Trucks | FoT: Varta, Nirvana, Zoox

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

A ridealong with the Zoox CEO in San Francisco (link). 'While Evans kept the vision for the Zoox design, she took her foot off the accelerator. She needed the guts—and Amazon’s cash—to slow down, to stop talking to the press, to stop making big promises to excite investors. Instead, she needed to start figuring out how to make it all a reality. It needed to evolve to a new phase: tiny.'

On the adoption of DeepSeek across China, as Chinese automakers rush to build services on top of the homegrown AI model (link). 'More than 20 Chinese automobile brands have announced plans to embed DeepSeek models.'

Uber co-founder: the company shouldn't have closed down its AV group (link). Kalanick: "Look, [new management] killed the autonomous car project we had going on. At the time, we were really only behind Waymo but probably catching up, and we were going to pass them in short order … I wasn’t running the company when that happened, but you know, you could say, ‘Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product right now. That would be great.’”

One of the biggest victims of Trump’s metals tariffs: the Ford F-150 (link). 'The amount of aluminum in an average U.S. vehicle was on pace to grow about 30% over the past decade, to more than 500 pounds this year, according to a 2023 Ducker Carlisle report. The auto industry is now the largest user of aluminum in the U.S., according to industry data.'

Lyft positions a new version of its app for elder customers; 'Lyft Silver' (link).

China's EV boom is bad for US tech (link). What's interesting about the Volvo mention of TOPS and FLOPS here is that that if you go back to the past three years of earnings calls for the Detroit 3, none of them mention the terms. And only sparingly for phrases such as artificial intelligence / AI.

Ferrari and Porsche at one point looked like independent spin-out rivals, but only Ferrari has moved ahead in markets (link).

Video: Can you fool an automated vehicle? Short answer: yes (link). Video: Why LAX's $30B upgrade isn't enough to fix its traffic problems (link). Audio: the moonshot podcast talks about the origins of Waymo, through the lens of Astro Teller and Sebastian Thrun (link). Via Diego. Video: Canadian train plowing a snowdrift (link). Video: Humvee airdrop from C-17 Globemaster plane (link). Video: Joshua Vides's 'Reality to Idea' car painting cartoon effect (link). Via Jeff. Video: A ride around Ann Arbor with May Mobility's Ed Olson (link). Video: the most aggressive ambulance driver of all time (link). Via Diego. Video: Lee Iococca's bold guarantee ads for Chrysler in 1982 (link). Video: trailer for the upcoming 'F1' movie starring Brad Pitt (link). Video: V-8 LS3-powered Chevy Sonic rally car (link).

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Trucking insurance startup Nirvana raises $80M (link). Led by General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Valor Equity Partners.

Varta's battery unit acquired by Porsche (link). 'Porsche on March 1 acquired majority control of Varta’s V4Drive Battery subsidiary, which makes lithium ion cylindrical cells. Varta, a German battery maker, will retain a minority stake with no operational influence.'

Uber ends Foodpanda Taiwan acquisition after regulatory hurdles (link).

Joby Aviation partners with Virgin Atlantic for UK launch (link).

Xona Space Systems awarded $4.6M contract from the US Air Force Research Laboratory (link).

Swedish battery startup Northvolt officially files for bankruptcy (link).

Skyryse partners with United Rotocraft to upgrade Airbus, Black Hawk helicopters (link).

Volkswagen's newest pseudo CVC is the German-based Leitmotif (link).

Board & Executive Changes:

Rad Power Bikes: Kathi Lentzsch joins as CEO (link).

Ford: Mike Aragon joins to lead integrated services group (link).

Curated Jobs:

Head of Investor Relations at JetZero in Long Beach, CA, USA (link).

Senior Aero-Thermal Engineer at McLaren F1 in Woking, England UK (link).

Assistant to CEO at Pininfarina in Cambiano, Turin, Italy (link).

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

Hunting? View all 371 postings on the MobilityJobs job board (link).

New Stuff:

Tern shows off its low-cost, GPS-denied positioning (link).

NGV Talent launches to focus on recruiting for the AV industry (link).

Waymo extends its service area across the San Francisco peninsula (link). Kevin Kwok: 'Waymo is executing a textbook pincer movement against SFO' (link).

Kenyan electric bus startup BasiGo delivers 28 new vehicles in Rwanda (link).

Seaglider startup Regent shows off its first vehicle (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Rivian's patent application shows synced status lighting between charger and vehicle (link).

Statistics / Projections:

1/4 of England's A-roads roads have EV charging “cold spots” (link). Via The Guardian.

Honking complaints fall 69% inside NYC's congestion pricing zone (link). Via The City / NYC DOT.

Thank you:

Thank you to Komal Choong (link), Alex Nesic (link), Diego Rodriguez (link), Jeff Tallman (link) and Jay Warida (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

BasiGo (link), JetZero (link), Joby Aviation (link), May Mobility (link), Skyryse (link), Xona Space Systems (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

There are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves (W. Cather),

Reilly Brennan