Grab invests in Vay, Waymo on freeways and Gopuff $250M

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Top Story: Grab invests in Vay and (maybe) merges with Gojek

Grab invests $60M in Vay, with an additional $350M subject to reaching financial and operational milestones. Funding will allow Vay to super-charge growth across its B2C and B2B units, deploying “tens of thousands of shared, electric, driverless vehicles over the coming years”. Vay is a one-stop-shop solution, offering anything from remote-driving technology and mobile apps to training and daily management of remote drivers to managing customer service. 

Key takeaways: 

1. Grab is investing because it believes that remote-driving is the solution for the ‘interim period before L4 Autonomy fully takes off”. And while recent advancements by the likes of WeRide and May Mobility (Grab invested in both) are indeed impressive, we are probably 5-15 years away from autonomous vehicles reaching global scale, for multiple tech, regulation, road infrastructure and supply reasons. 

2. Before AVs do reach global scale, remote-driving car-rental (i.e. Vay’s model) will allow people to let go of their car - by providing a 100% available door-to-door service, at half the cost of a ride-hailing service. 

3. The milestones mentioned for the $350M? Those have to do with profitability and efficiency of Vay’s operations. This is money time for Vay to prove its model. 

4. Grab will work with Vay to scale in markets outside SE Asia “for now”. The US, in which Vay is currently active, and probably also Germany, which recently approved country-wide remote-driving legislation. If the model proves out - expect scale in SE Asia. 

And is the Gojek merger back on the table? Talks were held back in late 2024-start of 2025, but those ended without any agreement. Worth noting, that Grab and Gojek are the two leading ride-hailing solutions in SE Asia, and therefore a merger will face anti-competition scrutiny. It appears that Indonesia, in which Gojek was founded and both entities together currently hold 91% market share, are in favour of the deal. It is also rumored that SoftBank is looking to replace the existing CEO, which is said to be against the deal. As of yet, no formal papers have been submitted to the regulator. The stock market sent the stock up. 

Zag Daily published their list of “100 Mobility Changemakers” - and I am honoured to be a part of a list full of impressive mobility innovators. I usually don’t write about my work here, but this is a good time to mention that I work on projects in autonomous buses, remote-driving car-sharing, ride-hailing, MaaS, rail ticketing, wireless vehicle electrification, fleet management and more - doing my part to help people move better. 

Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi 🚙🚕

Carguru, car-sharing in Latvia, and Imagry, autonomous tech, partner to launch robotaxis in Latvia. The service will run from Riga Airport to the Freedom Monument, a 10km route, which takes 15 min without traffic and 1 hour with. Testing to begin in 2026, targeting commercial service in 2027. 

Waymo now available on freeways (highways). The new feature, launched across Phoenix, San Francisco and Los Angeles, for now in a rider opt-in mode, will reduce travel time by up to 50% and allow Waymo to service sites up to now out of reach, such as San Francisco’s airport. While intuitively it would seem that freeway driving should be easier, the break time is longer and requires adjustments, and the training needs to allow testing for all possible scenarios. 

This is a good time to remind readers of my recent interview with Ziv Binyamini, CEO and co-founder of Foretellix, which touched on “taming infinity”, i.e. how do you validate all possible scenarios when training an autonomous vehicle.

Waymo starts testing Hyundai IONIQ 5. 

Matthew Raifman, researcher at Berkeley, calculated Waymo’s deadheading in California to be in line with estimates of those of TNCs (Uber, Lyft) - i.e. 40ish %. 

Musk expects Tesla's Full Self-Driving software to win full China approval in early 2026. 

Chinese AV companies pushing into the UAE: 

There are now 5 Chinese AV companies operating or entering the UAE: WeRide, Pony, Baidu. CaoCao and DiDi. 

CaoCao, Geely’s ride-hailing company, partners with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ABIO) to launch electric ride-hailing and robotaxi services in the UAE. And also DiDi partners with the ABIO to launch autonomous driving, using the same scheme. 

WeRide secures UAE approval for fully driverless (no safety driver) Robotaxi operations in Abu Dhabi. Demand is generated via both Uber and TXAI, a local solution.  

The autonomous mobility ecosystem outside of China, by Augustin Friedel: 

Uber: In Mexico, launches driver Pro Card account in partnership with international and local fintech and payment players. The debit card, launched as part of Uber’s loyalty program, delivers benefits to drivers and couriers, such as fueling/charging discounts, instant payments, smartphone financing, BNPL at selected stores and personal loans. 

In India, pilots in-app video recording for drivers - to protect drivers from rider complaints; and opens self registration for teenagers (which will still be linked to a guardian account). In the UK, trying to stop the government from imposing a 15% VAT on rides. Rolls-out “Send a Ride” feature, allowing you to pay for somebody else's ride; and ‘Uber-Ski’, which allows you to reserve a ride to 40 selected ski resorts 90 days in advance. In Kenya, faces driver anger over a ‘zero rides’ feature, which negatively affects pay transparency. 

Lyft partners with Curb - taxi app -  to connect riders with taxis, starting with Los Angeles, following a pilot in St. Louis. This will see increased demand for Curb and increase supply for Lyft. Win-win. 

Gozem launches in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of Congo, following Yango’s exit from the market. 

Yandex launches ride-hailing in Kungrad, Uzbekistan. Yango Pakistan improves rider safety and partners with local bank and insurance firm to allow drivers to pay insurance on a monthly basis. 

So far (and we’ve been at it for quite some time) ride-haling DOES NOT have an impact on private car ownership. An analysis by Glenn Mercer looks at available cars per household in selected metro areas in 2004, 2015 and 2024 to reach this conclusion. 

90% of Waymo’s rides have 2 or less passengers. That makes sense. 

DRT, Bus-Based Mobility & AV shuttles 🚍🚌

Ohmio partners with Remoted to launch in Tampere, Finland. 

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

INVERS Mobility Barometer on European Car Sharing 2025: 

• Fleet of 129,000 shared cars, +8% YoY growth. 

• Key markets: Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands

A great source of information - download your copy here. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Beam exits Whangārei as company pulls out of New Zealand.

Delivery - from bikes & cars to bots & drones 🍽🧺

Gopuff, of the remaining rapid-delivery players, active in the US and the UK, raises $250M at a $8.5 billion valuation, down from a $15 billion valuation in the covid-era. To achieve profitability while growing customers, the company shifted to focus on fresh produce, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals collaboration with brands such as Starbucks and Disney.  

Just Eat ceases operations in Australia, shuts down local brand Menulog. Consistently decreasing market share and regulatory uncertainty over worker classification contributed to the decision. 

Delivery Hero Q3/25 financial results, key takeaways: : 

• GMV €12.18 billion, down 0.6% YoY; orders grew 5% to 899 million

• Revenue €3.72 billion, up 15.5% YoY

• Revenue/GMV = 30.7%, up from 26.4% in Q3/24

Chowdeck, which raised $9M back in August, steps into financial services, enabling users to pay mobile airtime and data through the (to be super app) platform. Zapp, London rapid-delivery, partners with The White Company, luxury clothing, homeware and gifts. In Hong Kong, Keeta to amend exclusivity clauses after antitrust watchdog raises concerns. 

AV Freight & Logistics 🚛🚜

Einride plans to go public at the NYSE via SPAC deal at $1.8 billion valuation. Einride expects to raise $219M from the SPAC, plus an additional $100M in PIPE capital from institutional investors; just last month the company reported a $100M raise. Einride has 200 vehicles with over 25 countries across 7 countries, with names such as Heineken, PepsiCo, Carlsberg and DP World. 

Bot Auto get insurance. 

In other news 📰

Forterra, autonomy for defense and logistics, raises $238M in a mix of Series C equity and debt. 

Harbinger, medium-duty electric trucks OEM, raises $160M, will start to build trucks for FedEx. 

Electreon begins testing wireless vehicle charging on a stretch of 1 km on the German A6 motorway. 

Zuri, Czech hybrid air taxi developer, raises Series A undisclosed amount from AAMG, who just lost the Lilium assets to Archer. 

Eve Air Mobility signs flying taxi framework agreement with Bahrain. For now the framework covers testing and vertiport infrastructure development; commercial flights not expected before 2028. 

Umob, MaaS, connects to Forest, London e-bikes. Umob is the last standing and still raising B2C classic-MaaS app in Europe. 

Tesla is fighting the EV sales slump with short-term rentals.

I love meeting new people and learning about innovation. Let’s get-to-know.

People 🧑‍🤝‍🧑

Aleksi Tepponen is setting up Tomorrow Mobility Solutions, a consultancy focused on Automated Public Transport.  

Christian Senly is setting up meshmob, a startup designed to help public transport authorities and vendors integrate seamlessly. 

Janine Stuchl is the new Chief Marketing Officer @ Umovity. 

Leon Kong is the new Head of Integrated Data Strategy @ GBRX.

Neri Friedlander is the new Senior Director Tech Ecosystems & Partnerships @ AUMOVIO. 

Shin Ng is a new Board Member @ Pickupp.

Congrats and good luck!

#movingpeople is a weekly mobility & delivery newsletter - from Ride-Hailing & Robotaxi through Remote-Driving & Delivery Drones to e-bikes and Autonomous Freight & Logistics.

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