Welcome to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechSwitch. I cowl all of the methods folks and items transfer from Point A to Point B — as we speak and sooner or later — whether or not it’s by bike, bus, scooter, automotive, practice, truck, robotaxi or rocket. Sure, let’s embody hyperloop and eVTOLs, or air taxis, too.
Yup, one other transportation e-newsletter. But I promise this one will likely be completely different. Here’s how.
Newsletters could be nice mediums for curated information — a spot that rounds up all of the necessary articles a reader may need missed in any given week. We wish to do a bit extra.
We’re doubling down on the evaluation and including a heaping scoop of authentic reporting and effectively, scoops. You can count on Q&As with probably the most attention-grabbing folks in transportation, insider ideas and knowledge from that white paper you didn’t have time to learn. This isn’t a lone effort both. TechSwitch senior reporter Megan Rose Dickey, who has been writing about micromobility since earlier than the scooter growth occasions of 2017, will likely be weighing in every week in our “Tiny but mighty mobility” part beneath. Follow her @meganrosedickey.
Consider this a tender launch. There may be content material you want or one thing you hate. Feel free to attain out to me at [email protected] to share these ideas, opinions or ideas.
Eventually, we’ll have a means for readers to enroll and have Transportation Weekly delivered every week by way of electronic mail. For now, comply with me on Twitter @kirstenkorosec to make sure you see it every week.
Now, let’s get to the great things.
ONM …
There are OEMs within the automotive world. And right here, (watch for it) there are ONMs — authentic information producers.
This is the place investigative reporting, enterprise items and evaluation on transportation will dwell.
We promised scoops in Transportation Weekly and right here is one. If you don’t know journalist Mark Harris, it’s best to. He’s an intrepid gumshoeing reporter whom TechSwitch has been fortunate sufficient to rent as a freelancer. Follow him @meharris.
Amazon quietly acquired robotics firm Dispatch to construct Scout
Remember means again in January when Amazon launched Scout, their autonomous supply bot? There was hypothesis on the time that Amazon had purchased the Estonian-based firm Starship Technologies. Harris did some investigating and found a few of the mental property and know-how behind Scout possible got here from a small San Francisco startup known as Dispatch that Amazon stealthily acquired in 2017.
It’s time to cease desirous about Amazon as simply an e-commerce firm. It’s a huge logistics firm, in all probability the largest on the planet, with a eager curiosity — and the money to pursue these pursuits — in automation. Think past Scout. In reality, wander on down this put up to the deal of the week.
Dig In
Each week, transportation weekly will spend somewhat further time on an method, coverage, tech or the folks behind it in our “Dig In” part. We’ll run the occasional column right here, too.
This week includes a dialog with Dmitri Dolgov, the CTO and VP of engineering at Waymo, the previous Google self-driving venture that spun out to turn out to be a enterprise beneath Alphabet.
Ten years in the past, proper round now, a few dozen engineers began engaged on Project Chauffeur, which might flip into the Google self-driving venture and ultimately turn out to be an official firm known as Waymo. Along the way in which, the venture would give rise to a lot of high-profile engineers who would go on to create their very own corporations. It’s a listing that features Aurora co-founder Chris Urmson, Argo AI co-founder Bryan Salesky and Anthony Levandowski, who helped launch Otto and extra not too long ago Pronto.ai.
What may be much less identified is that lots of these within the authentic dozen are nonetheless at Waymo, together with Dolgov, Andrew Chatham, Dirk Haehnel, Nathaniel Fairfield and Mike Montemerlo.
Dolgov and I talked concerning the early days, challenges and what’s subsequent. A few issues stood out throughout our chat…
There is a large distinction between having a prototype that may do one thing a few times or 4 occasions versus constructing a product that individuals can begin utilizing of their day by day lives. And it’s, particularly on this subject, very simple to make progress on these sorts of one-off challenges.
Dolgov’s tackle how engineers seen the potential of the venture 10 years in the past …
I additionally use our vehicles each day to get round, that is how I set to work as we speak. This is how I run errands round right here in Mountain View and Palo Alto.
Somewhat chook …
We hear so much. But we’re not egocentric. Let’s share.An early investor, or buyers, in Bird look like promoting a few of their shares within the scooter firm, per a tip backed up by knowledge over at secondary buying and selling platform EquityZen. That’s not loopy contemplating the corporate is valued at $2 billion-ish. Seed buyers ought to take some cash off the desk as soon as an organization reaches that valuation.
We’ve heard that David Sacks at Craft Ventures hasn’t offered a single Bird share. We hear Tusk Ventures hasn’t offered, both. That leaves a number of others, together with Goldcrest Capital, which was the lone seed investor, after which Series A contributors Lead Edge Capital, M13, and Valor Equity Partners.
Got a tip or overheard one thing on the planet of transportation? Email me or ship a direct message to @kirstenkorosec.
While you’re over at Twitter, take a look at this cheeky account @SDElevator. We can’t assure how a lot of the content material is definitely “overheard” and the way a lot is manufactured for the laughs, however it’s a enjoyable account to peruse occasionally.
Another new entrant to the mobility parody style is @HeardinMobilty.
Deal of the week
There’s a lot to select from this week, however Aurora’s greater than $530 million Series B funding spherical introduced Thursday morning is the winner.
The upshot? It’s not simply that Aurora is now valued at greater than $2.5 billion. The major buyers within the spherical — Sequoia as lead and “significant” investments from Amazon and T. Rowe Price — suggests Aurora’s full self-driving stack is headed for different makes use of past shuttling folks round in autonomous autos. Perhaps supply is subsequent.
And imagine it or not, the kind of investor on this spherical tells me that we are able to count on one other capital increase. Yes, Aurora has plenty of runway now in addition to three publicly named clients. But buyers like Sequoia, which led the spherical and whose companion Carl Eschenbach is becoming a member of Aurora’s board, T. Rowe Price and Amazon, together with repeaters like Index Ventures (common companion Mike Volpi can be on the board) have persistence, entry to money and long-term strategic pondering. Expect extra from them.
Other offers that received our consideration this week:
Snapshot
Speaking of offers and Tesla … the automaker’s $218 million acquisition this month of Maxwell Technologies received me desirous about corporations it has focused previously.
So, we went forward and constructed a useful chart to supply a snapshot view of a few of Tesla’s noteworthy acquisitions.
One word: Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2018 that the corporate had acquired trucking service corporations to assist enhance its supply logistics. We’ve dug in and have but to land on the corporate, or corporations, Tesla acquired.
The offers that received away are simply as attention-grabbing. That record features a reported $325 million provide to purchase Simbol Materials, the startup that was extracting small quantities of lithium close to the Salton Sea east of San Diego.
Tiny however mighty mobility
Between Lime’s $310 million Series D spherical and the seemingly endless battle to function electrical scooters in San Francisco, it’s clear that micromobility is just not so micro.
Lime, a shared electrical scooter and bike-share startup, has now raised north of $800 million in whole funding, surpassing key competitor Bird’s whole funding of $415 million. Thanks to this week’s spherical of funding, Lime’s micromobility enterprise is now value $2.4 billion.
Lime at present operates its bikes and scooters in additional than 100 cities worldwide. Over in San Francisco, nonetheless, Lime has but to deploy any of its modes of transportation. Since final March, there’s been an ongoing battle amongst scooter operators to deploy their companies within the metropolis. The metropolis in the end chosen Skip and Scoot for the pilot applications, leaving the likes of Lime, Uber’s JUMP and Spin to attraction the choice.
A impartial listening to officer has since decided SF’s course of for figuring out scooter operators was truthful, however the silver lining for the likes of JUMP, Spin and, most certainly, Lime, is that the town could open up its pilot program to permit extra operators starting in April.
Notable reads
Two current research received my consideration.
The first is from Bike Pittsburgh, an advocacy group and companion of Uber, that printed the findings from its newest AV survey primarily based on responses from native residents. The final time they performed an identical survey was in 2017.
The takeaway: folks there, who’re among the many most uncovered to autonomous autos as a consequence of all of the AV testing on public roads, are getting used to it. A bit greater than 48 p.c of respondents mentioned they approve of public AV testing in Pittsburgh, down barely from 49 p.c approval ranking in 2017.
21.21% considerably approve
11.62% impartial
10.73% considerably disapprove
8.73% disapprove
One standout consequence was surrounding responses concerning the deadly accident in Tempe, Ariz. involving a self-driving Uber that struck and killed pedestrian Elaine Herzberg in March 2018. Survey contributors had been requested “As a pedestrian or a bicyclist how did this event and it’s outcome change your opinion about sharing the road with AVs?”
Some 60 p.c of respondents claimed no change of their opinion, with one other 37 p.c claiming that it negatively modified their opinion. Nearly 3 p.c claimed their opinion modified positively towards the know-how.
Bike Pittsburgh famous that the survey elicited passionate open-ended responses.
“The incident did not turn too many people off of AV technology in general,” based on Bike Pittsburgh. “Rather it did lead to a growing distrust of the companies themselves, specifically with Uber and how they handled the fatality.”
The different research, “Securing the Modern Vehicle: A Study of Automotive Industry Cybersecurity Practices,” was launched by Synopsys, Inc. and SAE International.
The outcomes, primarily based on a survey of worldwide automotive producers and suppliers performed by Ponemon Institute, doesn’t assuage my issues. If something, it places me on alert.
84% of automotive professionals have issues that their organizations’ cybersecurity practices usually are not retaining tempo with evolving applied sciences
30% of organizations don’t have a longtime cybersecurity program or group
63% take a look at lower than half of the automotive know-how they develop for safety vulnerabilities
Testing and deployments
Pilots, pilots in every single place. A few attention-grabbing mobility pilots and deployments stand out.
Optimus Ride, the Boston-based MIT spin-off, has made a cope with Brookfield Properties to supply rides in its small self-driving autos at Halley Rise — a brand new $1.4 billion mixed-use growth in Virginia.
This is an instance of the place we see self-driving autos headed — for now. Small deployments which can be narrowly targeted in geography with a predictable buyer base are the rising development of 2019. Expect extra of them.
And there’s a purpose why these are the sorts of pilots that can ship the info wanted to enhance their know-how, in addition to take a look at out enterprise fashions — gotta work out methods to become profitable with AVs ultimately — hone in fleet operational effectivity, placate current buyers whereas attracting new ones and recruit expertise.
Another deployment within the extra standard ride-hailing facet of mobility is with Beat, the startup that has targeted its efforts on Latin America.
Beat was based by Nikos Drandakis in 2011 initially as Taxibeat. The startup was acquired by Daimler’s mytaxi in February 2017 and Drandakis nonetheless runs the present. The firm was targeted on Europe however shifted to Latin America, and it has made all of the distinction. (Beat continues to be out there in Athens, Greece.) Beat has launched in Lima, Peru, Santiago, Chile and Bogota, Colombia and now boasts 200,000 registered drivers.
Now it’s shifting into Mexico, the place extra rivals exist. The firm simply began registering and screening drivers in Mexico City because it prepares to supply rides for passengers this month.
TechSwitch spoke at size with Drandakis. Look out for a deeper dive quickly.
Until subsequent week, nos vemos.