Trucks | FoT: Rivian, Revel, NPS

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Rivian's new EV product announcements last week were both expected (R2) and unexpected (R3, R3X) (link). Coupled with the news that the company would push back the development of its new Georgia assembly facility and build the new R2 in Illinois to save cash, it felt like a major move forward (link). Here's the full presentation video (link). Here's MKBHD's walkaround with CEO RJ Scaringe (link). I enjoyed Ryan McManus's post (link) which summarized the brand’s position: optimism.

How charging stations are finally making money (link). Via Stable which published their EV utilization data (link). 'Last year, the average utilization of a US fast-charging station not operated by Tesla Inc. doubled — from 9% in January to 18% in December, according to new data from Stable Auto Corp., a San Francisco startup that helps companies place EV infrastructure. Put another way: By the end of 2023, every fast-charging cord in the country was plugged in for an average of nearly 5 hours per day.'

EV rivalries in China: competitive refrigerators, detachable video game steering wheels (link). As you make the driving experience boring you will need things like chocolate fountains to drum up interest, like a t-shirt cannon making the crowd go wild at a sleepy basketball game.

Why is it so hard to build a new airport? (link). 'A GAO report found that, on average, it took 10-15 years for a US airport to complete a new runway.'

Ridehailing companies are realizing that ads can be more profitable than rides (link). 'Margins on ads are roughly 40% points higher than the rides and delivery businesses.'

More inside stories on the Apple car project, including the prototype's once nickname 'Bread Loaf' which looked like a modern VW Microbus (link).

Background on the untimely and sad drowning death of Angela Chao in her EV (link). I have noticed something about gear selector positioning in EVs which is different from ICE: EVs often don’t have the subtle idle creep that ICE cars do, so when you touch the accelerator it can be real surprise. I asked the person I know who has driven the most Tesla miles, Alex Roy, what his thoughts were on how this could have happened. His response: 'We don’t need conspiracy theories to explain this tragedy. The Electric Car Razor is clear: A very common EV crash cause is excessive throttle input, and the corresponding power output. And, if her Tesla Model X was post-MY2021 and therefore has a stalkless UI for gear changes, it was likely a contributing factor. The key word is contributing. Conclusions require a final report. The Europeans have already solved the UI question, at least from 2026 on. An obvious application of AI to ADAS we have not yet seen would be to throttle power output during parking/3-point turns.'

Europeans demand buttons in future vehicle interiors to achieve top safety scores (link). Via Weans. 'Indicators, hazard warning lights, windscreen wipers, horn, and SOS features will have to be controlled by proper switches in order for cars to be granted Euro NCAP’s coveted five star safety rating.'

Electric-vehicle owners in the US often face higher charges in Republican-led states (link). Via Elaine T. 'So far, 33 states spanning the political spectrum have applied annual registration fees for EVs and hybrid vehicles, with EV fees ranging from $50 in Colorado to $225 in Washington, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.'

How does an EV battery degrade when discharging using vehicle-to-grid (V2X)? (link). Via Jan Figgener. 'Our experimental results show that the aging spread between all V2X and reference scenarios of 3.09% SOH after 20 months is lower than the spread caused by cell-to-cell manufacturing variation under identical conditions reported in the literature. The results of the parameter study reveal that adopting V2X applications, in addition to primary mobility prospects, does not significantly increase battery degradation and can even reduce capacity loss compared to the conventional uncontrolled charging strategy if properly configured.'

Video: Teleo and Storm Equipment introduce supervised autonomous snow plow (link). Video: The last of St. Louis's bike messengers, 1997 (link). Video: cat driving in Formula 1 for the first time (link). Audio: Measuring the impact of the DARPA challenges after 20 years on the Shift podcast (link). Video: Harry Metcalfe's review of the Porsche 911 Dakar (link).

The sea creatures that opened a new mystery about missing flight MH-370 (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Moto GP motorcycle series reportedly in discussions with F1 owners Liberty Media for $4B deal (link).

Radar startup Neural Propulsion Systems (NPS) raises $17.5M (link). Led by Cota Capital.

E-commerce startup CARiD raises $35M (link). Led by Fifth Star Inc.

Uber partners with Revel for charging capacity in NYC and other cities (link).

China’s Xpeng, Volkswagen Group to co-develop EVs (link).

Tesla reportedly nearly became OpenAI-Tesla in recent merger discussions (link).

Georgia auto retail finance startup Carputty raises $5M equity round and $75M warehouse/financing facility (link). Led by SVB.

Board Changes:

Wheels Up Experience: Tom Klein joins board (link).

New Stuff:

Aperia unveils halo Connect i3 for fleet tire management (link).

Converting a bicycle’s hardware to security bolts (link). 'Any thief with a $5 tool can steal parts off your bike. Ruin their day with a set of bolts or inserts that only you can unlock.'

Dodge unveils its new Charger in EV and 'normal' (link).

Generating a 3D map with OpenStreetMap and A-Frame (link).

Porsche EV battery blamed for ship fire in Mitsui O.S.K. lawsuit (link).

Rad Power Bikes debuts 4 new e-bike models (link).

Waymo launches driverless rides for employees in Austin (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

GM's patent for an anti-spoofing radar system (link).

Waymo's patent shows drone monitor and inspection of AV truck loads (link).

Featured Jobs:

System Engineer - Mechanical Systems at Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz, CA, USA (link).

Senior Autonomy Engineer - LIDAR at May Mobility in Ann Arbor, MI USA (link).

Senior Director, North America at Quadric in Burlingame, 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.

Statistics / Projections:

Major car markets have stopped growing (link). Via Ward's Auto. 'Vehicle sales in [North America, Western Europe and Japan] are lower than they were 10 years ago...A decade ago, the future sure looked brighter. Industry forecasters predicted in 2010 that global sales would top 100 million new vehicles a year by 2020. They thought sales would surpass 20 million a year in the U.S. But it never happened.'

About 1/3 of American car shoppers have experienced things like deceptive selling, hidden fees, or dishonest salespeople (link). Via Adam G. / KPA.

About 25.6% of Americans say they would never accept utility-managed EV charging, but 8.8% would be willing to use an app or timer to stagger charging themselves (link). Via TR.

The distance traveled by major Chinese companies' AV test cars in California road tests plunged about 70% last year (link). Via Nikkei. 'Five companies -- Pony.ai, WeRide, Baidu, AutoX and Didi Global -- logged a total of about 200,000 kilometers for the period, down about 70% from 2022.'

Map that shows the uneven demand for EVs and hybrids in the US (link). Via NYT / S&P Global Mobility.

Electric car models with more than 300 miles per charge are up 5x in the US since 2021 (link). Via Bloomberg.

Without Tesla, U.S. is only 3% of the way to DC fast-charger targets (link). Via Automotive News / National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Technology and new platforms are pushing up the price of repairs, and as a result, insurance premiums (link). Via Eden / NYT. 'Data from Mitchell shows that in 2022 electric vehicles cost about $6,800 on average to fix after accidents, about $2,400 more than the average for all cars.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Jonathon Bell (link), Wilbur Inscho (link), Jerri Laine (link), Gabriel Scheer (link), Jignesh Shah (link) and Maggie Szaszko (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Aperia Technologies (link), Joby Aviation (link), May Mobility (link), Quadric (link), Stable (link), Teleo (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan