Trucks | FoT: Cling Systems, Cummins Dieselgate, Nio

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Happy holidays from Santa's special north pole FoT garage 🌲

Notable:

Dieselgate Deux: Cummins fined $1.67B for diesel defeat devices in 630,000 Ram pickups, the largest Clean Air Act violation in history (link).

As Japan cracks down on overtime rules for truck drivers, logistics networks prepare for service limitations (link). Via Diego. 'Some drivers work 100 overtime hours or more each month, because the work demands it or they need the extra pay. But starting in April, overtime will be capped at a monthly average of 80 hours, or a daily limit of 15 work hours...After the new overtime rules take effect, one- or two-day deliveries might no longer be possible, economists say.'

A new visual for AVs: turquoise lights during operation (link). 'The automotive industry hasn't formally adopted the color as a way to signal a car is driving autonomously, but it is described in an SAE industry-recommended practice. Mercedes says it is committed to standardizing the color to indicate a car is operating in an autonomous mode. California granted Mercedes approval to deploy the turquoise lights in its own fleet of test cars, initially for the next two years. And Nevada has permitted the car maker to add them from model year 2026 for the EQS and S-Class sedans.'

Did Tesla's recent Autopilot-related recall go far enough? Consumer Reports says no (link). 'A preliminary evaluation of Autopilot after the software update was installed on CR’s Tesla Model S suggests that the fix is insufficient, a CR safety expert says, explaining that it’s still too easy for drivers to misuse the feature.'

Electrify America has the largest network of public chargers in the US, but one of the worst service records (link). 'Even among a group of struggling companies, Electrify America stands out. In a recent J.D. Power study, the company ranked last in consumer satisfaction among fast-charging networks, scoring a 538 on a 1,000-point scale. In comparison, Tesla’s network scored a 739.'

Tesla's newest production hell isn't its new trucks, but its next-generation 4680 battery cells (link). 'Being able to ramp up battery output massively by dry-coating electrodes - rather than using the slower, more costly wet-coating - was a key factor behind Tesla's forecasts in 2020 that it would more than halve battery costs, cut investment significantly, and create smaller, greener factories...Tesla had yet to crack dry-coating at the industrial scale needed to make 4680 batteries fast enough to hit its production targets. The people said dry-coating the anode in the 4680 cells was not problematic but Tesla was struggling with the same technique for the cathode - the most expensive component in a battery.'

Waymo's new internal research shows that over 7 million miles of rider-only driving, its system had a 85% reduction in injury-causing crash rates and a 57% reduction in police-reported crash rates (link). 'We’ve published two new papers today: one that compares the Waymo Driver’s crash rates to human drivers’ over our 7+ million rider-only miles from Phoenix, San Francisco, and Los Angeles; and another that develops clear human crash benchmarks to enable such comparisons.'

Audio: my conversation with True Ventures's Om Malik about the state of transportation in 2023 (link). Video: Parallel Systems shows off its train platooning system (link). Video: 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse review by Jason Cammisa (link). Audio: ChargerHelp co-founder Evette Ellis on NPR Marketplace (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Battery circularity marketplace Cling Systems raises $1.3M (link). Led by Trucks Venture Capital and First Venture.

Chinese EV startup Nio raises $2.2B (link). Led by UAE investment vehicle CYVN.

Agriculture autononomy startup Agtonomy raises $22.5M (link). Led by Momenta.

Virgin Hyperloop One shuts down operations (link).

Micromobility startup Bird files for bankruptcy (link). Related: Andrew Hawkins on why Bird's failure doesn't mean shared micromobility is dead (link).

Wallbox and Bidirectional Energy Selected by California Energy Commission (CEC) for $2.2M Phase 1 award to install bidirectional chargers (link).

Former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton sentenced to prison term (link).

Vehicle suspension startup ClearMotion to supply technology for Nio's ET9 EV (link).

Board Changes:

Nikola: Jonathan Pertchik joins board (link).

Johnson Controls: Michael Daniels to leave board (link).

New Stuff:

May Mobility launches rider-only AV transit service in Phoenix area (link).

Germany's EV subsidy program will end prematurely on Monday, after paying out some 10B Euros since 2016 (link). 'The latest sign of belt-tightening following the adoption of a revised 2024 budget this week.'

The Pelican 'ebike train' is like a trackless train that can haul loads of 3,000 liters of space and weight up to 500 kilograms (link).

Joby, NASA simulation demonstrates up to 120 air taxi operations per hour in busy airspace (link).

TomTom creates AI-based conversational assistant for vehicles with Microsoft (link).

Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi finally say they will use Tesla’s NACS EV charging plug (link).

JSX announces a three-vendor purchase LOI for zero-emission airplanes in 2028 (link). Via Om.

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent application shows collaborative vehicle-to-X sensor sharing (link).

GM's patent application shows vehicle route planning based on road brightness (link).

Ford's patent application shows vehicle load measurement through vision detection (link).

Featured Jobs:

Director Of Communication at Universal Hydrogen in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, France (link).

Finance Manager at Zitara in San Francisco, 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:

Around 70% of EV charging stations in today’s market are underutilized (link).

Global micromobility shared vehicles available worldwide will reach 38.2 million by 2027, up from 25.3 million vehicles in 2022 (link). Via Berg Insight.

Ford says half its dealers are waiting to opt in on EV sales, service (link). Via The Detroit News. 'Half the Ford dealers in the nation, or some 1,550, have chosen to stick with selling hybrid and internal combustion engine vehicles only in 2024, waiting to decide whether to make the investments needed to sell and service electric vehicles.'

About 8 in 10 surveyed Americans say they would not purchase an EV because there are not enough charging stations available (link to PDF). Via AP / NORC.

Across the US, there is 1 truck parking space for every 11 truck drivers (link). Via NYT / American Trucking Associations. 'An industry study found that drivers typically sacrificed about an hour per day to find parking. That loss of driving time works out to about $5,500 a year in lost earnings, or a 12% cut in pay.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Raghav Midha (link), Michael Porteous (link) and Vic Shao (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Cling Systems (link), Joby Aviation (link), May Mobility (link), Universal Hydrogen (link), Zitara (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan