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Future of Transportation for 2015.07.26
Notable:
Researchers found wide-open communication vulnerabilities in vehicles released by Fiat Chrysler, which ultimately led to a Wired article about how your car could be taken over remotely (link), then the full recall of 1.4M cars. We should be thankful that this work was done by researchers with a decent ethical caliber; after all they have been sitting on this info since they told the company about the vulnerability in 2014. Along those lines, the manufacturer should be magnanimous and credit them publicly, which they haven't (link). The manufacturer with the best relationship with these researchers will be able to act faster.
How will the U.S. pay for roads in the future? (link) by Danny Vinik of Politico. Some insight into a mileage fee vs 'gas' tax fee of current structure.
Doubts over the value of mega ships (link, link to PDF report). Too big, increase on-land costs, less flexibility in the supply chain, questionable ability to fulfill capacity...'While a doubling of container ship size reduces costs by a third (vessel costs per TEU), making sea transport cheaper, the savings decrease with increased size.'
Sidecar pivots to a parcel-first model, away from moving passengers (link). To make sense of it, I thought this commentary from Harry Campbell was pretty insightful (link).
What should autonomous cars look like? (link). References David Levinson's new article that we'll see a 'Cambrian explosion' of vehicle forms for specific tasks (link to PDF).
A look at TomTom's decline (link). Candid interview with Corinne Vigreux, one of the founders. Overall it describes a rough ride downhill from the people who 'invented the satnav category.' Her take on their fall: 'The economic crisis in 2008 – plus smartphones became popular, and Google began offering navigation for free on phones.'
'Legislators should require all self-driving cars to have V2V before they can be used on public roads' (link). An idea that will likely be moot given the confluence of a number of trends, but this appears to be a bit disproportionate. The author demands this from self-driving cars, but not all cars? This is akin to the rigorous naturalization citizenship tests for foreign-born nationals.
TrueCar stock took a big plunge this week after the company said it will miss its numbers; Todd Marcelle of GoMoto has some perspective on why in this piece (link). As it turns out, finding stand-alone (non-affinity group) leads is difficult, always has been and always will be.
Uber v NYC wasn't quite the showdown we expected, although there were a number of turns that surprised me. Ultimately, NYC Mayor de Blasio caved and agreed to a four-month study, eliminating the cap on Uber's growth in the city that had been proposed (link). Harry Siegel delivers the heart of the matter here: 'De Blasio wanted to be the national progressive model for how government can stand up to these companies on behalf of workers. Instead, his political scalp is being waved as a warning to other mayors, and to Clinton, to tread softly.' Paul Krugman's piece in yesterday's Times is a good coda to this, pointing to Uber's ability to draw party lines (link).
Bikers in Paris can run (some) red lights now (link).
Deals:
Russian retailing startup CarPrice RU raises $40M (link). Led by Baring Vostok Private Equity Fund V.
Homer Logistics raises a $2M note (link). Focuses on B2B logistics, appears to be focused on food for the moment. Investors include Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Haystack, Rakesh Agrawal.
Finnish indoor location startup Indoor Atlas raises $3M, from what appears to be SK Planet of S Korea (link). Had taken a $10M check from Baidu some time back. Indoor Atlas has been one of my favorite next-generation location companies to watch.
Wrightspeed raises $5M of a supposed $15M round to undisclosed investors (link). Founder Ian Wright who was a Tesla co-founder. The company converts trucks to turbine electrics.
Uber's partnership with Satander for driver vehicle loans is over (link).
On-demand bicycle repair startup Beeline Bikes raises $2.6M (link). Led by Backcountry.
Bosch partners with TomTom for mapping project (link). Specific to autonomy, appears to be a way for TomTom to access more of Bosch's hardware capabilities for their work.
Uber and Xiaomi partner on product exclusives (link). Uber users can purchase the new Xiaomi phone directly through the Uber app, which is delivered to them via an Uber vehicle.
New stuff:
German OEMs, including Daimler, BMW and Audi, will purchase the HERE assets from Nokia for a reported $2.7-3.3B (link). Expected to be announced this week.
University of Michigan launched its new Mcity this week, a playground for autonomous cars (link). 32 acres of various road forms and situations. One of the real values to this will be the all-weather testing.
Car2Go adding bike racks to some of its vehicles in Portland (link) via this Q&A with the company's NA president. Interesting discussion about the ability to do this in a place like Portland vs DC, the latter having far less room to add a two-foot bike rack extension.
Indian TNC Ola moves into grocery delivery (link).
Manufacturer-created tablets featuring in backseats of premium cars (link). Android-based. I can't imagine I'm the only one who sees the folly in this.
I enjoyed seeing the new fob design of the Volvo XC90 (link). Note the new Volvo platform also allows phone-based entry to the car.
SF-based scooter network Scoot Network will soon roll out Renault Twizys, aka four-wheeled electrics (link). Part of Scoot's growth model to unveil more electric vehicle types.
Automotive VC fund Fraser McCombs Capital is launching a startup-focused conference called AutoVentures in October adjacent to JD Power conference (link). Oct 18 at Bellagio.
Statistics:
The number of vehicle models available in the U.S. market increased by 33 (12 percent) from 2005 to 2012 (link)
See you next week,
@reillybrennan
Future of Transportation (weekly)
by Reilly Brennan
1 San Francisco San Francisco, CA 94116 USA
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