Cruise will cost $1B in the next six months; who will buy Yandex; the solution to delivery: make more money; and an airline merger.

Ride-hailing 🚙🚘

🇨🇳China. DiDi was fined $1.28bn, or ±4.7% of annual revenue, by the Chinese government, for its data security breaches in the US. The company can now bring back its app to Chinese domestic app stores and continue with its Hong Kong listing plans. Huawei (yes, the telecommunications company) announced the launch of Petal Chuxing, a ride-hailing platform that pulls together third-party service providers. The solution is a part of the new ‘HarmonyOS 3’ phone operating system. Watch your back DiDi. 

Uber is expanding its premium electric service, ‘Uber Comfort Electric’, to additional US cities. The service uses only premium EVs, such as Tesla, Polestar, and Ford Mustang Mach-E. With Tesla’s doors being confusing at first, Uber is now sending notifications to explain to riders how to open the door. 

Lyft is shutting down its in-house car rental program, laying off 60 people. The company will continue to offer rental services via 3rd party providers, Sixt and Hertz. 

Bolt Nigeria 🇳🇬 is bringing back MyPVCJourney (My Permanent Voter Registration Journey), a scheme to allow people to more easily register to vote. Bolt will offer discounted rides to voters registration centres in Lagos and Abuja. Also in Lagos, in a CSR initiative, Bolt offers the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) access to free on-demand mobility. 

🇮🇳India. Introducing Uber and Ola challengers BluSmart, a Bengaluru-based company that makes all-electric taxis; Drife, blockchain-based mobility start-up; and Rapido, bike taxi. Corporate commute segment includes competitors Move-in-Sync and Lithium Urban. In Goa, the government is pressuring taxis to create app-based solutions, or else be ready to face Uber and Ola. Moove partners with Uber to launch a mega fleet for ride-hailing in India. Moove, a vehicle financing startup, plans to launch 5,000 CNG and electric vehicles within the first year, with plans to scale to 30,000 vehicles over the next five years. 

Alto is a different kind of ride-hailing. It leases vehicles, employs drivers and is regulated as a transportation company. The company has 2,000 drivers working 400 vehicles, and has now entered its 6th US market, awaiting 600 additional vehicles. Value proposition vs. ‘normal’ ride-hailing: premium service. 

HERide Is a ride-sharing app that connects women drivers with women passengers. Previous such services (Chariot for Women, Shetaxis) faced gender discrimination lawsuits and have unfortunatly disappeared. Will this be the case once again? 

Grab, Gojek and Tada extend temporary driver fees to end-2022, continuing to support drivers through high fuel prices and inflation. In Ireland, FreeNow is adding £1 to each ride as a “technology fee”. This comes on top of a 12% rise in taxi fares that is expected in September. Taxi operators are concerned about customers' costs, i.e. what that will do to demand. 

⚖️Uber in courts. Uber will pay >$2M to disabled riders after reaching a federal court settlement. Uber's pricing mechanism adds additional fees when a passenger takes more than two minutes to board the car, which was said to discriminate against disabled riders. Uber has since implemented a waiver system for disabled persons. 

In a different court, a federal judge ruled that Uber does not violate the federal law prohibiting discrimination against disabled individuals by not offering wheelchair accessible vehicles in each and every market, as costs associated with offering wheelchair accesible services are too high. 

And in another court, Uber admits covering up a 2016 data breach, in a settlement with US prosecutors. Back then Uber covered up the 57 million customers and drivers data breach, and when Dara arrived, disclosed and cooperated with authorities. In the past the company paid $148M to settle civil litigation tied to the data breach.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedGett 💰Yandex ?

Yandex is looking to sell its scooter, taxi and delivery services in Israel. In the past months the company has been trying to move its HQ to Israel, but has been facing challenges from the Russian government. The immediate M&A suspects are Gett, whose lead investor has been in Israel just a couple of weeks ago, and Uber, which have stated their wish to relaunch taxi operations in Israel. It seems a stretch that Uber will do business with a Russian company right now, which leaves Gett. But can Gett make it happen, after devaluating to $265M? I think so. To be continued. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDRT / bus 🚌🚍

🌎North America. Flix SE (FlixBus) launches Flix North America to oversee operations for both Greyhound and FlixBus across North America. Kadir "Kai" Boysan, FlixBus CEO since 2019, will lead the new Dallas office. Dave Leach, Greyhound Lines CEO, is leaving the company after 36 years. Leach started at Greyhound in 1986 as a baggage handler as a part time student position, and climbed all the way to the top. Quite amazing.  

On-demand e-rickshaw in Munster (Germany) by door2oor/swvl, which appears to also be the first e-rickshaw service ever. Two rickshaws will integrate with the bus system, offering first/last mile transport. ArrivaClick (DRT) is facing challenges in Watford (UK), as rider numbers are low - just six percent of what was projected. If these numbers continue, the council says the service will be terminated. Downtowner microtransit in South Lake Tahoe. Via microtransit in Wilson, N.C. Autonomous On-Demand bus trial with Padam Mobility and Keolis in Lyon. The BerlKönig DRT service (Via) is ending, after launching in 2018. A post-mortem by Augustin Friedel. 

Treepz wins best industrial tech company in Africa. BusUp partners with a football team in Brazil. Is “The future of private transit startups” in cooperation with the government? Thoughts by Prescott Watson. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedMicromobility 🛴🚲

Gbike acquires ZET, Hyundai’s micromobility platform. This deal increases Gbike’s South Korean market share and brings in ZET’s fleet management system, which is a ‘franchise’ platform, enabling other players to start their own micromobility business. 

Lime has built its own ‘Advanced Rider Assistance System’ (ARAS) technology - a camera-based sidewalk detection system, using computer vision. The system allows an audible alert and/or slowing down scooters if they ride on sidewalks. The tech will be piloted in August on 400 scooters in San Francisco and Chicago and will roll out to six cities by the end of 2022. 

Tier is launching ’Parrots’ in London. ‘Parrot’ is an IoT (Internet of Things) system designed to improve parking and positioning accuracy, notify when e-scooters require maintenance and identify unsafe riding. Further trials will take place in Norway and France in the coming months. 

HumanForest launches ride-sharing eMoped fleet in London, starting with a fleet of 200 vehicles. Tier in Mecca. Bird in Seattle, in Texarkana, in Caldwell, and out of Coalinga. St. Louis to extend downtown electric scooter ban through early 2023. The Bird and Lime service was banned on June 8th, and the city claims “that the downtown area has experienced safer and quieter weekends since”. Voi in Liverpool, replacing the city’s bike sharing program and in Portsmouth's, extending the city’s e-scooter trial. Lime extends in Ealing (London). Bird and Veo join Spin in Providence (Rhode Island, US). Bolt arrives in Kilkenny (Ireland). Free Now adds Tier e-bikes in Dublin. Free Now partners with Zity by Mobilize, electric car-sharing, in Paris and Lyon. A pilot in Rome and Milan, with Dott, is set to educate riders to park. Riders will receive alerts if parked incorrectly, and eventually (3rd strike) will be compelled to attend a free driving course, or be denied the service.

Zoomo partners with SG fleet, offering its e-bike solution to SG fleet’s commercial last-mile delivery customers. Tier and Splyt partner to integrate Tier into superapps. Swedish micromobility subscription service MOVS raised £3.6m, will use money to expand into new European markets. MOVS offers monthly subscriptions for a bike, e-bike, e-moped and e-scooter. Beam Mobility to be carbon negative by 2025. The company is already carbon neutral. 

Dott releases gender gap report on micro-mobility usage. Dott finds that 70% of users are men; this is attributed to increased road safety & cycling infrastructure ‘risk perceptions’ concerns women have. These results are shared by other micromobility operators, who run similar studies from time to time. Could this be not a ‘risk perception’ issue, but a true reading of the risks? Could women just be smarter and more cautious than men? Maybe. Dott is trying to close the gender gap by offering women-only free scooter driving lessons and implementing ‘beginner mode’ (e.g. limiting speed) on its software. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedDelivery 🍽🧺

A Wired long(ish) read on the speedy downfall of rapid delivery. The problem: economics just doesn't work out. The solution: increase prices; cut promotions; grow and make ‘dark kitchens’ more efficient (but that requires more investment). 

Olivia Moore from Andreessen Horowitz analyses DoorDash: contribution margin is just under $0.7 per order; so DoorDash needs to grow average order value and margins. The company is doing that, by entering new categories - groceries and alcohol, gifts, speciality items and corporate deliveries - that also enable higher non-capped fees. DoorDash could also develop its own white-label profitable labels, or buy wholesale.  

Just Eat Takeaway (JET) scales back in France, where it lags behind UberEats and Deliveroo, which together have close to 90% market share. JET is cutting back 390 jobs, 40 in HQ and 350 couriers. 

Getir loses court case in Amsterdam and will now clear a dark store in the De Pijp neighbourhood. This is a final ruling, after a series of appeals. The city has also implemented similar measures against Gorillas and Zapp, the latter deciding to exit the market. 

DoorDash and Grubhub paused their lawsuit over San Francisco's 15% cap on delivery fees. Now the companies are trying to reach a compromise, in which restaurants could choose to pay more for better app visibility. 

Uber updates grocery delivery service. Users will be able to place orders from grocery stores after hours, schedule deliveries, track their orders from store shelves to their homes, select product replacements and shop for items by weight. 

Reef opens a virtual food hall at Raleigh-Durham airport, working with three different brands.  Passengers can pick up food in kiosks and lockers and in the future Reef will offer food delivery to the gates. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedAutonomous 🤖

Cruise costs GM more than $5M a day, losing a total of $500M in Q2/22. Burn rate is according to plans, meaning that in H2 Cruise is expected to cost GM an additional $1 Billion. In an earning call, GM stayed bullish, backing up Cruise, which is currently leading the global autonomous industry. 

Anonymous letter from a (self claiming) Cruise employee to California regulators raises concerns that Cruise launched too early. The letter, sent to regulators in May and is out now, describes the situation in which vehicles ‘shut down’, called Vehicle Retrieval Event, or VRE, and highlights safety concerns. In other news, Cruise starts mapping Dubai’s streets in preparation for a 2023 robotaxi launch. 

Autonomous e-bus enters regular service in Norway. The vehicle is supplied by Turkish bus manufacturer Karsan, working with Turkish software company Adastec. The service, which includes a safety driver, will run on public roads. Tallinn launches an autonomous shuttle pilot with Auve Tech. The free service, which includes a safety driver, will run on a pre-mapped 1.8-kilometre route.  

Shenzhen gives green light for fully autonomous vehicles. The regulation, to enter effect on August 1st, sorts out specific autonomous zones and accident liabilities. Kodiak Robotics pilots autonomous trucking between California, Texas and Florida. The pilot ran for 5,600 miles, or 114 hours. Navya raised €36M in convertible bonds from the Negma Group, a Dubai-based investment group. Baidu reveals new all-electric robotaxi. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedManufacturers 🛺⚡️

Amazon starts deliveries with Rivian’s trucks. Right now in places such as Chicago, Dallas and  Seattle. Amazon expects the vans to serve over 100 cities by the end of 2022. Unrelated, Rivian begins layoffs of 6% of the workforce. 

Lucid Motors opens its first European showroom, in Munich. Ola Electric to set up a $500 million battery research centre. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFlying cars 🚁☁️

Joby applied for UK certification of its eVTOL air taxis. UK is the 2nd market Joby has made such an application, after the home-base US. ZeroAvia has a hydrogen-powered test plane - and it is going to test fly in the US and UK. 

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIn other news 📰

Free2move completed the acquisition of Share Now, becoming a global market leader in the free floating car-sharing market, with presence in 32 US and European cities and with 450,000 vehicles. 

The Verge on “the future of cars is a subscription nightmare”. Lately BMW (heated seats) and Toyota (remote start) have announced subscription schemes, in what is a new way to generate revenues. GM already makes $2bn from in-car subscriptions, and is expected to make $25bn a year by the end of the decade. But this business model is not being liked by customers, and with car prices going up because of the chip shortage, and prices expected to keep going up with electric vehicle costs, implementing the subscription model gets harder. Yet, this is probably the future. But not right now in Canada, where BMW has reverted. And not if you can hack into the system. 

I am NOT going to continue cover of air travel in this weekly update - albeit it is ‘moving people’ - but two events caught my attention and are worth noting: 

1) The craziest ever PR, Emirates statement vs. Heathrow, and I quote: “LHR chose not to act, not to plan, not to invest.... “airmageddon” situation due to their incompetence and non-action” and “The shareholders of London Heathrow should scrutinise the decisions of the LHR management team”. I love the subtlety. 

2) JetBlue and Spirit Airlines announce a plan to merge, creating the fifth-largest U.S. carrier, with 10.2% market share of miles flown by passengers on US domestic flights. The reason this is so important is because it changes the structure of competition in the US market - adding the new merged company as equal competitor to the leading four - American, Southwest, Delta and United - all very familiar brand names. Read Quartz for more. 

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