Trucks | FoT: Plus, Drone rules, Obvio

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Trump's new orders on drones and drone manufacturing (link, link to fact sheet). Key aspects of the orders include creating rules for routine drone operations and prioritizing American-made drones for defense and commercial use. AUVSI's statement on the orders (link).

The odd secondary impact of EV chargers is that they are making 'gas stations' larger in size (link). 'Mega gas station vs community battle.'

On the continuing trend of gulf state giants merging ridehailing, payments and shopping into super-apps (link).

One month after banning certain ADAS and autonomy words from car advertising, Chinese feds look to establish new rules around ADAS (link).

Moritz: Musk vs Trump is a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley (link). 'The government is not a company and Musk — although correct in his assessment of the overweening federal bureaucracy, the stifling regulatory climate and the precarious state of the US balance sheet — failed to understand that Trump was more interested in the daily news cycle than in reform. Musk is the revolutionary, the president the monarch.’

Where did all our magnets go? China’s rare earth restrictions halt first auto industry production lines (link). 'Companies that wish to export the materials now require a license, and those have been hard to come by — Nikkei reports that only 25% of requests have been approved.'

A newly reported fatal Tesla crash from 2023 shows the limitations of camera-only solutions (link). It would not surprise me if Tesla eventually puts a LiDAR inside a camera enclosure, but calls it something like a Supercamera or some such term so that they can still maintain their camera-first philosophy.

Rivian's next vehicle is also every other new Volkswagen vehicle (link). This brings up the question: is Volkswagen effectively Rivian's new shadow owner, or is it the other way around? Either way the two companies are intertwined for the next decade.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to weaken fuel economy standards set during the Biden administration, claiming they were illegal (link). Via CJ.

Tesla is trying to stop the city of Austin from releasing records about its upcoming robotaxi launch (link). Via Weans. The company claims that these records contain sensitive information; the Texas Attorney General is expected to come to a decision soon.

Video: Waymos set on fire during LA protests (link). Via NG. Video: building Buttercup in real life (link). Video: Kalamazoo, MI seniors ride to final school on tractors (link). Via Weans. Video: super-lean alpine mower (link). Via Diego. Video: 'the guy who designs all new car interiors' (link).

The Goodyear blimp at age 100 (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

AV trucking startup Plus will go public through $1.2B reverse merger with Churchill Capital Corp (link, link to presentation PDF). 'The merger, backed by veteran Wall Street dealmaker Michael Klein, will provide Plus $300 million in proceeds to fund the commercial launch of its autonomous trucks in 2027.'

Urban camera and traffic enforcement startup Obvio raises $22M (link). Led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Car dealership voice AI startup Toma raises $17M (link). Led by A16Z.

Joby Aviation and ALJ explore distribution agreement and potential of up to 200 aircraft deliveries (link).

In-space mobility startup Impulse Space raises $300M (link). Led by Linse Capital.

Carbon capture startup Aircapture raises $50M (link). Led by Larsen Lam Climate Change Foundation.

Lime renewed its agreement with Uber, allowing Uber to feature its bikes and scooters in their app (link).

Auto insurance startup Crabi raises $13.6M (link). Led by Kaszek and IGNIA.

Utah mobility data platform startup Hypercraft raises $26M (link). Led by Stalwart Ventures.

Wing and Walmart are bringing drone delivery to 100 new stores (link). 'Customers who shop at Walmart stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa will soon have the ability to request a drone deliver their online shopping orders.'

Auto supplier Marelli considers bankruptcy filing (link).

Chinese battery firm AESC stops work on US factory (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Uber Technologies: Nikesh Arora joins board (link); Andrew Macdonald promoted to President & COO (link).

UPS: John Morikis joins board (link).

Norfolk Southern: Claude Mongeau resigns from board and as chair (link).

Curated Jobs:

Senior Full Stack Developer at BasiGo in Nairobi, Kenya (link).

Power Electronics Engineer at Auriga Space in Los Angeles, CA, USA (link).

Automated Driving Software Engineer at Stellantis in Settat, Casablanca-Settat, Morocco (link).

Hiring? Post a job (link). If you're a startup, use code 'Trucks' for free standard listings.

Hunting? View all 348 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

Rivian's new ebike was designed in part by Jony Ive's firm (link).

Volvo's next seatbelts will use real-time data to adapt to different body types (link).

Tasmanian shipbuilder designing the world's largest electric ferry (link). Via Weans.

Amazon reportedly testing humanoid robots to deliver packages (link).

Xiaomi’s SU7 Ultra is launching outside China: in the video game Gran Turismo (link).

Expected CarPlay updates, prior to this week's developer conference (link). 'Apple said CarPlay will also be getting a Large Text option, which has long existed on iPhones.'

Autonomous drone from TU Delft defeats human champions in historic racing first (link). 'The drone, powered by advanced AI, reached speeds of 95.8 km/h and used only one camera for navigation.'

Patents & Patent Applications:

BMW's patent application for a modular vehicle architecture (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Tesla sales in Germany are down about 1/3 from the same period in 2024 (link). Via NYT / K.B.A.

US Asian households account for nearly 1/3 of all new Tesla sales in the United States, but only 2.3% of all full-size pickup sales (link).

A record high 1 out of every 8 new vehicles in the US is now a hybrid of some type (link). Via Sherwood / Ward's.

US auto reposessions are back to 2009 levels; during 2024, a total 1.73 million cars (link). Via Yahoo News / Cox Automotive.

Charting the best and worst car colors for resale value (link). Via iseecars. 'The average car loses 31.0% of its value after 3 years, but yellow cars only lose 24.0%, while gold cars lose 34.4% of their value.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Andrew Flett (link), Kunal Khattar (link), Ted Serbinski (link), Nitin Vaish (link) and Kristin Welch (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Auriga Space (link), BasiGo (link), Joby Aviation (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

To achieve anything, you must be prepared to dabble in the boundary of disaster (Stirling Moss),

Reilly Brennan