Trucks | FoT: Autonomy, Honking Waymos, Maritime Fusion

Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2025.12.01
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Big brain: If cars become more like phones, old cars will become more like old phones (link). A new era in planned obsolescence is a pile of yesterday’s electronics. Chris Anderson said the peace dividends of the smart phone wars were inexpensive chips and silicon, but the new abundance burden is a 4-year old car that feels out of date.

Santa Monica orders Waymo to stop noisy overnight operations (link). I don't fully understand why these vehicles would be so loud, but it could be related to safety procedures within the depot. From Alex Roy: 'The backup honk in depot was standard operating procedure at Argo as well, as a safety measure to protect against workers being run over inside the depot.'

From solar flare to software glitch: Airbus's mega A320 recall (link). 'The issue was traced to the ELAC (Elevator and Aileron Computer). That issue appears to have been a bit flip due to solar radiation. In other words a particle from space whacked into a chip in the computer and changed the state of at least one bit in memory, causing the uncommanded maneuver. Not only was I disappointed to see that there appears to be a single computer authorized to command the elevators (when traditionally triple-voting in aviation has been there to protect against such single points of failure), but bit flips due to cosmic rays or solar radiation have been a well understood problem for decades.' Via Ramsey Faragher, head of the Royal Institute of Navigation (link).

When ambulances are too slow: drones delivering defibrillators in North Carolina trial (link). Via Julie T.

After a highway exit ramp redesign, his house was hit 23 times (link). Via Rudi.

New crash-test dummy finally addresses women’s car safety gaps (link). 'Modern crash testing is still performed using the Hybrid III dummy that was developed in the late '70s and is based on a 5-foot-9, 171-pound man. As a result, either directly or indirectly, women are 73% more likely to be injured and 17% more likely to be killed than men in a collision.'

Viewing Xpeng as a Chinese understudy to Tesla (link).

How AV has potential impacts on childcare logistics (link).

Ireland's naval defense weakness; a bystander in its own maritime security (link). 'Today, about 3/4 of all of the undersea cables in the northern hemisphere pass through the country’s vast marine territory, which adds up to more than 10 times its land mass...Ireland did not have a navy until 1946, had run out of ships by 1969 and is now so under-resourced that only 4 of its 8 vessels are in service.'

Video: China's robotic traffic cones (link). Video: Antic is the One Wheel-based e-minibike (link).

The world’s largest seaplane operator? Located in the Maldives (link). Via CJN.

M&A / Deals / Changes:

SF fusion startup Martime Fusion raises $4.5M (link). Led by Trucks.

EV subscription startup Autonomy raises $25M (link). Led by Finacity Corporation through SR Alternative Credit.

Automated construction vehicle startup Gravure raises $23M (link). Led by IQ Capital and Zacua Ventures.

Chinese ADAS startup (and DJI spinout) JWT raises $500M (link). Led by FAW.

Kenyan e-bus startup BasiGo raises strategic round from French development finance institution Proparco (link).

EV boating startup Flux Marine raises $15M (link). Led by Collide Capital.

Indian 3-wheeler EV startup 3ev raises $13.5M (link). Led by Mahanagar.

Uber and WeRide partner on fully driverless AV fleets in UAE (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Ambarella: Leslie Kohn resigns from board and as Chief Technology Officer (link).

General Motors: Rashed Haq joins as VP of Autonomy (link).

Curated Jobs:

Senior Product Designer (Contract-to-Hire) at Quarter20 in New York City Area or San Francisco, California Hybrid (link).

Systems Installation Designer at JetZero in Greensboro, NC, USA (link).

Hiring? Post a job (link). If you're a startup, use code 'Trucks' for free standard listings.

Hunting? View all 382 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

Veecle debuts its development studio: 'Studio is the first cloud-based IDE for distributed embedded systems' (link). Sign up here (link).

Once an ebike leader, Rad Power teeters on shutting down and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issues stop use action due to fire risk (link, link to CPSC).

Demand for other OEMs licensing Tesla's FSD system appears to be low (link).

Airloom is a fun 3D visualization of airport traffic (link). Via Seiji N.

Chinese AV startup Pony says it will triple its global fleet by end of 2026 (link). 'The Guangzhou-based firm currently operates about 961 robotaxis and aims to surpass 3,000 vehicles by the end of 2026.'

Later this week, China's Li Auto will roll out smart glasses matched with its ADAS system (link).

US Senate to re-evaluate costs of auto safety in January (link).

Tesla's new robotaxi goal moves to 60 units, from 500, in Austin (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application shows roof-mounted airbags for community seating (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Europe's new vehicle registrations rise 4.9% in October, the region's fourth straight month of increases (link). Via Bloomberg / European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. 'European sales of electrified vehicles jumped in October, driven by a 40% increase from plug-in hybrids. Registrations of fully electric cars were up by almost a third.'

The employment-weighted share of Americans using AI at work has fallen by a percentage point over 2025, and now sits at 11% (link). Via Economist / Census Bureau.

Thank you:

Thank you to Nick Gershenhorn (link), Jamie Gull (link), Julie Lein (link) and Robin Nguyen (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

BasiGo (link), JetZero (link), Maritime Fusion (link), Quarter20 (link), Veecle (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

Rebuilding every 20 years renders sanctuaries eternal (Edahiro),

Reilly Brennan