Trucks | FoT: Verne, Mexico, CarNow

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Mexico, facing US pressure, will halt incentives to Chinese EV makers (link).

VW's new EV platform to cut costs by 40%, shared with China's Xpeng (link). 'CEA will help it achieve a cost reduction target of 40% for its China-developed platform compared to its German-developed MEB platform by reducing the number of control units, the company added. The architecture uses a central computer and a zonal structure to control all electronics to achieve functions such as autonomous driving.'

Mercedes begins US sales of its Level 3 ADAS system (link). In typical big media fashion, Fortune is erroneously calling this 'autonomous' which only feeds into our larger cultural daddy issues about ADAS and AV.

Tesla lowers the initial price of 'Full Self-Driving' to $8,000 from $12,000 (link). 'In addition to the price drop, Tesla has eliminated “Enhanced Autopilot” as an option, which previously cost $6,000. For owners who already have enhanced autopilot, the cost to upgrade to FSD is now $2,000, down from $6,000.'

Profile of Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna (link). 'Since his first day on the job in 2021, Ferrari’s stock price has nearly doubled, and the company has outperformed the rest of the world’s biggest automakers. It’s now worth more than Ford Motor or General Motors. But that may not be the best way to measure Ferrari. In fact, Vigna doesn’t even think of Ferrari as a car company.'

In new California bill, local governments within the state will be able to set their own rules on AVs (link). How do you know AVs have arrived? California is making new laws.

Judge orders Nissan dot com domain transferred back to estate of Uzi Nissan (link).

Unaware that other brands can now use Superchargers, a Tesla driver calls the police on a Rivian (link).

A look inside Redwood Materials, which is 'gobbling up 250,000 dead EV batteries per year' (link).

Why are American roads so dangerous? (link). 'So committed are Americans to their cars that 63% of people choose to drive for trips of less than a mile, compared with 16% in the UK. But even after adjusting for distance driven, US fatality rates remain double the rich-world average. The main reasons American roads are so unsafe stem from how they drive, not how much.'

Designing a future state for shadetree EV repairs (link).

Video: AV startup Wayve's new AI model Lingo-2 (link). Video: 'Monster Chopper' on 46 in tires (link). Video: Tesla's rivet fix for Cybertruck's faulty accelerator pedal (link). Video: Jeff Zwart interview on the Car Stories podcast (link). Via Diego. Video: Suzuka Grand Prix F1 1991-92 with no talking, just sounds (link). Audio: Horace Dediu in conversation with Ed Niedermeyer on the Ride podcast (link).

Private planes take off just before midnight to avoid extra days in New York and the matching tax exposure (link). 'At New Jersey’s Teterboro and Long Island’s Islip airports, dozens of private jets destined for Florida take off at times such as 11:42 p.m. or 11:54 p.m.'

M&A / Deals / Changes:

High-density hydrogen storage startup Verne raises new round, bringing total funding to $15.5M (link). Led by Trucks.

Retail software startup CarNow raises $40M (link). Led by Runway Growth Capital.

Apartment EV charging startup Switch raises $27M (link). Led by Blue Earth Capital.

Parking software firms ParkHub and JustPark to merge (link).

Tesla execs Drew Baglino and Rohan Patel leave as company lays off 10% (link).

Board Changes:

Instacart: Victoria Dolan joins board (link).

New Stuff:

VW workers in Tennessee vote to unionize, giving UAW first win in the South (link).

Waymo looks to expand its AV service in Atlanta, GA (link).

AVIA's 'State of AV' report for 2024 (link).

GM EVs to support bidirectional charging (link).

US Air Force confirms first successful AI dogfight (link).

'tinyworldmap' is a world map for offline-first and low-bandwidth web apps (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Waymo's patent application triangulates horn honking sounds by sensing from multiple vehicles (link).

Featured Jobs:

Simulation Engineer at JetZero in Long Beach, CA, USA (link).

Senior Web Developer at Ottometric in Novi Sad, South Bačka District, Serbia (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:

Clean investment monitor for 2023 (link). Via CTVC.

Amazon now has 180M Prime subscribers in the US, an all-time high (link). Via Bloomberg.

The world's busiest airports: Atlanta (ATL), Dubai (DXB), Dallas / Ft Worth (DFW) (link). Via Sherwood / Airports Council International.

25% of subscribers to US streaming video services, or 29M+ users, canceled 3+ of them in the past 2 years, as they increasingly jump between services (link). Via NYT / Antenna.

The proportion of Democrats buying Tesla vehicles fell by more than 60% according to car buyers surveyed in October and November by researcher Strategic Vision (link). Via WSJ. 'Among 2022 model-year buyers, Democrats made up 40% of Tesla customers and 39% in 2023, according to Strategic Vision’s surveys. Things began to change in the 2024 model year survey, which began in October. The makeup of Democrats fell to 15% while Republicans jumped to 32% and independents swelled to 44%.'

New-vehicle average transaction prices drop to lowest level in nearly 2 years (link). Via Cox Automotive.

EVs have lower lifecycle emissions than gas cars (link). Via BNEF. 'A driver in the US would reach the C02 breakeven point at 41,000 km – or in around two years of driving, assuming an average annual distance traveled of around 19,000 km.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Adam Feldman (link), Matthew Lalli (link), Adrian Martinez (link), and Amy Mathews (link), for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

JetZero (link), Ottometric (link), Verne (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan