Cruise is back, Ola exits international markets and a new section focused on you

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - a consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility".  This week highlighting SME services.

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

This new section, courtesy of LinkedIn’s new algorithm, brings you the (I think exciting) news about mobility experts' new industry positions. Consider this a collective “good luck” and an opportunity to highlight potential new partnerships. 

A single caveat - these are only my 1st degree connections, so feel free to ping me and/or connect. And now, without further ado:

Dami Adebayo is the new Director of Partnership @ The Routing Company. Charlie Wilson is the new UK Country Manager @ Zeus Scooters / Zipp Mobility. Arnaud Coiffard is the new Director of Transformation @ SNCF Voyageurs. Sarah McCartan is the new Director of Data Analytics @ CitySwift. Edwin Leune is the new Senior Solution Consultant @ SHIPPEO. Laura Claughan is the new Fleet Sales Director @ SM UK. Shai Hershkovich is now a Senior Business Advisor for TransPod. Avi Bar is the new VP, Public Policy & Compliance @ Placer.ai. Mathilde Karceles is the new Head of Public Affairs & Impact @ TOLV. Good luck to all!

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Ola Cabs exits Australia & NZ. Also exiting the UK, but there was no real activity in the UK for quite some time. In ANZ, Ola was trailing 3rd behind Uber and DiDi. With this move Ola exited all its international markets, to shift focus to the local Indian market, ahead of planned IPO. 

It didn’t take long - Minneapolis officials push back the new driver pay raise implementation to July 1st - that means Uber & Lyft are staying in the city for now (and ever, really). The reasons given by the council were (1) allowing other apps to organise themselves, and (2) allowing Minnesota lawmakers to create relevant state-wide regulation. My take: this will end in a state-backed compromise; people probably fear that what happened in Austin will repeat itself. 

In India 🇮🇳, Ola and Uber introduce subscription-based plans for auto-rickshaw drivers, mimicking similar offers made by Namma Yatri and (Swiggy-backed) Rapido. In subscription plans, drivers pay a daily/weekly sum, for unlimited rides, at their own price. With this move, Ola & Uber wish to avoid a 5% goods and services tax. 

In Mexico 🇲🇽, InDrive and DiDi expand their financial services, while Uber holds back. In August 2023 Uber obtained a licence allowing it to manage a digital wallet with a debit card, but Uber has decided not to move forward with the product at this stage. Meanwhile, InDrive and DiDi offer loans and credit cards to drivers-only (InDrive) and any one with the app (DiDi). 

In Poland 🇵🇱, the government is making it harder for foreigners to receive a driver licence, which Uber says will have 10%-30% of current drivers leaving the trade. The new legislation goes into effect June 17th. TBC. 

How many Black Cabs does it take to run a London service? This analysis figures it takes 3,000 registered drivers, out of the 15,000 operating in London, i.e. 20% adoption. Can Uber recruit that many drivers? 

Namma Yatri launches cab rides in Bengaluru; so far the company operated auto-rickshaws only. Angkas, ride-hailing in the Philippines, set to launch motorcycle taxi service in Lipa. Citymapper for Cities has launched in Telford & Wrekin, UK. The “for cities” is Citymapper (Via’s) white-label MaaS solution for cities. 

A look at the Australia & New Zealand shared mobility market here. 

Op-ed: why Grab and GoTo (Gojek) should merge. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Getaround exits the UK. The company is on a quest for profitability, and in its PR cite increasing insurance premiums, up 88% from 2021, rise of cost of repairs - and lacking demand. 

Chilean Lolocar expands into Uruguay by acquiring local OlaCar. With this acquisition Lolocar became the largest P2P car-sharing company in Latin America, with circa 400 vehicles. . 

Elmo Drive, car-subscription by Constellation founded in 2019, has shut down. Turo expands in Canadian airports. Tarlen Carshare is a P2P car-share player in South Africa. 

I love meeting new people, learning about mobility innovation and exchanging opinions. Want to get-to-know and talk mobility? Let’s set up a half-hour coffee chat. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Lime plans to extend its fleet, including in London, and gets ready for an IPO. Also some numbers: in 2023 Lime recorded $616M in gross bookings, and its EBITDA was over $90M. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

Getir is in talks concerning radical restructuring. This could mean exiting some of the markets the company operates in, a break up of the company or other. Meanwhile, Getir expands beyond dark stores, allowing orders from selected retail partners located near its dark stores. 

Swiggy’s valuation rises to $12.7 billion, company converts to public limited company, ahead of IPO. Rappi hires CFO to get ready for a future IPO; there is no timeline.  

Hope you enjoy reading #movingpeople. If you do, please share it with others so that they benefit from it too. Weekly suggestion: send it to someone who wants to take a AV ride with Cruise.

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Cruise is back! - in Phoenix and with people driving. The return, after six months of halted operations, is to create updated street information and maps. Mapping is a vital step in launching AV services, and Phoenix, a city already familiar to Cruise, is a relatively “easy” place for autonomous operations, with good weather and wide roads. More on Cruise’s blog post. 

Tesla drops Full Self Drive (now “Supervised FSD”) price to $99 per month (from $199 per month), as it looks to encourage adoption and extract more data to train its product. A one-time purchase is still $12,000, which translated into a 60 months / 5 years subscription BEP with the old $199 price, but now with the new price is 10 years, making it a very bad deal for those who recently bought the licence. 

Regarding Musk’s planned reveal of an autonomous vehicle in August, regulators in California, Nevada and Arizona say they have not been approached by Tesla for relevant permits. This doesn’t mean that Tesla won’t submit later on, or that it has not submitted elsewhere, Texas for example. Some people think full Tesla autonomy is years away. 

In LA, Waymo started charging for rides. Oxa on public roads, operated by public transport operators, using 3rd party vehicles. Video of Elmo driving remote in Hanover. In Thailand, an autonomous bus powered by Tier IV’s Autoare. Video. Wayve opens a research centre in Vancouver. Motor Ai partners with GETAWAY.PRO to create an Saas autonomous ride-hailing solution, geared at public transport operators. 

Flying cars 🚁

EHang obtained “Production Certificate” for its EH216-S model. The company plans to produce 600 vehicles next year. As for use cases: "Ehang will initially enter the markets for aerial tours and urban sightseeing… It will gradually expand into transportation connectivity, emergency rescue and urban commuting". 

Volocopter completes crewed test flight out of Rome vertiport. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Read INVERS white paper on Microcars in European Carsharing. 

Xiaomi (the phone maker) launches first Electric Vehicle model. DiDi and GAC get ready to produce L4 robotaxis; first batch expected in 2025. Is Faraday Future lying about its sales numbers? Some whistleblowers say so. 

Gig economy 💰

Otto von Bismarck introduced compulsory health insurance in 1883. Later in 1911, it was introduced in the UK by Winston Churchill and Lloyd George. Toward the end of the 1940s, health insurance was introduced across Europe. 

In 2024, Swiggy gives, and takes away, access to health insurance, depending on the number of “perfect deliveries”. 

In other news 📰

French HysetCo secures €200M to accelerate hydrogen refuelling. Hydrogen isn’t easy - this is how a UK bus company deals with the challenges of implementing a Hydrogen fleet. 

A deeper look at Yoshi Mobility, a company in the fields of preventative maintenance, virtual vehicle inspections and electric vehicle charging, which recently raised $26M on a over $200M valuation. 

Another great founder read: how Zevvy, a EV per-mile leasing company, was brought down by rising interest rates, turbulent EV prices and bad timing. Thank you for sharing Andrew.

Toyota Ventures raise $300M to focus on AI, robotics, mobility, cloud, and quantum computing. 

Inflation: prices are rising, with motor vehicle insurance and repairs leading the cause for US inflation. 

Thank you for reading #movingpeople. I’m always happy to get-to-know over a coffee chat (Calendly set-up).