Trucks | FoT: Cruise report, Bluewhite, Cloudmade

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Honda and GM move forward with production units of their hydrogen fuel cells, new facility (link). Hydrogen might not have worked for average passenger cars, but for everything larger than a sedan this is a big step.

The results of GM's internal engineering and legal review on Cruise are made public (link, link to internal blog, link to full report). Of all the analysis written about the report, I recommend Bryant Walker Smith's (link). With this in hand, GM and its board now have the freedom to do whatever they want with Cruise. And perhaps they will.

Waymo looks to Los Angeles expansion with CPUC license request, which would allow it to fully operate its service across the second-largest US metro (link). There is a ripple effect of Waymo's ascent (including recent highway preview testing and airport connector routes) which becomes an odd paradox for GM's board. Consider that even if Waymo gets back to 1/2 of its highest rumored Morgan Stanley-pegged valuation from years back ($175B), GM's board's considering a total shut down of Cruise means turning their sum $8B investment into $0 when its closest competitor is adding the equivalent of two GMs of shareholder value.

Bloomberg's annual 'the Apple car is coming' story feels like it carries less credibility every year they decide to publish it (link). In this latest edition: 'After previously envisioning a truly driverless car, the company is now working on an EV with more limited features, according to people with knowledge of the project.'

At this open pit gold mine in Canada, 23 automated Caterpillar trucks do their work (link).

With a flood of used Tesla EVs on the market after Hertz's fire sale, are they actually a deal? (link).

After 72 historic flights, NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity finally retires (link). Via Diego. 'What was planned as a 30-day technology demonstration of no more than five short flights ended up stretching well beyond the expectations of engineers who designed and built the helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Los Angeles.'

San Francisco takes legal action over 'unsafe,' 'disruptive' self-driving cars (link). 'The lawsuit essentially asks the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to review whether its August decision, which allowed Waymo to operate 24/7 paid taxi service around the city, was compliant with the law. This legal action does not impact Cruise, as it already lost its permits to operate in California last year after one of its cars struck a jaywalking pedestrian and dragged her for about 20 feet.'

127 Days: the anatomy of a Boeing quality failure (link).

Daihatsu crash testing scandal prompts changes at parent company Toyota (link). 'Following a Transport ministry raid on Daihatsu headquarters late last year, the subsidiary suspended all worldwide vehicle shipments. And last week the government said it would revoke certification on three of the subsidiary’s vehicles, essentially halting production of them until licences are regained.'

A sobering look at Detroit's challenges vs China in the EV era (link). Via Mike Dunne. Related: What China’s E.V. city, Hefei, says about the state of the economy (link).

Video: Dr Phil Koopman on the Smoking Tire podcast (link). Audio: McKinsey’s Russell Hensley on the Shift podcast (link). Video: Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe on CNBC's Jim Cramer (link). Video: Porsche's artificial 'engine' sounds in its new Macan EV (link). Video: Walker Mower's snow-moving micro vehicles (link). Video: Harry Metcalf really doesn't like the BMW i5 M60 (link). Video: Demonstration of New Ford/Lincoln Digital Experience infotainment (link). Video: visualizing F1 on the Apple Vision Pro (link).

Vintage tech: German train company is looking for a Windows 3.11 Administrator, a system which was first released in 1993 (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Cloudmade acquired by Stellantis (link). Cloudmade was previously owned by consulting firm Star and French supplier Valeo.

Indian battery startup International Battery Company raises $35M (link). Led by RTP Global.

VTOL startup Vertical Aerospace raises $50M from its founder (link).

Israeli ag robotics startup Bluewhite raises $39M (link). Led by Insight Partners.

Ohio-based EV motorcycle startup Land Moto raises $3M (link). Led by Nunc Coepi Ventures.

GM Energy will offer FreeWire chargers to fleets (link).

Board Changes:

United Airlines: Anne Worster joins board (link).

New Stuff:

Apple confirms its next-generation CarPlay is coming this year, with new vehicle-level info coming into the interface (link).

Tesla Cybertruck owner gets ‘Coming Soon’ message when trying to lock diff (link).

Kayak is now letting travelers filter out Boeing 737 Max 9 planes (link).

Kodiak Robotics expands its AV freight network hub into Houston (link).

Teamsters and police oppose South Dakota bill allowing autonomous vehicles (link).

This Lamborghini Urus prototype is wearing silly goose camouflage (link).

USPS says it will purchase six Canoo EVs (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Waymo's application for external microphone arrays for sound source localization (link).

Valeo claims top spot as the French company filing the most patents worldwide (link).

Featured Jobs:

NA Sales Director (Remote) at Ottometric (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:

The rise of batteries in 6 charts (link). Via RMI.

Climate change impact on roads: 630,000 pothole reports in the UK in 2023, which marked a five-year high; in the United States, about 44 million drivers reported damage to their vehicles from potholes in 2022, which was a massive 57% increase over 2021 (link). Via AAA / BBC.

Since early 2023 Ohio train derailment, accidents have gone up, not down (link). 'Derailments rose at the top five freight railroads in 2023, according to regulatory reports for the first 10 months of the year, the most recent period for which data exists for all five companies.' Via NYT.

Thank you:

Thank you to Charlie Blackman (link), Linxi Chang (link), Brett Frantz (link), Mychal Frelix (link), Jim Gibbs (link), Paul Lienert (link), Bill Russo (link), and Jan Erik Solem (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Ottometric (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan