Trucks | FoT: AMP, Treads, investor survey

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

I have a favor to ask: if you are actively investing in auto & transportation startups, please fill out our 2023 global investor sentiment survey here (link). The survey takes less than 2 minutes to complete. Respondents will receive full results of the survey.

Notable:

Cities look to take their own controls over AVs: Los Angeles looks for city-level approvals (link); San Francisco lawmakers look to regulate AV fleet charging (link). Hardware is federal, operations is local.

Behind the scenes at the UAW negotiations, three young activists with the biggest impact: Chris Brooks, Jonah Furman, Ben Dictor (link). 'Furman, who had worked for Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and was the lead singer and bassist in a Boston indie-rock band named Krill, spearheaded the union’s bare-knuckle social-media strategy, where it updated members on negotiations and frequently posted videos taunting company executives about their pay.'

Chinese LiDAR firm Hesai becomes a geopolitical target (link). 'Some in Washington are worried Hesai’s dominance in the technology threatens national security, arguing that China could use it to collect data or launch a cyberattack and that U.S. investors are funding the company’s development.'

Unpacking EV startup Arrival's fall (link).

As 'the hard limit on chip performance is its maximum temperature,' semis look to exotic materials like synthetic diamonds (link).

Audi aims for more software-triggered on-demand features (link). A friend who works at product planning at an OEM told me his executives have 'subscription fiction' in believing consumers want everyone as a pay-per-month software features.

Firms explore sodium batteries as an alternative to lithium (link). Via Weans. It seems like we are headed toward a three-part battery world in the coming decade, akin to premium/midgrade/regular gas pumps. At the high end remains NMC (premium), which is increasingly getting eaten up by LFP (midgrade), with sodium ion coming up as the low-cost option (regular).

In this piece on Cruise's AV network, NYT reporters note that the company's remote assistance team 'intervened to assist the company’s vehicles every 2.5 to 5 miles' (link). The company CEO Kyle Vogt responded here (link): 'The stat quoted by nyt is how frequently the AVs initiate an RA (remote assistance) session. Of those, many are resolved by the AV itself before the human even looks at things, since we often have the AV initiate proactively and before it is certain it will need help. Many sessions are quick confirmation requests (it is ok to proceed?) that are resolved in seconds. There are some that take longer and involve guiding the AV through tricky situations. Again, in aggregate this is 2-4% of time in driverless mode.'

At $139M per mile, Montreal's new REM transit system is among the world's least expensive (link). 'According to data from the Transit Costs Project at New York University’s Marron Institute, the costs of other North American transit projects are literally multiples of that...In the San Francisco Bay Area, a BART extension to Silicon Valley has faced controversy for its cost of $2.03B per mile, and is expected to serve fewer than half as many riders as are served today by the REM’s first phase alone.'

Deep dive look at Akio Toyoda's legacy (link).

Hydrogen combustion gaining interest for decarbonization (link). What if heavy trucks and SUVs are better positioned with hydrogen than BEVs?

Uber Freight CEO: 'Shipping recession is at a new tipping point' (link).

Video: first-person RC plane POV (link). Via Diego. Video: German forklift driving championship (link). Video: bike race mechanic performs service on the go, hanging out car (link). Video: robot towing vehicle (link). Video: 'Car-opractor' (link). Video: artificial engine sound for EVs (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

EV power management company Automotive Power (AMP) acquired by Ford Motor Company (link).

Ford closes its Viizr app, 'a software-as-a-service company that along with Salesforce built an app to help tradespeople like plumbers, locksmiths and electricians' (link).

Kapsch shuts down its Uproad digital tolling app (link). Via ZT.

Utah vehicle maintenance startup Treads raises $4.6M (link). Led by Mucker Capital.

Toyota and SMFG to launch Japan-focused hydrogen investment fund (link).

Uber, Lyft agree to pay $328 million for cheating drivers out of earnings in NY (link).

Valeo and Qualcomm partner for small mobility devices in India (link).

New Stuff:

StarNav shows 1-cm positioning and timing using Xona Pulsar signals (link).

Researchers investigate the difference in accident occurrence between AV levels and human-driven vehicles by utilizing 2,100 AV (ADS and ADAS) and 35,113 HDV accident data (link). Via Phil K. Some insights from Phil's post: AVs 5.2 times more likely to have a crash at dawn/dusk compared to HDV; AV is a factor of 3 better than HDV at mitigating run-off-road harm.

Porsche adds Google to its cars while VW's software problems worsen (link).

Chinese OEM Nio targets US sales by 2025 (link).

Michigan battery startup Our Next Energy begins cell production (link).

Revel ends moped sharing to focus on EV charging and ridehailing (link).

Yeti is mapping trails on Google Street View (link).

Ford will add more Tesla chargers to its network (link). 'Ford will now add over 15,000 of Tesla's Superchargers to its network, up from its earlier projection of 12,000 chargers.'

Waymo to retire Chrysler hybrid vans in favor of all EV robotaxis, including ZEEKR vans (link).

Suzuki's prototype design for a scooter for the elderly (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application for guiding an autonomous vehicle by a 'towing taxi' (link).

GM's patent application shows motorsport prediction and analytics system (link).

Featured Jobs:

Field Service Coordinator / Dispatcher at ChargerHelp in Los Angeles, CA USA (link).

Senior Accountant at Nauto in Sunnyvale, CA USA (link).

MobilityJobs is the No.1 job board for auto & transportation companies (link). New: any startup can now post standard jobs for free. Just use the code 'Trucks' at checkout.

Statistics / Projections:

US auto inventory has sharply accelerated in the past month: from 2 million units as of Sept 11, to nearly 2.5 million units for the week ending Oct. 15, more than a 10% increase in a one-month span, and 64% higher than this period last year (link). Via S&P Global.

DoorDash's Q3 2023 delivery orders were its highest yet: 543M individual orders, with total marketplace gross order value at $16.8 billion, also up 24% (link). Via Yahoo Finance.

29% of Americans are behind on oil changes and 44% haven't had their tires rotated as required (link). Via Carfax.

Riders took 130 million total trips on shared bikes and e-scooters in the U.S. and Canada in 2022 (link). Via NACTO. 'Shared micromobility trips are up by 40% since 2018, and have increased 35-fold from 2010.'

Narrowing road lanes are safer at certain speeds (link to PDF). Via JHU. 'Roads with 10–12-foot lanes at 30-35 mph speed limits have a significantly higher number of crashes compared to those with 9-foot lanes. Narrowing lane widths at these speeds provides city leaders with an opportunity to improve safety for all roadway users.'

Americans are walking 36% less since COVID (link).

Thank you:

Thank you to Andrew Cornelia (link), Sean Friday (link), Erik Grossman (link), Conrad Metz (link), Matt Mulrennan (link), Eric Rosenblum (link) and Damien Scott (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

ChargerHelp (link), Nauto (link), Xona Space Systems (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan