Trucks | FoT: Slate, Ottometric, Marvell

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Slate is reportedly a new low-cost American EV startup with backing from Jeff Bezos (link). A day later, a photo of the truck leaked (link). If the reports are true, this will be among the lowest priced vehicles in the entire market, ICE or EV or otherwise. What will we find out on April 24 when it launches?

Envelope math on Trump's 25% auto tariffs: $108B in costs for US automakers and their customers (link, link to report).

Apple's iphone builder Foxconn plans two EVs for US market (link). Phone manufacturers will become auto manufacturers (in some cases they already are), but it's not likely going to work the other way around. A Tesla phone, however, seems the only possible exception in the near term.

An Amish community is torn over the lowly ebike (link). 'The angst voiced by some Amish isn’t about the motors that propel e-bikes to nearly 30 miles an hour. It’s about the mobility the bikes enable, and the implications of that independence.'

Figure AI’s humanoid work with BMW: real or exaggerated? (link).

Google says it will modify its maps to appease German regulator (link). 'The company said it would license the services contained in its Google Automotive Services business—which includes Google Maps, Google Play and Google Assistant—as separate stand-alone versions to let car makers with in-vehicle infotainment platforms curate services from rival providers instead of choosing a package from Google.'

In terms of curated experiences, what if you could opt out of brands in your ridehailing experience? (link).

Video: McMurtry Speirling sets fastest lap ever at Top Gear test track (link). Via Chris H. Video: lunatic cosmic drone shot of Long Beach drifters (link). Via JR. Video: finding Michael Jordan's old Ferrari 512 TR (link). Video: Fiat 126p rally lunacy (link). Via TO. Video: micro upholstery repair (link). Video: CBS Sunday Morning visits Arizona's airplane boneyard (link). Video: how US Air Force pilots fly Reaper drones remotely, up to 1600 miles away (link).

The greatest motorcycle photo ever: Rollie Free at Bonneville (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

AI AV/ADAS validation startup Ottometric raises $10M (link). Led by Schooner Capital.

Continental plans to spin out its ContiTech rubber and plastics division as an independent company (link). After the spin outs, Continental will solely focus on tires.

Marvell's automotive ethernet business acquired by Infineon for $2.5B (link).

AV startup Nuro raises $106M (link). Led by T. Rowe Price Associates, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Tiger Global Management, Greylock Partners, and XN LP.

Boston area AV ship company Blue Water Autonomy raises $14M (link). Led by Eclipse.

US-Mexico freight marketplace startup Cargado raises $12M (link). Led by LGVP.

Automated rail startup Parallel Systems raises $38M (link). Led by Anthos Capital.

Nikola Motors Arizona assets bought out of bankruptcy by Lucid Motors for $30M (link).

AV startup Wayve announces its first OEM deal with Nissan, to start in 2027 (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Caterpillar: Daniel Dickinson to leave board (link).

Harley-Davidson: Jared Dourdeville resigns from board (link). See also Dourdeville's letter to board (link) and the company's response within this SEC filing (link). Company CEO Jochen Zeitz announces he will step down later this year (link).

Spirit Airlines: Edward Christie resigns as CEO and from board (link).

Curated Jobs:

Rust Software Engineer at Veecle in Berlin, Germany (link).

DevOps Engineer at Xona Space Systems in Burlingame, CA USA (link).

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

Hunting? View all 390 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

London tube map, live visualization (link).

Zoox announces Los Angeles testing launch (link).

EV truck maker Harbinger hits 100 unit production milestone (link).

An oral history of Louisiana's drive-thru daiquiri stands (link). Via Weans.

Waymo says it has no plans to use in-car camera for targeted ads, despite privacy policy change (link). Via CJ.

Patents & Patent Applications:

Zoox's patent application for distributed route planning system (link).

Statistics / Projections:

If EV chargers had actual real-time data, researchers suggest the US EV market would grow by over 13% by 2030 (link). Via David Z / NBER. 'If universal real-time data is accompanied by improved charger uptime and driver confidence in the accuracy of the real-time data, we predict that the EV share of new vehicle sales would grow by 8.0 percentage points in 2030, expanding the EV fleet by 13.2%, and reducing 2030 carbon emissions by 22.5 mmt, versus baseline projections for 2030.'

As global production grows, Detroit's share declines (link). 'At the start of this century the Detroit Three sold 29% of the world’s cars (measured in units). Now they sell 13% or so. There’s been both passive share loss (as competitors gained) and active (as the D3 pulled back⁴). This was such a retreat for car companies that once were so eager to go abroad: Ford opened a Model T plant in Manchester in 1911, GM bought Vauxhall in 1925, even Chrysler (a bit late to the game) bought a stake in Simca in 1958.' Via Glenn Mercer / IHS.

The Chinese goods Americans most rely on, ranked (link). Via FT. 'China made 75% of the dolls, tricycles, scooters and other wheeled toys delivered to US consumers from abroad last year.'

US EV auto sales increased over 10% in Q1 2024 (link). Via Cox Automotive.

Thank you:

Thank you to John Gibson (link) and Zachary Laberge (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Ottometric (link), Veecle (link), Xona Space Systems (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

Don't gobblefunk around with words (R. Dahl),

Reilly Brennan