Trucks | FoT: Zoox, Beyond, Quadric

FoT is the intelligence arm of Trucks Venture Capital 

Notable:

Zoox plans AV service in San Francisco and Las Vegas within the next few weeks (link). Co-founder Jesse Levinson made the announcement at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference; full video here (link). People seem to forget the magnitude of this, but we are about to have Google vs Amazon making AVs available for users in major US cities.

Rivian's software officer on physical buttons: they're 'an anomaly' (link). Via Weans. I wish he didn't say that, but more importantly I wish Rivian as an entity didn't believe that. Voice firsters live in world seemingly devoid of music and children, which is why their demos appear to make so much sense in a studio. Related: touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back (lihk). Via Jia T.

EREVs over BEVs? After VW's Scout launched last week, with either a BEV or EREV option, demand shows reservation holders going for EREV at a ratio of 4:1 (link). Where is EREV as it pertains to CARB and EPA designation?

Understanding the Montana license plate loophole (link).

Will the US election determine what kind of car you'll buy? (link).

I wrote about the stigma around -- and opportunity for -- minivans in Colin and Noah's WITI (link). Funny thing about this one: I wrote it with a friend of mine who works in design at a carmaker, but her bosses wouldn't let her name appear as a byline, so we had to use a pseudonym. But I'm sure many of you know who it is.

Does Tesla's 'hardware 3' package support unsupervised AV? Likely not, according to Musk (link).

Inside the crisis at VW (link). 'Many people close to the company maintain that VW’s electric focus was not necessarily wrong — after all, EU sales of combustion engine vehicles will be banned in 2035 and the industry will need to comply with tougher carbon dioxide emission limits soon. Despite squeezed margins, the group also has a robust cash position compared with rivals such as Stellantis and Volvo Cars. The problem, say insiders, is a poor line-up of products. The ID.3, launched in 2019 as all-electric successor for the iconic Golf, had dismal reviews. Germany’s leading motorist association, ADAC, said it was “very expensive”, suffered a “mediocre range”, “significant software issues” and a flawed user interface.'

Video: Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Prototype on the Nürburgring Nordschleife: 06:46:874 (link). Via Clay. It is a sign of the times that a Chinese smartphone brand (who only built their first car in the last 3 yrs) can build one of the fastest cars ever to hit the ‘Ring. Video: DJ samples a pilot's voice (link). Via Sam. Video: local dads form an underground go kart racing club (link). Via Clay D.

What sank the 'unsinkable' yacht of British tech mogul Michael Lynch? (link)

M&A / Deals / Changes:

Mitsubishi Corp and Nissan to establish JV on autonomous driving, EV batteries (link).

Forklift automation startup Third Wave Automation raises $27M (link). Led by Woven Capital.

French hydrogen-electric aviation startup Beyond Aero raises $20M (link). Led by Giant Ventures and Initialized Capital.

Yamaha ends its North American e-bike business line (link).

Volvo Cars looks to buy out Northvolt from EV battery venture Novo Energy (link).

Detroit infrastructure startup Derq raises strategic round from AT&T and E& fund (link).

New York micromobility startup Infinite Machine raises $9M (link). Led by A16Z.

Auto cybersecurity startup Warrcloud raises $20M (link). Led by Centana Growth Partners.

German executive ridehailing startup Blacklane raises $65M (link). Led by TASARU Mobility Investments.

Auto supplier Denso and startup Quadric sign development license agreement for AI semiconductor (link).

Enthusiast vehicle platform startup Motormia raises $8M (link). Led by Lerer Hippeau.

Board & Executive Changes:

Deere & Co (NYSE: DE): Preston Feight joins board (link).

Ford: Peter Stern to depart as President, integrated services (link).

Winnebago Ind: Richard Moss departs board (link).

Edge Case Research: Nathan Parker named as CEO (link).

SES AI: Anirvan Coomer departs board // termination of director nomination agreement w/ GM Ventures (link).

Featured Jobs:

Project Analyst at Treehouse in Chicago, IL, USA (link).

Systems Engineer at Verne in San Francisco, CA USA (link).

Supply chain intern, summer 2025 at Valeo in Greensburg, IN, 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:

Skyryse sells out its Skyryse One First Edition reservations in six months (link).

Arkansas's lithium deposits could potentially supply 'projected world demand for lithium car batteries 9 times over' (link).

Jaywalking legalized in New York City (link).

Aurora pushes back its driver-out AV trucking service to 2025 (link).

NYC's report on how to streamline transportation projects (link to PDF).

Patents & Patent Applications:

Google's patent application shows how an ADAS system can be used to identify aberrant driving behavior (link).

GM's patent application for a field-of-view expansion of their front-windshield heads-up display (link).

Ford's patent application shows different levels of component access based on visual identification (link).

Statistics / Projections:

New versions of automatic emergency braking (AEB) perform better than previous versions: 100% of the 2024 vehicles tested braked before a collision in testing, as compared to 51% of the older vehicles' (link). Via AAA / The Verge.

Waymo is now doing over 150,000 paid AV trips per week (link). Via The Verge / Waymo.

A survey of young Americans age 16-25 show that the majority are very or extremely worried about climate change (link). Via NYU research / Inside Climate News.

US car dealers had 37% more new vehicles on lots in Sept 2024 vs the same month last year (link). Via Cox Automotive / Automotive Drive.

Thank you:

Thank you to Caroline Ford (link), Victor Gutwein (link), Marcus Joernsen (link), Micah Kotch (link), John Manoogian III (link), Santosh Sankar (link), Blair Schlecter (link), Eric Shuval (link) and Elizabeth Yin (link) for offers of introductions to new founders, investors and friends over the last week.

Trucks portfolio companies mentioned in this issue:

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

Low mass is its own reward (ACBC),

Reilly Brennan