Trucks | FoT: Foxconn/NVIDIA, Convoy, IBM NorthPole

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Will NVIDIA and Foxconn's 'AI factories' become the leanest way to develop cars in the coming decade? (link). Via Hiro N. The way NVIDIA is envisioning a 'factory' in the future looks a bit more like a recurring data center attached to the vehicles it builds: 'As the cars are driven, data from the fleet is delivered back to the AI factory and run through a neural network large language model. The model will then build updates to the self-driving software, and send them out to the entire fleet.' The factory doesn't only build the car, it becomes the mother of the vehicle over the long run.

How did BYD obtain EV leadership so fast? (link). I enjoyed this from Michael Dunne. 'BYD is the world’s hottest car company. Sales are up 76% in 2023 and are on track to surpass Tesla. And BYD’s market capitalization ($94 billion) is greater than that of Ford and GM combined.'

Why did digital freight broker Convoy fail? It was just 18 months after raising $260 million at a $3.8 billion valuation (link). From Craig Fuller: 'Convoy was a victim of a violent commoditized industry that is facing one of its deepest recessions in decades and a sudden change in investor appetite from risk to unit economics' (link).

IBM's new 'NorthPole' chip brings memory and processing together, reportedly 22x faster than current chips as all the memory for the device is stored directly on the chip itself (link). Via Weans. 'Some computer chips can handle these calculations efficiently, but they still need to use external memory each time they calculate a layer. Shuttling data between chips in this way slows things down — a phenomenon known as the Von Neumann bottleneck...NorthPole is made of 256 computing units, or cores, each of which contains its own memory...Architecturally, NorthPole blurs the boundary between compute and memory.'

Grassroots Ukrainian robot development in the war against Russia (link). Via Weans. 'The Keep Robotics team is small and focuses on large-node assembly. It orders finished components from Ukrainian subcontractors. The cost of one system is $8-9 thousand.' Keep's videos here (link).

Electric cars appears destined for a predictable political dividing line (link). Via Craig R. 'The GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who is against subsidies, has drawn laughs as he suggests that EV buyers are motivated by a psychological insecurity, while former Vice President Mike Pence said during the second Republican presidential primary debate that Biden’s efforts are driving American gasoline, automotive manufacturing, into the graveyard.'

Safety analysis of two Cruise AV pedestrian injuries (link).

Billionaire space race: can Bezos’s Project Kuiper catch up to Musk’s Starlink? (link). 'As the world’s wealthiest men chest-thump in low-Earth orbit, others wonder how their mess will eventually be cleaned up.'

EU rules that ebikes are just bicycles, not motorbikes (link). From my partner Puneeth Meruva: 'I think this is a great legal precedent. Had the court ruled ebikes as motorbikes, we'd see a whole new layer of complications that come with buying an ebike (potentially requiring registration, higher prices, etc). Note they ruled that ebikes aren't motorbikes because 'they are not propelled exclusively by mechanical power.' I feel like this could introduce a confusing gray area for class-2 ebikes and scooters, really any micromobility vehicle where you're primarily using a throttle.'

Even after Estonia’s capital made mass transit free a decade ago, car traffic went up (link).

Video: How the world's most successful sports car, the Mazda Miata, almost never happened (link). Video: 1973 Mercedes Bus O303 safety tests (link). Via Diego. Video: state regulatory advice for AVs (link). Video: Dale Earnhardt Sr sings 'Hard Charger' on 1985's World Series of Country Music (link). Video: this $199 RC car goes over 100 mph (link). Video: MKBHD review of the Infinite Machine 'cyber scooter' (link). Video: wild first hour of gravel race from our friend Payson McElveen (link). Video: Hot Wheels racing in an empty waterslide (link).

Lowriders, long banned from cruising, can now roam free in California (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Swedish EV truck maker Volta Trucks files for bankruptcy protection (link). 'The electric truck maker had raised around $316 million from investors and said it had an order book of more than 5,000 vehicles.'

AI fleet insurance startup Nirvana Insurance raises $57M (link). Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Board Changes:

Thor Industries: Wilson Jones retires from board (link).

America's Car-Mart: Board member and former CEO Hank Henderson deceased at age 60 (link).

New Stuff:

Nauto launches its own telematics solution (link).

Photos of Amazon's newest drone, the MK30 (link).

Blue Origin’s new spacecraft can build projects in space (link). Via Weans.

Tesla joins Tesla's NACS EV charging standard, leaving Stellantis and VW as lone holdouts (link).

Honda built a prototype of an automated airport vehicle (link).

Another 'new' DeLorean appears: DeLorean Next Generation Motors (DNG) announced production of a C8 Corvette-inspired supercar (link).

Researchers look at EV charging behavior: 'altruistic charging' (delayed) and 'selfish charging' (immediate) (link).

Ferrari announces it will accept crypto as payment for cars in the US (link). From an FoT reader: 'Unsurprisingly, this will not make me feel better about Ferrari owners.'

GM delays EV truck production at Michigan plant (link). Ford cuts F-150 Lightning EV shift (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Rivian's patent application shows on-demand insurance for quick vehicle sharing (link).

Apple's patent application shows group sharing of a digital car key (link).

Ford's patent application shows in-vehicle interactive games; musical routines with virtualized cymbals, toms, bass drum (link).

Featured Jobs:

Data Scientist at Stable Auto, remote (link).

Battery Systems Engineer at Zitara in San Francisco, CA USA (link).

MobilityJobs is the No.1 job board for auto & transportation companies (link).

Statistics / Projections:

'Price parity between EVs and gas-powered cars is getting closer in the luxury market, but the same can't be said yet for mass-market cars, which cost an average of $16,000 more than their fossil-fueled counterparts' (link). Via Business Insider.

Consumption from public EV chargers is set to reach 356 TWh globally by '30, rising almost fourfold to 1,293 TWh by 2040 (link). Via Bloomberg BNEF. Related: executive brief for Bloomberg BNEF's 2023 EV Outlook (link to PDF).

United Airlines expects a time loading savings of 2 minutes by prioritizing window-seat passengers first (link). Via NYT.

EU-made EVs would cost $4,100 more in UK under post-Brexit rules (link). Via Reuters / Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

EV incentives hit 9.8% of their average transaction price (ATP), or $4,991 off the price of the car, in September (link). Via Business Insider / Kelley Blue Book. 'It's the first time EVs have been this highly discounted in four to five years.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Kojo Ako-Asare (link), Bryce Dabbs (link), Patti Glaza (link), Peter Habicht (link), Lee Rawlings (link) and Mark Teevan (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Nauto (link), Stable Auto (link), Zitara (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan