companies to insure non-profits.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
Today merges six micromobility brands to create a new global player, with a MaaS and a hardware arms. EFO ventures, a VC fund, invested £2.5 to merge the activities of Frog, Leap, Ottr, Element, MIXTE and White Fox and is now the owner of Today. The combined company operates in the US and Europe with a fleet of 8,000 vehicles, and is looking to raise an additional $4.5M to scale up operations. Very cool consolidation use case.
Micromobility.com and EVmo, vehicle rentals to gig economy drivers, signed a letter of intent to merge. Micromobility’s CEO said that “the merger will accelerate micromobility.com’s transition from a sharing business to a B2B enterprise that will offer long-term vehicle rentals and add a taxi hub platform”. Which makes very little sense to me as micromobility.com just rebranded to this name a couple of months ago, and has not so far been too much involved in B2B enterprise. To me it seems that Micromobility.com seized on an opportunity - as EVmo CEO said: “the proposed merger comes after EVmo received a notification of default from its lender that has constrained its operating liquidity.”
Zoomo, e-bike & moped subscription service, is adding e-cargo bikes to its portfolio through a partnership with Urban Arrow. Zeus launches a solar powered wireless e-scooter charging pilot project in Regensburg, Germany.
Voi e-scooter trial brought back to villages across Cambridge after rollout 'error'. Initially launched in November 2022, the local government mistakenly expanded the area served beyond its mandate. Now it's been sorted and Voi is back to the ‘error’ areas. Micromobility.com permit extended in Austin through December 2023. The company operates 1,750 vehicles under the Helbiz name.
In March a Bird operation was launched in Montgomery (Alabama, US). Now, after receiving complaints, Bird is implementing a 10pm curfew, restricting use to over 18 and implementing blocked and ‘slow’ areas. Bird tries to convince Petersburg (Virgina, US) to let it launch scooter services. A Bird and Neuron pilot project in Saskatoon (Canada) to a rocky start after geolocation errors. Jefferson City (Missouri, US) could end its contract with Bird, following residents’ complaints. Bird has been present in the city since June 2021.
Delivery 🍽🧺
Last week Flink announced a €150M raise and halting its talks with Getir and now the company is leaving France. In March the French government ruled ‘dark stores’ as warehouses rather than shops, bringing in heavier regulation and limiting potential activity. Getir’s operations in the country have also been halted, a move which might be rolled back now that Flink is exiting the country.
Curri, a last mile delivery platform for construction and industrial supplies, raised $42M. Funds will be used for product development, infrastructure and sales and marketing initiatives.
Shippr, Belgium same day delivery startup, enters the UK. The company works with B2B clients across a number of industries, offering a range of vehicles with over 100 delivery partners using the platform.
Bother, non-refrigerated next-day grocery delivery startup operating in the UK, has gone into liquidation. The company was founded in 2020 and raised $12M.
Grubhub and Amazon extend partnership by two years. The deal sees Prime members offered free Grubhub+ subscriptions.
Autonomous 🤖
Mercedes permitted to sell hands-off, eyes-off vehicles in California. The hands on/off, eyes on/off is a new taxonomy used by Mobileye, which is more intuitive to customers than the autonomous levels (this would be level 3) used so far. This ‘Drive Pilot’ feature will only operate at speeds up to 40 mph on “suitable freeway sections and where there is high traffic density”, in good weather conditions. Still this is one of the most advanced systems in the market.
TuSimple started testing its self-driving truck tech in Japan. The company is facing regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. over ties with China and is doubling down on its Asian business. Last year Japan approved Level 4 autonomous trucking with the aim of having commercial operations by 2026.
Yandex pilots autonomous vehicles in Moscow. The service runs in the Yasenevo District every day from 7am to 1am; safety driver included. New York trials autonomous platoons with Ohmio, a New Zealand-based autonomous mobility company. The test saw three shuttles travelling approximately 7 ft apart at 20mph without any physical connection.
On June 29th a Californian state-level hearing, concerning the 24/7 city-wide roll-out of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco, will take place. The state’s transportation arms are seemingly pro, with the city is firmly against the roll-out. SF’s transit chief believes the vehicles are creating chaos, such as delays to emergency response times and opening of doors to bike lanes, and that actually, human drivers are 6.3 safer than autonomous. Read the full interview.
Sofia – Thessaloniki highway to support autonomous vehicles by 2025. What does that mean? The Greek and Bulgarian governments are building a cross-border 5G corridor as part of a EU funded initiative.
Waymo ran over a dog. Not the system nor the safety driver were able to spot the dog in time.
Flying cars 🚁
OEMs 🛺⚡️
GM adopts Tesla’s EV charging standard! If that sounds familiar to you it's because just a couple of weeks ago the news was that Ford did the same, making thousands of Tesla Superchargers available to owners of GM electric vehicles. Why is this happening?
Tesla uses a different plug (NACS standard) than the rest of the industry (CCS). Its charging network is more relatable, better distributed and easier to use, creating a competitive advantage over the (CCS) network Ford and GM’s clients use. By partnering, Ford and GM allow their customers access to Tesla’s charging network, alleviating charging pain and removing a barrier of potential car purchases; Tesla gains revenues from its charging network on account of increased utilisation.
Arrival is in trouble and looking for another SPAC to access cash, meanwhile converting convertible notes into equity.
Gig economy 💰
Uber Australia is suggesting a ‘Proposition 22’ like offer to Australian regulators. It's called the ‘Flexibility Works campaign’ and suggests benefits such as minimum pay and compulsory personal accident insurance. The campaign comes as lawmakers is giving the federal ‘Fair Work Commission’ more power over gig workers’ rights.
In other news 📰
WeJo, connected-car data company, files for administration. Wejo reported a $159.3M loss for 2022. Similar to other companies in the field (Otonomo comes to mind), vehicle data has been found out to be… a dumpster fire.
The story of how Lyft started controlling its own maps. As many, Lyft used Google Maps, which limited its control over ride navigation and created clashes with its own pricing algorithm. In 2019, Lyft started building on OSM, which is used by drivers today.
Global positioning of car brands. Brands in each car group.
Longish read on why train rides feel more seamless and relaxing (than buses). From comfort in boarding through weather protection to not worrying about missing the bus and more.
Nostalgic throwback - the 150+ new transportation companies - from October 2019, ±4 years ago. So much has changed since then!
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