Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT 🚙🚐
Via takes over 10 CleverShuttle services. Remember that earlier this year, DB decided to pull the plug on CleverShuttle, which then tried to find an acquirer for its operations. Apparently it has not been able to. These services taken by Via represent 75% of CleverShuttle’s total services, meaning that 3-4 services are either yet to be sorted or have gone to other local players.
SWVL publishes its 2022 financial report. 2022 was a very turbulent year: SPACing to Nasdaq in March, full of acquisitions and closures, layoffs, and pulling away from international markets. The numbers: $51.5M revenue; gross profit $2.75M; operating loss $82.4M. More numbers here.
Grab Singapore to introduce dynamic commission rates for drivers, taking into account distance travelled and time taken to pick up passengers, replacing the fixed commission rate of 20.18% per trip. There is a driver shortage in Singapore; just last week Gojek lowered commissions from 15% to 10%. Also GoTo Gojek posts narrower nine-month net loss of $599M; plans on unbecoming EBITDA-positive in Q4. It is said that exiting Singapore might be a part of the road to profitability.
Kakao faces growing regulatory risks as political scrutiny rises. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol recently commented that “they attracted (drivers) and then raised prices, it's very immoral and the government should take action". Kakao holds over 90% of the market and back in February was fined ±$19M for favouring its franchise taxis over general cabs and is also now under the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) review, looking into the company’s financial statements to determine whether it overstated its revenue. To fend off criticism, Kakao announced last week that it plans to overhaul its commission system.
Revel pulling its shared electric mopeds out of NYC and SF permanently; will focus on EV charging and ride-hail. The decision follows end-of-service moves in Washington D.C. and Miami back in November 2022, and is attributed to low demand. Revel opens first EV fast-charging station in Queens.
In Berlin, taxis are fighting app-based services such as Uber, Bolt and freenow. App-based services are up to 40% lower than taxis, and taxis are calling the city to introduce minimum fares, i.e. regulate prices. A similar step was made in Leipzig two years ago, to “protect public transportation”. A similar move in Barcelona was overturned by the EU court, which could be the situation in Berlin, if the city opts to implement such a guidance.
Bolt renews licence in Kenya after suspending its 5% booking fee.
Freenow says Irish taxi drivers will be cut off for ‘consistently low’ fare acceptance rates. The company expects a minimum of 10% acceptance rate.
Arriva Group’s MaaS app, glimble, developed in partnership with Moovit, to launch in Italy. Solent’s MaaS app passes 10,000 users. Spare is celebrating 8 years. The council of Rotherham, UK, implements new rules to tackle out-of-town cab drivers, Yango launches its own Maps in Dubai. Wiltshire adds more buses to ioki’s powered Connect DRT service. Massachusetts and QRyde removing barriers to employment using subsidised $2 commute scheme
Sharing/renting 🚗🛴
OX Drive, car-sharing platform for Tesla cars in Latvia, attracts €2.8M in financing to expand its fleet by 80 cars to a fleet of 200 shared electric cars.
Communauto, Canada, racing to switch its car to winter tires.
Micromobility 🚲🛴
A map of the world's bikeshare services.
More bikes, less speed, more money, same map. Analysis of Lyft’s electric Citi Bikes scheme in New York.
Micromobility tenders are broken in three ways: requirements for KPIs, integrating cutting-edge tech, and revenue share requirements.
Beam to deploy e-scooters, e-bikes and seated e-scooters in Darwin, Australia. The company will also introduce two new systems: its artificial intelligence-powered Pedestrian Shield technology, which can identify whether the vehicle is travelling on footpaths, streets or bike lanes and restrict and/or educate riders; and Rider Check, its drink riding deterrence technology.
Dott research on the reasons riders take e-scooters on pavements: findings reveal that e-scooters were only on the pavement for 7% of the time and, in 71% of those occurrences, the scooters were there because of the road and infrastructure conditions. Dott and See.Sense, rider behaviour analytics company, partner on road safety initiative for e-scooter users in Madrid.
Lime celebrating the global launch of its new vehicle offering – the Gen4 seated scooter. Research shows that seated e-scooters appeal more to older riders, women and riders with limited mobility. Some other advantages are allowing more comfort for longer distances and durations and allowing more storage space.
In Paris, bike usage jump as scooters are taken off road. In the UK, E-scooters are - still - stuck in legislation limbo.
Bird pulled the pin on a 12-month trial, just eleven days out from its starting date.
Delivery 🍽🧺
DoorDash launches three new in-app safety tools for its delivery people: introducing driving insights; expanding its Apple CarPlay integration to more states; and adding speed limit notifications to its in-app navigation interface.
DoorDash added a pop-up in its app this week warning customers that orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered. While the text notification itself is in test, in reality already today ‘Dashers’ prioritise more profitable work, i.e. higher-tipped work.
DoorDash Q3/23 results exceed analysts' expectations, with shares going up by ±15%. Customers placed 543M orders, up 27% YoY; gross order value up 24%; revenue up 27% to $2.16bn; net loss minus $753.
Amazon drone delivery coming to the UKin 2024. Cleveland Clinic, one of US’ top ranked medical centres, partners with drone startup Zipline to handle the aerial delivery of medication. To be operational in 2025.
UPS rolls out “Hyperlocal” delivery - a next-day service.
Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡
List of autonomous vehicles on California’s roads. There are 40 companies authorised for testing with a safety driver.
Los Angeles demands robotaxi rulemaking powers - wants the city, not a state agency, to regulate commercial AVs operations. San Francisco officials try to block robotaxis from expanding into deliveries.
Cruise hired an outside law firm and technology consultants to review responses to regulators investigating the Oct. 2 accident. Glimpse into the future: consultants recommend changes -> Cruise adopts -> uses to regain licence in California -> resumes expansion across the US but limits activity in SF.
A map showing Cruise’s accident locations. Looking into Cruise’s accident reporting - we could use more transparency, A New York Times on Cruise’s operations and corporate culture of expanding at any cost.
Aurora opens its first commercial lane for driverless trucks, connecting Dallas and Houston. Service will go into operation in 2024.
Japan's first fully autonomous vehicle suspended, after an accident involving a parked bicycle.
Tesla wins first U.S. Autopilot trial involving fatal crash.
Flying cars 🚁
Lilium appoints ArcosJet, Dubai-based business aircraft brokerage, as its exclusive dealer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Israel, and the Republic of Cyprus. This is Liliums 5th dealership agreement and 1st in the Middle East.
EHang inaugurates European Urban Air Mobility Center for unmanned eVTOLs, near Barcelona, Spain.
OEMs 🚙⚡️
There is something stuck with EVs. Sales are up, but early adopters are done and now the industry meets newer challenges associated with mass adoption: EVs are getting harder to sell, and car-makers are hesitant on investments. Toyota’s chairman is pleased people are realising that. Hertz finds that EV maintenance costs are higher than anticipated and suffers as its Tesla fleet is devalued. A Verge good read on the challenges the EV industry poses.
A Chartr long road + charts on Tesla. In the graphs: prices, stock volume, operating profit and EV market share.
Cariad, VW’s software unit, is delaying projects and laying off 2,000 people. The vehicle operating software that was initially supposed to come out in 2022, now got delayed (again) to 2025. The winner is Google, who will see Porsche and Audi turn to it.
Subaru follows Toyota in adopting Tesla’s charging standard.
TechCrunch on Arrival’s fall from $13 billion to $20 million market cap.
Gig economy 💰
Uber (290M) & Lyft (38M) to pay $328M to settle allegations that they unlawfully withheld wages from drivers and failed to provide mandatory paid sick leave in New York state. The companies also agreed to ongoing changes in how they pay drivers and offer benefits in the state.
A report in India evaluating 12 “gig” platforms found Ola and Porter to be the worst, scoring 0 out of 10. Big Basket reached 1st place, with 6/10 points. “No platform… provided sufficient evidence that workers earn at least the local living wage after work-related costs".
Gig drivers in South Africa clash over Bolt’s low-priced Indian cars. Bolt’s Lite tier scheme in Johannesburg allows drivers to rent a Bajaj Qute — a tiny car manufactured by Indian two-wheeler Bajaj Auto — and gain access to Bolt Lite rides, which costs riders to 18% less than the other tiers. This angers ‘traditional’ gig-drivers.
The downsides for drivers when Uber and taxis join forces.
In other news 📰
Grab’s co-founder wife sympathises with Israel, which gets people in Malaysia upset and boycotting the company, so Grab had to issue a clarification to calm things down.
Europe wants to encourage night-trains but train operators aren’t buying the carriages.
Booking.com 2024 travel predictions.
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