Trucks | FoT: Buffalo, Cruise/Uber, Auriga

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

EVs are losing a sizable chunk of their value in the first year, but mileage isn't as impactful as it is with ICE cars (link). 'If the long-range Polestar 2 mentioned above had covered 20,000 miles in its first year instead of 10,000—well above the annual UK average of just 7,000—its estimated trade-in value falls by only an extra £975, or a further 2% of its original price.'

Engines with the greatest impact, 1924 to 2024 (link). What's interesting about this list is how you can feel macro trends brought to bear around (or sometimes because of) these innovations.

Waymo reportedly planning subscription model aimed at teen riders (link). 'The San Francisco Standard reports that Waymo, the Alphabet subsidiary, is considering a subscription program that would let teens hail one of its cars solo and send pickup and drop-off alerts to their parents. In a survey, Waymo referred to the program as Waymo Teen and floated prices ranging from $150 to $250 per month for up to 16 rides.'

Home dashboard prototype shows car charge levels (link). I was talking with a friend from a carmaker today and remarked that a company like Xiaomi is probably going to get to something into the home like this first, what with all the other home electronics they do. His response: 'Full lifestyle stack. User at the center not the product at the center. Apple would’ve done it.'

Sensor and cost reduction outlined in Waymo's new Zeekr AV vehicle (link). The biggest reduction in terms of units appears to come from the camera suite, dropping from 29 to 16 if these numbers are accurate (6 radar and 5 lidar remain the same as the 5th-generation Waymo Jaguar iPace, so I assume they have figured out a way to take cost out there through design and manufacturing). See previous Jaguar iPace Waymo sensor outline from Tangram (link).

China's new cash-for-clunkers goal: 10M EV sales in one year (link). 'Under the increased incentives, consumers can receive 20,000 yuan ($2,760) to scrap an old, higher-emissions car and replace it with an EV, or 15,000 yuan toward trade-ins for a more fuel-efficient gasoline car. Many cities followed suit, offering additional incentives ranging from around $140 to $1,400 per vehicle.'

Keeping calm in an AV: outlining how HMIs can impact the 9 areas of user interaction clusters in a vehicle (link). Table on P4 outlines various goals and approaches.

The hardest sell in the US auto business is convincing consumers to buy smaller (link). 'By one measure, cars in the U.S. are 20% heavier than those in Europe.'

Video: How the incredibly durable, $165 ‘Buffalo Bicycle’ is changing the world (link). Video: new gimbal'd F1 onboard videos highlight track topography (link). Via Diego. Video: tele-operated POV R/C car setup (link). Video: Takahiro Yagi's white 964 RS stars in this Type7 film (link). Video: McPherson College's path from garage to Pebble Beach Concours (link). Video: these unlicensed 1/43 scale R/C drift cars are $40 of fun (link). Video: Behind Jeremy Wray's infamous water tower ollie gap (link).

Hitting the road in LL Bean's giant boot truck (link). 'At 13 feet high and 20 feet long, the Bootmobile, were it a real shoe instead of a billboard on wheels, would be a size 708.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

AV middle mile startup Gatik raises strategic investment from Nippon Express (link).

Aerospace startup Auriga Space awarded $1.25M by US Department of the Air Force (link).

Indian AV startup Rosh AI raises $1M (link). Led by EV2 and Caret.

South Korean battery fire extinguisher startup Lee Mobility raises undisclosed seed round (link). Led by Bluepoint Partners.

Simulation startup Beyond Math raises $8.5M (link). Led by Up Partners.

Uber will add Cruise AVs to its network in 2025 (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Progressive: Danelle Barrett resigns from board (link).

Plug Power: Colin Angle joins board (link).

GM cuts more than 1000 software engineers (link). GM's previous decision to build out its own software experience in collaboration with Android Automotive, eventually curtailing phone projection modes like CarPlay and Android Auto, is on the ropes.

Featured Jobs:

Senior Backend Engineer / Technical Lead at Wise Systems in Montréal, Quebec, Canada (link).

Senior II Data Engineer | Platform Software at Zitara, remote (link).

MobilityJobs is the No.1 job board for auto & transportation companies (link). If you are a startup you can use the job board for free standard listings — just enter 'Trucks' at checkout.

New Stuff:

Researchers look to remote vehicle LLMs to improve main vehicle field of view (link).

Ethical alignment for AVs in traffic can be learned (link). 'In our hardware-in-the-loop tests, it is observed that the average percentage of ethical bias weights decreases by 45.06% after 150 episodes of training.'

Chick-fil-A opens new 4-lane drive thru, handling 3x the traffic (link).

Indian microcar EV Wings prepares for 2025 launch (link). 'India sells more than 18 million two wheelers a year...In the next 15 to 20 years, a large chunk of two wheeler buyers may move to two-seater micro cars.'

Statistics / Projections:

Charging an EV costs less than fueling a typical internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle with gasoline in every U.S. state (link). Via Stable Auto.

This year through April, US public EV chargers were more than 50% full just 4% of the time (link). Via Bloomberg / Stable Auto.

Waymo now at 100k paid rides per week in only three markets: LA, SF and Phoenix (link). Via Techcrunch. Slowly, then suddenly...

Unpacking Tesla vs non-Tesla BEVs in recent JD Power APEAL study rankings (link). Via Glenn Mercer.

The number of plug-in-hybrid models on sale in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 2019, to 47 (link). Via WSJ / Edmunds.

The average daily income for ride-hailing drivers in Guangzhou China was about 312 yuan ($43.67) as of May 2024, down 12% from a year earlier (link). Via Nikkei.

Thank you:

Thank you to Bernard Bourgeois (link), Quin Garcia (link), Nicole Martinez (link), Tom O'Keefe (link) and Andrew Savage (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Auriga Space (link), Gatik (link), Stable (link), Wise Systems (link), Zitara (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan