Trucks | FoT: Nikola, BYD AV, Quarter20

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

US tariffs on products made in Mexico and Canada are on pause for a month (link). The Guardian: why Trump blinked (link). Via JF. 'But tariffs, while imposed on goods from other countries, are paid by the US firms which import them. They may well challenge US demand for, say, Canadian lumber, or Mexican avocados, damaging the economies of either country – but only by increasing prices within the US economy.'

BYD reportedly announcing wide-scale AV integrations across its portfolio in press conference this upcoming week (link). What are the implications if AV hardware is shipped into every vehicle, then released via software purchase? The 'Tesla model' or 'ship it and they will pay.'

US halts National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) grant program (link). 'The agency said it is immediately suspending the approval of plans to deploy new EV chargers for all fiscal years and will no longer approve new funding requests until a new plan is implemented.'

Researchers show crash impacts of various ADAS tools (link). Via Clare T. 'The data analysis showed that lane-keeping assistance (LKA) (−19.1%) and driver monitoring systems (DMS) (−14%) had the strongest crash rate reduction effects, followed by automatic emergency braking (AEB) (−10.7%). However, systems like automatic cruise control (ACC) and cruise control (CC) were associated with increased crash rates (+8%, +12%).'

Best frenemies: Uber and Waymo (link). 'But those partners are also competitors. In December, when Waymo said it was expanding into Miami without an Uber partnership, Uber’s stock tumbled 9%. And Waymo’s expansion is far from over: Last month, the company announced that it would test its vehicles in 10 new cities this year.' Waymo (reportedly $45B in private markets) and Uber ($157B on NYSE) merging is one of the great 'what ifs' of the next few years.

Alex Roy's second FSD Cannonball run ends prematurely due to weather (link). What he is doing with these cannonball runs is more important than most of all motorsports put together (very little of which has any attachment to road cars now). Ask yourself: Will the winning car in this year’s Indy 500 have more impact on how we’re driving in 10 years, or Alex Roy’s cross-country disengagement AV runs?

Video: Singer ACS used as intended (link). Video: The Ford 021C was perhaps the ideal city car, 26 years ago (link). Video: a complete perfect game of NES RC Pro-Am (link). Video: 1987 Corvette digital display startup sequence (link). Video: crushed Teslas heading to Cybertruck heaven (link). Via Weans.

The 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen becomes the second most expensive car ever sold at auction: $53M (link). Via MH. Send this to a friend who is short a stromlinienwagen!

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Honda and Nissan talks stumble but are still ongoing; Nissan reportedly open to new partners such as Foxconn (link). Says a friend in a text: 'Nissonn.'

AI car inspection startup Self Inspection raises $3M (link). Led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures.

Hydrogen trucking startup Nikola reportedly exploring bankrupcty filings (link).

EV charging network startup Presto raises $15M (link). Led by USV.

Portuguese wire harness company StoneShield Engineering acquired by Lear (link).

Space logistics startup Urbansky raises $30M (link). Via Wen. Led by Altos Ventures.

GM cuts 50% of Cruise staff after ending robotaxi business (link).

Waabi partners with Volvo Trucks for AV fitments (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Skyryse: Lieutenant General Ross Coffman (Ret.) joins as strategic advisor (link).

Uber: Wan Ling Martello to leave board (link).

Johnson Controls: Joakim Weidemanis named CEO, joins board (link). Weidemanis succeeds George Oliver; Mark Vergnano promoted to COB.

Southwest Airlines: Eduardo Conrado, Elaine Mendoza to leave board (link).

RTX: Christopher Calio promoted to Chairman; continues as CEO, succeeds Gregory Hayes who retires (link).

Mobileye: Patrick Bombach joins board; succeeds Patrick Gelsinger (link).

Ford: Sherry House promoted to CFO, succeeds John Lawler who continues as Vice Chairman; Marin Gjaja named Chief Strategy Officer, succeeds Dave McClelland (link).

Featured Jobs:

Founding Engineer at Carvis in San Francisco, CA USA (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:

'I decided that I was done taking screenshots of CAD' how Quarter20 built a tool for the next generation of hardware engineers (link). Video here (link).

Christopher Payne's Made in America book is a photographic journey of manufacturing in the states (link). Via JMIII / The Prepared.

Stained glass airplane window appliques (link).

Lyft's new customer service agent is Anthropic-powered (link).

SF's new speeding cameras issue $500 tickets (link).

TUM establishes battery startup incubator (link).

Fabian Oberhammer's 3D rendered supercar mishaps (link). Via Weans.

Statistics / Projections:

Nearly 96% of new cars registered in Norway in January were electric (link). Via France24 / Norwegian Road Federation.

Tesla sales fall 59% in Germany in January 2025 vs the year previous (link). Via NYT / German Federal Motor Transport Authority.

Thank you:

Thank you to Edward Cabrera (link), Frederick Elwes (link), Mark Platshon (link), Dan Radomski (link), Jeff Stone (link) and Colin Welch (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Carvis (link), Quarter20 (link), Skyryse (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

Und steel (D. Johnson),

Reilly Brennan