Trucks | FoT: Waymo, Cruise, Masa's Team

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

US senators call on FTC to investigate automaker data selling (link). If these numbers are true, we can surmise that 1) this feeble amount of revenue isn't worth the brand risk and 2) the data collected from these vehicles is not yet ‘in the money’ versus the cellular uplink costs of getting that data: 'Wyden’s office found that Hyundai shared data from 1.7 million vehicles and was paid just over $1 million, while Honda got just under $26,000 for data from 97,000 vehicles.'

Stellantis CEO threatens to axe unprofitable brands (link). 'The automaker now also considers China's Leapmotor as its 15th brand, after it agreed a broad cooperation with the group.' Ciferri: 'Why Ferrari should be Maserati's next owner' (link).

Waymo begins test deployment of Chinese-made Zeekrs in their US robotaxi fleet (link). Via HB. What if Americans develop their first relationship with Chinese-made cars through a magical ride in a Waymo? Few things could do as much to ingratiate the Chinese auto industry to the American public.

Unpacking equipment and technology choices of Tour de France cyclists (link).

Video: Stanford's tandem drift Toyotas, in conjunction with TRI (link). Video: Citibikeboyz riding a circular park bench (link). Video: demo of Lapz, watching F1 in Apple Vision Pro (link).

Olympic officials try to catch 'motor doping' to catch hidden motors (link). Via Clark F.

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Waymo raises $5B more from Google (link). Only Google and Softbank are writing 10-figure AV checks right now (something you could have said five years ago). From an FoT reader in the investment banking world: 'You don't commit $5B if you think you're going to IPO in 18 months.' Related: Softbank's Masayoshi Son proposes a 'united nations' of AV tech (link).

GM says its dedicated AV vehicle for Cruise -- named Origin -- is 'suspended indefinitely' (link). Cruise co-founder and former CEO Kyle Vogt: 'Disappointed to see GM kill the Origin. Would have been amazing for cities. GM repeatedly finds themselves with a 5-10 year head start, but then fumbles the ball, shuts things down, and loses the lead. Anyone remember the EV1?' (link). This, coupled with the news of Waymo taking on another Google investment in the same week, feels like another significant milemarker where Waymo puts daylight between itself and Cruise. From our friend Alex Roy: 'This is the most important (and least understood) quarter in autonomous vehicles since the 2007 Darpa challenge and the hiring spree that followed.'

Automated tractor startup Monarch Tractor raises $133M (link). Led by Astanor and HH-CTBC Partnership.

Goodyear's off-the-road tire business acquired by Yokohama for $900M (link).

Chinese EV trucking startup Windrose reportedly planning US IPO (link).

UK battery startup Addionics raises $39M (link). Led by GM Ventures and Deep Insight.

General robotics startup Skild AI raises $300M (link). Led by Lightspeed and Softbank.

Board & Executive Changes:

Skyryse: Former FAA Certification Chief Lirio Liu joins Skyryse as advisor (link).

Rivian: Kjell Gruner departs as Chief Commercial Officer; Dagan Mishoulam promoted (link).

Oshkosh: William Burns joins board (link).

Featured Jobs:

Business Development Manager at Drop Mobility in San Francisco, CA, USA (link).

Director, Field Applications Engineering at Zitara in San Francisco, CA USA (link).

Technical Lead, Perception at JetZero in Mountain View, 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.

New Stuff:

Florida launches AI road detection with Route Reports (link).

'Cottonball Sun' is a coast-to-coast solar race (link). 'It took four Michigan friends over 13 days to drive cross-country, from New York to LA, in a solar car they built themselves.'

AV trucking startup Kodiak launches deployments on private dirt roads on West Texas’s Permian Basin (link).

Southwest Airlines moves to assigned seat model (link). 'The airline said surveys showed that 80% of its customers — and 86% of potential customers — want an assigned seat. Jordan said open seating was the top reason that travelers cited for choosing another airline over Southwest.'

GM's new non-EV Corvette: 1064 horsepower (link).

Automotive tech company CDK must face antitrust class action, judge says (link).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Honda's patent application shows possible revival of Element SUV (link).

GM's patent application shows smart handlebar for powered delivery carts (link).

Statistics / Projections:

In the United States, airlines have endured a 15% increase in maintenance costs over the past five years (link). Via McKinsey / Diego.

20 countries now offer more than 100 different BEV models for sale (link). Via EVMarkets / Ayvens.

Space junkyard: 'Of the 35,000 objects in orbit that are tracked by space surveillance networks, 26,000 are pieces of debris larger than 10 cm, and ESA’s Space Debris Office estimates there are a further 1M pieces of space debris larger than 1 cm' (link). Via Payload Space / ESA. '2023 was a record year for satellite launches, with over 2,800 satellites entering LEO over the course of the year.'

The percentage of uninsured drivers in the US rose to 14% in 2022, from about 11% in 2019 (link). Via WSJ / Insurance Research Council.

Martime hacking: Shipowners, ports and other maritime groups faced at least 64 cyber incidents in 2023 (link). Via FT / Netherlands’ NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. 'A decade earlier, there were three, and zero in 2003.'

Thank you:

Thank you to Austin Grade (link), Rohit Makharia (link), Sam Mosey (link) and Gabriel Scheer (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

Drop Mobility (link), Gatik (link), JetZero (link), Route Reports (link), Zitara (link). View the full portfolio of Trucks companies (link).

See you next week,

Reilly Brennan