Trucks | FoT: Cruise, Xperi AutoSense, Metafuels

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

GM says that its decision to ditch Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is based on its own safety findings (link). 'According to GM's Babbitt, CarPlay and Android Auto have stability issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the purpose of these phone-mirroring programs.' This will be one of GM's most interesting 'bets' (along with Cruise and Brightdrop) because data shows that consumers are becoming more loyal to CarPlay and Android Auto than some vehicle brands themselves. In other words maybe the Apple car is already here.

Canada reportedly set to announce all-zero emission mandate by 2035 (link). 'The new rules will require zero-emissions vehicles — which include battery electric, hydrogen and plug-in electric vehicles — to make up 20% of all new car sales in 2026, 60% in 2030 and 100% in 2035.'

Japan moves forward to assign dedicated bandwidth to Level 4 AVs by 2026 (link). 'The ministry is discussing allocating part of the 5.9 gigahertz band, now used for broadcasting. It intends to spend JPY 20.5 billion (USD 140 million) to modify wireless transmission equipment so that the operations of broadcasters are not impacted.'

US FTC finalizes car-buying rules to rein in junk fees, like 'a service contract for an oil change for an electric vehicle' (link). Dealer response to the ruling, which goes into effect next July, was (not surprisingly) negative (link).

Profile of GM's Mary Barra as she comes up on 10 yrs in the role as CEO (link). Related: Mike Dunne's 2024 predictions include the line that Barra will step down in 2024 (link).

A look at New Mexico's spaceport and how local businesses are still waiting on the payoff (link).

China looks to build EV plants in Mexico while US expresses concerns (link).

Most consumer-facing shared micromobility efforts failed, but is Lime holding on for the long term? (link).

Polish hackers repaired trains the manufacturer artificially bricked, but now the train company is threatening them (link).

Greyhound bus stops are valuable assets, but they're shrinking in favor of cashing in on the real estate (link). 'Cities lost nearly one-third of intercity bus service between 1960 and 1980 and more than half of the remaining service between 1980 and 2006. Federal deregulation of the intercity bus industry in the 1980s sped up service cuts. Deregulation allowed carriers to abandon their unprofitable routes, resulting in a wave of service reductions in smaller cities. Ridership dropped from 140 million passengers in 1960 to 40 million by 1990.'

Tesla agreed to update 2 million of its cars as a part of a NHTSA recall, changing how it alerts drivers using its Autosteer feature in addition to a few other items (link). The recall and update do not modify a driver's ability to initiate and use Autopilot on road segments where it hasn't been approved. I recommend reading Niedermeyer's piece in Rolling Stone which dives into the what led up to this moment (link). 'When road safety researcher Noah Goodall adjusted the best publicly available data for factors like road type and driver age in a peer-reviewed paper, Tesla’s claim of a 43% reduction in crashes turned into an 11% increase in crashes.'

Video: Ford's new mini documentary on Mustang Performance (link). Video: Harry Metcalfe's review of the Lotus Eletre EV SUV (link). Video: these bricks absorb traffic noise (link). Video: David Coulthard drives the Red Bull RB19 (link). Video: John Oliver's segment on freight trains and their safety record (link). Video: Cadillac sports cars switching from electric to ICE (link). Video: 200-wheel Lego car (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Swiss synthetic fuel startup Metafuels raises $8M (link). Led by Energy Impact Partners and Contrarian Ventures.

Xperi's AutoSense driver and interior monitoring business acquired by Tobii for $45M (link).

Trucking software API integrator Terminal raises $3.1M (link). Led by Golden Ventures.

Micromobility startup Superpedestrian to reportedly close US operations (link).

Rivian announces AT&T as its first non-Amazon customer for its delivery vans (link).

Inside the unusual transaction whereby Warren Buffett bought most of Pilot Flying J's truck stops (link).

AV middle mile startup Gatik announces new partnership with Kroger in Dallas (link).

GM's Cruise cuts nine executives (link) and then lays off nearly 1/4 of the company (link). Here is a list of the Cruise employees who were impacted by the layoffs and who are actively looking for new roles (link).

Lucid Group CFO Sherry House to depart (link).

U.S. DoT announces $25M new rural AV research program (link).

Board Changes:

Union Pacific: John Tien joins board (link).

New Stuff:

Waymo announces curbside airport pickup at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport (link).

Hagerty's list of the collector vehicles most likely to rise in value in 2024 (link).

BMW granted test license for L3 pilots in Shanghai (link).

Voom introduces a usage-based insurance auto policy designed specifically for rideshare and delivery drivers (link).

Chinese AV firm WeRide wins license to test AVs in Singapore (link).

Pipedream Labs looks to build out underground delivery network (of many bananas) using existing infrastructure (link).

US Treasury releases guidance on IRA clean energy tax credits (link).

NHTSA and GM want to mandate technology to end drunk driving (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Universal Hydrogen's patent for its system for storing, transporting and using hydrogen in aviation (link).

Featured Jobs:

Senior Research Engineer, Motion Planning & Controls at Gatik in Mountain View, CA, USA (link).

Hydraulic System Engineer at JetZero in Long Beach, 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:

Class 8 retail truck sales in November fell year-over-year for a fourth consecutive month (link). Via Transport Topics / Wards Intelligence. 'Sales fell 17.5% to 19,027 units from 23,075 trucks in the same month in 2022 while also dropping 11.2% sequentially from 21,417 units sold in October.'

1/5 of all cars sold in the US this year had three rows of seating (link). Via Bloomberg / Edmunds.

EV drivers are using their vehicles far less than the average ICE driver (link). Via Scientific American. 'We found that EVs averaged just 7,165 annual miles driven, compared to 11,642 for gas vehicles.'

Thank you:

Thank you to John Casesa (link), Julian Counihan (link), Monty Ngan (link) and Ariane Tom (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Gatik (link), JetZero (link), Universal Hydrogen (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan