Trucks | FoT: Tesla verdict, Joby, Aeva

Trucks | Future of Transportation for 2025.08.04
FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

In a first, a Miami federal jury ordered Tesla to pay $243M over a fatal 2019 crash involving Autopilot (link). Given the driver had his foot on the accelerator during the crash (which in other cars would override cruise control or an ADAS system) many didn't expect this outcome. I read with interest legal professor Matthew Wansley's perspective (link): 'The facts of this case are distinguishable from the typical Tesla Autopilot/FSD crash case because neither of the plaintiffs was the driver of the Tesla. They were standing near the side of the road when they were hit. Most states have adopted some form of modified comparative responsibility, which bars a plaintiff from recovering damages if the jury allocates at least (in some states) or more than (in other states) 50% of the responsibility to the plaintiff. In this case, the jury allocated most of the responsibility to the driver, George McGee. If he had been the plaintiff, he wouldn't have been able to recover damages in a modified comparative responsibility regime.'

How long are OEMs giving owners to complete their software updates? 45 days, or the risk of a lost warranty (link).

The California DMV is suing Tesla, alleging false advertising related to the company's 'Full Self-Driving' and 'Autopilot' features (link).

Ocean hauler Matson says it will no longer ship EVs due to fire risk (link).

CATL's future growth will come outside of China (link). 'CATL's factory investments in China, where it has 11 plants, have mostly run their course. Its focus now is on building capacity in Europe and Southeast Asia to supply local automakers.'

As American car buyers get older, and are less interested in EVs than foreign brands, what becomes of the US car industry? (link). Via Ryan M.

Video: Max Verstappen And Chris Harris drive the new Ford Mustang GTD (link). Video: two Waymos collide in Phoenix (link). Video: Inside the Bugatti-Rimac dream factory (link).

Meet NYC's professional car sitter (link). 'Charlet, 29, a Big Apple transplant from Seattle, charges her new NYC neighbors — mostly locals around her age — up to $50 for a 90-minute carsitting session during alternate parking hours, the designated dates and times when drivers must move their vehicles from one side of the street to the other for cleaning.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Indian two-wheeler rental platform EVeez raises $5.4M (link). Led by Dell Foundation.

Fox acquired 1/3 stake in IndyCar owner Penske Entertainment (link).

LiDAR startup Aeva raises $50M from LG in addition to announcing collaboration agreement (link).

Israeli VTOL startup Air raises $23M (link). Led by Entree Capital.

Joby Aviation and defense contractor L3Harris to test autonomous hybrid gas turbine aircraft (link).

Samsung to make Tesla AI chips in multiyear $16B deal (link).

Waymo and Avis partner on Dallas launch, potentially more (link). This is another experiment that Waymo is running in how it will let its ecosystem develop -- it's also quite different than previous Uber / Moove deals struck in other cities: 'Customers can order rides on Waymo’s app while Avis will provide car management services, including infrastructure, vehicle readiness, maintenance and general depot operations, the companies said Tuesday in a statement.'

Volkswagen delays the launch of its Cupra brand in the US (link). Via CD. The idea of launching Cupra in the US was one of the worst recent VW ideas, in a very competitive field.

Board & Executive Changes:

Hertz: Mark Kosman appointed Chief Accounting Officer; Katherine Lee Martin departs as as General Counsel (link).

Curated Jobs:

Director Business Development, Government at Edge Case Research, remote (link).

Lead Data Scientist at BasiGo in Nairobi, Kenya (link).

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

Hunting? View all 394 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

Traccar is a free and open source modern GPS tracking system (link).

AV trucking startup Aurora announces that it is running its test routes at nighttime (link).

Skyryse announces global expansion into Japan with Mitsubishi Corporation (link).

Ford announces Aug 11 as the debut date for its new lower cost EV platform (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Zoox's patent application for having one of their vehicles interact with a construction road flagger (link).

Statistics / Projections:

Chinese EV makers hit record 10.6% market share in Europe during the month of June 2025 (link). Via TechinAsia / Dataforce.

US liberals are less willing to buy Teslas than other electric vehicles, moderated by perceptions of Elon Musk (link). Via Nature Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 'Liberals showed declining intentions to purchase Teslas compared with other EVs, and, to a lesser extent, declining intentions to purchase EVs in general. We found both effects to be associated with negative perceptions of Musk. Musk’s public persona therefore may have reduced liberal support for Teslas without increasing conservative support.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Frederick Elwes (link), Kersten Heineke (link), for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

BasiGo (link), Edge Case Research (link), Skyryse (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

He was thinking what a long and wide thing time is, to have so many happenings in it (Russell Hoban),

Reilly Brennan