Trucks | FoT: BYD God's Eye, Lyft/Mobileye, AHX

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

BYD showed off its new 'God's Eye' ADAS system, reportedly for all of its vehicles in the portfolio -- even those as low as $10k (link). Even in its cheapest form, you could argue that the BYD kit has more capability than many ADAS system found in other automakers: 12 cameras, 5 mm-wave radar, and 12 ultrasonics. Elliott Richards's review (link). ADAS is entering its razor/razor blades era, and China is King Gillette.

This interview with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi by Ben Thompson is self-recommending (link). It is a great discussion of ridehailing trends and also how Uber is thinking about Waymo. If you count the mentions, Waymo is spoken 19 times in this interview (Tesla just 16). 'The other issue that was a big one was that even though we were developing ATG [Advanced Technologies Group] to some extent separately, we treated them as arms length, we have the marketplace separate from ATG, the other players with whom we wanted to partner, like Waymo, didn’t believe us. They didn’t want to partner up with a platform that was also a competitor. It was a little bit of a fork in the road, which is either we had to go vertical or we had to have the platform play, we couldn’t have our cake and eat it too.' There's an option to read the transcript or hear the audio, which I would recommend.

Jeep's 'pop up' ad shown to drivers to pay for an extended warranty is the nightmare interface that only a management consultant could love (link). Via James M. / Weans.

From rebate to tax: US senator propose killing EV tax credits, adding $1000 road usage tax (link, link to Sen Fischer's press release). EVs are moving from the incentive era to the penalty era. From a friend at an American OEM: 'Oh, so NOW we worry about fairly funding infrastructure investments?'

A look at Gogoro's deteriorating financials (link). 'Gogoro's business strategy clearly shows that it is first an energy company and then a scooter company. There can be no efficient energy company that does not make its own cells and, ideally, pluck Lithium out of the earth. Gogoro’s cells come from high-quality global suppliers—Panasonic, LG Energy Solution, and Samsung—with the same quality levels in sourcing as we would expect any high-quality electric scooter brand to do anywhere. Except it does not provide any comprehensive edge.'

Video: the high-speed newspaper delivery Citroens of the 1970s (link). Via Jean F. Video: Passing water truck helps stop car fire in Arizona (link). Harry Metcalf talks about the turmoil around EVs and PHEVs at the moment (link). Video: Tesla designers talk about the new Model Y (link). Video: 'Tow-plow' is an angled tow-behind snow plowing technique for highways (link). Video: the Altis Sigma is the Hellcat of ebikes (link). Audio: Skyryse's Mark Groden on the Autonocast (link).

The Chevy Corvette has been quietly beating all manner of production lap records on road courses this year; its development drivers tell great stories here (link). Amazing reliability out of this engine: 'We used to worry about engine soak, ambient soak temperatures, or running the car from cold for top performance. This engine doesn’t give a shit. We’d think, ‘Should we cool it? Should we put fans on it? Should we at least pop the hatch while we’re waiting between runs?’ The ZR1 didn’t care. You could watch the top speed on every lap you did and it was the same. The cooling is so good, and the capability of the engine is such that it doesn’t have to be tuned to the knife edge of spark knock.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Lyft to launch Mobileye-powered robotaxis ‘as soon as 2026,’ starting with Dallas (link). 'Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate with experience managing fleets, will own and finance the Mobileye-equipped vehicles that will show up on Lyft’s ride-hailing app. While Lyft has not yet disclosed which carmaker it is partnering with for the launch, Mobileye’s advanced driver-assistance technology is already integrated into vehicles from Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, and more.' This is the first time we have seen network-specific AVs, purchased in bulk and dedicated to a mixed ridehailing company.

Saudi logistics startup Pieship raises $2.1M (link). Led by Nama Ventures.

Michigan automotive hauling marketplace AHX raises $5M (link). Led by MHS Capital.

Texas battery startup ACT-ion raises $7.5M (link). Led by BASF Venture Capital.

Micromobility and charging startup Revel wins $60M state funding for charger build out (link).

Insurance startup HDVI raises $40M (link). Led by 8VC, Autotech Ventures, Munich Re Ventures, and Weatherford Capital.

Car sharing startup Turo withdraws IPO plans (link).

Car sharing startup Getaround shuts operations (link). Via Ben D.

Kashmir micromobility startup Curve Electric raises $1M (link).

Battery software startup Accure raises $16M (link). Led by Incharge Capital Partners.

Is Europe's Swappable Batteries Motorcycle Consortium (SBMC) falling apart? (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Avis Budget: Brian Choi promoted to CEO, was Chief Transformation Officer succeeds Joseph Ferraro in June; Jagdeep Pahwa promoted to ExCOB was COB (link).

Hal Sperlich, godfather of the minivan and Mustang, dies at age 95 (link).

Skyryse: former FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols joins as advisor (link).

US NHTSA: former Apple executive Jonathan Morrison picked to lead agency (link).

Featured Jobs:

Purchasing and Inventory Specialist at Gatik in Fort Worth, TX, USA (link).

Software Engineer - Radar at Matrixspace in Burlington, MA (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:

May Mobility announces driver-out AV service in Peachtree Corners, Georgia (link).

Uber Sues DoorDash Over Food-Delivery Practices (link). 'In a suit filed Friday in state superior court in California, Uber accused DoorDash of coercing restaurants to exclusively work with DoorDash for parts of their delivery business. Uber said DoorDash threatened higher commission rates for restaurants that also use Uber’s Eats service to manage some orders.'

Porsche overhauls line-up to bring back combustion engines (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Waymo's patent application shows estimation of rain rate through vehicle imaging radar (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Tesla had the highest accident rate of any automotive brand in the US in 2024 (link). Via Forbes / LendingTree. 'Nationally, Tesla drivers had 26.67 accidents per 1,000 drivers. This was up from 23.54 last year.'

Increased tariffs on steel and aluminum could mean increased car insurance rates as replacement part prices spike (link). Via WSJ. 'Consumer-price index data on Wednesday showed that motor vehicle insurance costs were up 11.8% from a year earlier in January, up from an 11.3% rise in December. Motor vehicle repair costs rose 7.4% year-over-year, up from 7.2% last month.'

There has been a 37% increase in ships crossing into the Arctic over the past 10 years (link). Via Arctic Council. Related: China's economic, scientific, and information activities in the Arctic (link).

'Robot density' reached a record 162 units per 10,000 global employees in 2023 (link). Via IFR. Korea, Singapore, China lead the top countries.

Carmakers have pulled back ad spending at the Super Bowl: only 7% of ads in 2025, down from 40% in 2021 (link). Via Sherwood News / Chartr.

California's average gasoline prices near $5, over 50% higher than the national average (link). Via SF Gate / AAA. 'As of Friday morning, the state average for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline, $4.82, was 52% higher than the national average of $3.17.'

Globally, there are over 1.6B vehicles in operation (link). Via Glenn Mercer / S&P Global Mobility. This number includes passenger cars and light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles.

Pedestrians are at greatest risk of being struck by a motor vehicle while crossing an urban arterial road at night or in low-light conditions (link). Via Smart Cities Drive / AAA. 'U.S. pedestrian fatalities rose more than 80% from 2009 to 2022, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The AAA study found that nearly the entire increase in pedestrian deaths since 2009 occurred on urban arterial roads after dark.'

The installed base of US Level 3 DC fast chargers grew 38% YoY in 2024 and installed L2 chargers grew 25% (link). Via Stable.

Thank you:

Thank you to Bonnie Brennan (link), Brad Farris (link), Francesco Favaro (link), Liam Krut (link), Andy Palanisamy (link), Dan Ryan (link), Ameet Shah (link) and Jeff Tallman (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Gatik (link), May Mobility (link), Skyryse (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

I was born lost and take no pleasure in being found (Steinbeck),

Reilly Brennan